Skunks!!

[special-K]

I really don't need this. What luck? Night before last, just as daylight was giving way to the dark, I notice movement at the end of my screen house where a picnic table is. Is that a skunk? Yes. More movement and, "Shoot, it's two!". They must be living under the screen house. I've had rabbits under there before. They start moving that way and WHAT??? Oh no, this can't be. How did I not notice even one until now? Behind them come their four little ones!!

I have traps. I know how to trap a skunk and not get sprayed. Still not crazy about hauling one off in my Suburban though! How about SIX?? Relocate or kill them, either way I am a humane person. It seems they all need to go at once. Any suggestions? I have a house directly behind me and too close, so shooting is out.

[Ol Blue K20]

Without being able to shoot them. Trapping is next choice. Call a game warden they may have some ideas or may even help..

[GOPAPA]

Just in case Tim

Fill up one of your 50 gallon barrels 2/3 full hot water

Then dump in this stuff and climb in barrel clothes and all

1 quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (fresh bottle), • ¼ cup of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), and • 1-2 teaspoons of liquid dish soap.

[Boog]

It's amazing how they can be right under your nose so to speak and you not smell them.
Many years ago the termite guys left the access door under my house open and crushed open one of the heat/air ducts too. My kids alerted me there was something in the floor vent. I figured mouse or maybe rat. NO, it was a skunk! I sat down on the floor and removed the air register and came face to face with the thing. Holy cow! I slammed the register down real fast and he couldn't get turned around to spray so glad for that. No smell.
Anyway I got up early 4 mornings in a row and sat outside with my flashlight and a lawn chair waiting for that guy to be out and making his rounds so I could close up the access door. I never did see him coming or going but I got lucky and closed it up and he was gone. I had thrown many bags of moth balls under there to get him to leave but he wasn't bothered by that. And no room under there for any traps. I had to go under there and put that heat/air duct back together. You know I really wasn't in any hurry to go under there too.

[geezer#99]

Be kind to them!
Leave them a little snack!
Some sweet tasting chocolate will do!
Available at your local drugstore.
The little buggers enjoy a clean nest. After a little snack they’ll mess up their clean abode and move on to better digs. Hopefully at your neighbours.

https://www.drugsupplystore.com/prod...ive-48-ea.html

[Steeveedee]

^ Skunks squirting out of TWO orifices!? No thank you!

Sorry about the skunks, though. Can you trap the parents and then take the wee ones to the vet? I hear that they make good (indoor) pets once that gland is removed.

[blazer2007]

we have game wardens here that will trap and relocate. Why kill them there not bothering anyone. I,ve lived in the interior of B.C. Can. and never saw a skunk,lots of other kritters thou.

[72supr]

Yep,give the warden a call.They have state trappers that work through the Game Fish and Parks. The warden would have their number.

[1976gmc20]

Hah! I thought this thread was going to be about politics

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Hah! I thought this thread was going to be about politics

No. That would be a weasels thread.

We have skunks around here. I don't see them but I can smell them. My biggest fear is that my dog is going to get into it with them and get blasted.

That would stink.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

No. That would be a weasels thread.

We have skunks around here. I don't see them but I can smell them. My biggest fear is that my dog is going to get into it with them and get blasted.

That would stink.

Our dogs got into both skunks and porcupines within about a month of moving out here

[Old Truck Man]

Most times a skunk trapped in a live trap doesn't spray. And you can place a cloth cover over the trap and transport them without getting sprayed. Take them to a remote open field and let them loose. When they get about 100 feet away blast them with a 12 guage buckshot. And they immediately will release their stink. And you cured your problem and did not pass that problem on to someone else.

[Stocker]

Early one morning I stepped out the back door and there was a skunk just a few feet from me, inside the fenced yard with my two dogs. Startled me until I noticed it wasn't moving. No idea how he did it, but my wolfdog had killed that skunk during the night and there was almost no odor. Got lucky that time.

[Killer Bee]

must be the season, I just went a round with one at our house in socal last week.. our 85lb puppy kept running behind the garage and raising hell but I thought it was the lizards he was chasing.. anyways, he wouldn't give up so I went back there to retrieve him and noticed what looked like cat poop around the edge of the concrete blocks my storage bins sit on.. saw something similar few years ago and our exterminator told me it was cat or skunk so now I was a little concerned..

we were leaving friday and our house/dog sitter was taking over, didn't have any time for this.. I locked the dog in the house and moved a few things around so I could kneel down and see through those blocks and.... yep, not 6 inches from the end of one course was a little button nose facing me with eyes wide LoL.. well he couldn't turn around and probably couldn't even hike his tail up for a rear area burst so he was more scared than I was.. so now, how do I influence him to leave without getting sprayed or for that matter, spraying anything back there? garden hose! made a forward assault on his position and flushed the whole area out until he was gone.

I had a short stack of bricks so I plugged all the cells in the concrete blocks and closed up all the openings in the fence on that side.. basically rolled up his welcome mat so far no reports of any altercations from the sitter so hopefully he's moved along to more welcome lands..

we've also got them around the farm but they're harmless here, they eat insects and small rodents and such.. got no issue with them so long as they keep their distance from the house

[Ironhorse]

Tim, check with your local game warden about them trapping and relocating ALL of the little offensive smelling critters. When we bought our two acres 40 some years ago I dispatched two of them with a quick .22 Short thump to the head. Kids were little then and didn't need that problem. Haven't seen any around here for YEARS.

Also ask around if you have any fur trappers in your local. They are usually pretty good about trapping unwanted critters. Local city animal control officer also is a possibility. Good luck and hope the outcome goes well.

[Boog]

Teehee. A bunch of years ago I had a coworker hitch a ride with me to work each morning. One morning he called and said he'd be a little late coming out so I left a bit later too. When I got to his house he came out and opened the door and started to get in when I got a big snoot full of skunk essence. Ode de skunk! I stopped him right there and asked what happened to him. He said he stepped out the door earlier and apparently there was the skunk right there at his door step and before he could move he got the spray job. Full frontal coverage. He reshowered but it didn't get it off. I think he stayed home that day and took numerous showers. Me, I drove to work with the windows down.

[truckster]

In my area animal control will even provide the traps. I'd give them a call and see what they say. Better the smell in their truck than in yours.

[special-K]

A few years ago I had a skunk come crossing the road toward my house. I tried to shew it off but it wasn't scared and kept on coming. It was broad daylight, too. It went up under my front porch, wasn't going to be deterred. So I figured it could have rabies since it seemed to be acting strangely. I called animal control and they assured me none of the behavior was unusual and if I couldn't deal with it to call a critter gitter. So that is not an option.

I have the trap. I know to cover it and how to release them. But this is a family of six. It will take days to trap them all, if they all continue to fall for it. I don't see them staying together by me doing it that way. I could just let them be and later put up hardware cloth to close off the gaps they passed through. But I am sure next year they'll be looking around my place for another burrow.

[Dead Parrot]

If the babies are already being taken out and shown the ropes, the family will probably move out soon. Might see if the local farm and country supply store has some skunk/varmint repellent.

Does sound like you now have a new 'seal the foundation' project for later this summer.

[special-K]

Yeah, I had it sealed up, soil and mulch up to floor, but it settled. I stuck rocks and bricks in as it settled but it has settled to a nice gap I never dealt with in one area. I thought about sealing it up when the bunny rabbit showed up munching up on the flowers as they came up. But it seemed to stop the munching and all was good for a few years, even though it was still hanging out. I think the skunks came along and the rabbit moved on. I think my neighbor's poorly managed garbage is the attraction, bags stored outside. I'll shut them down here and hopefully they can go burrow up under the neighbor's house

[richard2717]

Be careful Tim, they may try to eat your deer fawns

https://www.facebook.com/JeffThomaso...jYxNzQ0NzI5Nw/

.

[kipps]

Originally Posted by Dead Parrot

If the babies are already being taken out and shown the ropes, the family will probably move out soon. Might see if the local farm and country supply store has some skunk/varmint repellent.

Does sound like you now have a new 'seal the foundation' project for later this summer.

Agree with this. They'll be gone soon. Close things up better before someone is looking for a winter hibernation spot.

We used to have a lot of skunks around. For the past few years, they're very scarce. They come and go in cycles, it seems. One decade they're very numerous, and the next decade, you hardly see them.

Skunks have never been high on the "kill list" for us. Occasionally one gets a taste for fresh eggs from the chicken house, and it needs to be disposed of or relocated. For the most part, they're foraging for food that we want gone anyway.

I can understand that dogs and skunks don't get along too well, but that's mostly the fault of the dog. I've watched countless interactions between cows and skunks. It's quite something to see a whole family of skunks cross the lane near the milking parlor, weaving their way through a forest of cow legs.

[special-K]

I hope they do move one. I assume they dig for grubs. I've noticed "divets" in the yard in the morning.

When I had a cat I had no rodents to speak of. But now that there is no cat I really enjoy all the bird moving about freely, unthreatened for the most part. I'll see a pile of feathers where a hawk got one

[Dead Parrot]

Chicken coops are a skunk magnet. Guess that garbage is as well. As a kid, we lived next to some Nuns that raised chickens. Every month or so a new skunk would show up looking for easy eggs. Our two Welsh Terriers found the fun of killing the skunk out weighed the pain from being sprayed. They would play with it until it ran out of spray, then kill it and bring it home as a 'gift' This meant that each dog got sprayed several times. The Nuns liked those dogs as they did a far better job of varmint control then their own so called watch dogs. The other side of our property bordered on a 160 acre combo cattle ranch + wheat farm so there was a near endless supply of skunks.

[Old Truck Man]

A skunk like a Feral Housecat is a varmit. It looks for any easy meal. It will eat the eggs of ground nesting birds. It will find and eat baby rabbits. It will eat carrion. A skunk can carry rabies. A skunk will eat manure and if that manure came from something that has worms it will spread those worms in its feces. I have poultry By necessity I must practice varmit control.