How do I get rid of a skunk?

Not necessarily for my chickens but for my garden!!! I figure that if anyone would know how to get rid of a skunk it would be my chicken people!


I have afully fenced in garden and the skunk is still getting in and he's digging for grubs and ruining my whole garden uprooting my plants. my veggies are all getting dug up each morning.

SO, I'm ticked with this skunk.. we don't own a gun, I can't shoot it. someone mentioned poison, is that a decent option!?

is there anything to repel the skunk away from my garden?

I caught a skunk last week in my live trap. That's good... the bad part is he seen me before I seen him and he sprayed me. Got me on the leg and let me tell you that was enough. I did shoot the skunk and removed it.

Afterwards I was told a couple other ways to get rid of them.

Skunks have pore eyesite (but good aim). If you can trap them, approach the cage SLOWLY with a tarp and GENTLY lay the tarp over the trap. The skunk will calm down and you can move it.

Since I am not overly excited about moving a skunk, I am not sure I would try that one.

The other way is the poison way. I was told to use flybait (you can purchase it at a farm store) and mix it with fruit cocktail. I am always concerned aboout using poison because of other animals that may get into it. They say with the flybait, you usually find the animal within 10 feet of the poison.

I don't like to poison animals unless there's no other practical way. It's too slow for me. I cant stand the thought of an animal dying in pain like that (unless there's no other way - except for mice and rats... for *me* there's no other way).

Anyway, back to your skunk. If it were me, I'd trap it and shoot it. Since you do not own a gun, I'd recommend asking someone who does own a gun to come and shoot it for you. Or call animal control. It wouldn't be beneath me to call the sheriff's office and ask if someone could come out and shoot it if they're not too busy - obviously they have more important things to do, but if they can, they probably will help you out.

If those routes don't work for you, I'd submerge it in a big huge garbage can full of water (which I consider too dangerous myself, but you can do it with rods and poles...in other words, don't be putting your hands on the trap to move it or you can get clawed at) or a running creek and just go away and come back later. Obviously, if your trap is small enough for you to lift by a handle, that would work. I'm just saying take care of your fingers. Besides, you might get sprayed by moving it unless it's covered by a tarp as Huntertima suggested.

Keep in mind that if you set out poison for it, you can poison other animals besides the animal you wish to poison. So take real care with poisons. If you absolutely must use poison, I'd use it only in the trap that way you know only your target animal is poisoned and it doesn't run off to be poisoned food to another animal.

Good luck catching your skunk! Be careful too!

thanks for the advice!!

I'll talk to my DH about the options...

the poison route though... if I put the poison in my garden and only at night and if it dies 10ft away with the flybait poison, then would that virtually eliminate the chance of other animals coming in contact with the poison?

You don't have anyway of knowing about other animals getting into the fly bait. If you live trap, putting anything over the trap works. I use an old sheet and have done this several times so far this year. It does work. Usually by the time I get home from work to remove the skunk it is sleeping and don't even wake up. I don't shoot them anymore cause they spray when you do and it takes like forever to get the smell off ur trap. I load the trap onto a little wagon and we go for a long walk far far away.

what other types of animals would get into a fenced in garden at night besides the skunks that would get into the flybait?

out of curiosity.... I just have funny suspicion that my DH is going to want to go the poison route...

Just about anything will go to the flybait. It has a sweet taste. Coons will get into it and so will dogs and cats.

Like beckt said, when you shoot them they spray... and I mean they spray ALOT. The basically empty themselves.

Yes, my DH shot one near our garden a few weeks ago.

The smell will stick with you for quite awhile, and we have a strip of burned grass where it sprayed. A couple thoughts I have about shooting and live traps are:

1. If you trap it and release it somewhere else, you're sort of making it someone else's problem (which doesn't seem very nice to me).

2. If you live within city limits where you CAN'T shoot, you might wish to invest in a high-powered air rifle. This is no BB gun - they shoot lead pellets (just with air, not gunpowder). Might be a safer option for city/suburban folks.

3. Conversely, if you live in the country, animal control or the sheriff's department might not be bothered to help you (ask me how I know). You may have better luck with that than we did, but when we moved onto our property and found two feral dogs running on the place, we were told that we were on our own.

I'm not a fan of poison either. Sometimes there just isn't a "good" way, seems like.

Quote:
I should clarify here - I realize some folks have no choice but to trap and release. Do what works best for you. I'm simply stating that this is why I MYSELF don't like to do it.

so if you poison it, then what do you do with it so that it doesn't get eaten and poison other animals?
bury it? but will some animals dig it up?! what else/