Another day...... another skunk

[eggchel]

Where the heck are all these skunks coming from?

I had no idea that we had so many in our neighborhood. Today is number SIX that we have trapped in the last week or so. I saw another one dead in the road nearby, probably would have been number seven if someone hadnt squished him.

We've been releasing them at least 5 miles away, at a rock quarry located a couple miles on the other side of a huge metro freeway, so I dont think they are coming back but we will start marking them with blue landscape paint just to be sure.

We use eggs to trap them. Works great and doesnt attract the barn cats.

Is anyone else over run with skunks right now?


Chel

 

[nnbreeder]

I've been around this one since he was a baby, keeps spilled feed cleaned up and dogs and other critters away from the pens at night.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Maybe the group of them are an extra-big brood or broods from this year's mating season?

 

[montyhp]

OK, how does one trap skunks and (bigger question) how does one let them go?

 

[eggchel]

I use a Hava-hart trap that I bait with eggs. When we set it, we cover the cage with feed sacks or a tarp. Sometimes the skunk pulls the sacks or tarp through the cage and shreds it, though. In that case, you approach the trap carefully, holding a tarp up between you and the skunk so that if it sprays you dont take a direct hit.

Most of the time they dont spray.

Then we just put the trap in the back of the truck (never put it in an enclosed car, LOL) and drive it away. I make my ex-bro-in-law-who-lives-free-in-a-trailer-on-my-property do it.

He says that he just sets the trap on the ground with the tarp on it, reaches around the end and opens the door. Then he retreats to the other side of the truck to wait. Sometimes they take a few minutes to leave the trap but they hardly ever spray at that point.


Im obsessed with getting rid of them since DD and I both had to have rabies shots last summer because of skunk contact. Not something I want to do again.

 

[cmom]

My Brother-in-law has caught 13 in his trap. I have trapped 3 and shot 3. Just went out and checked the trap, another skunk. I feed them poison peanuts. About 2 weeks ago I shot the first one next to our house. The pop door on my nursery coop was partially shut so some of the juvenile chicks couldn't get in the coop and it was dark. The skunk was at the gate. I ran over and it just looked at me like "what are you doing?" I went into the back porch and grabbed my gun. It was walking away. It was beside a tree next to our house and I didn't want it to get behind the tree so I shot fast. It was really a lucky shot from the angle I was at. Boy did it stink!!! My husband won't let me shoot anywhere near the house now. My husband has Parkinson's disease.

 

[eggchel]

Got another one this morning. Yesterday morning I saw that the bait egg left in front of the trap had been eaten so I knew the skunk would come back for more last night. Besides the eggs that we put inside the trap, we leave one egg just outside the door. Some skunks will eat that egg and then go right into the trap for more but others seem more wary. We catch them the the next night when they come back for another meal! HA!

chel

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Wow you are up to your eyeballs in skunks. Congrats on getting them.

 

[eggchel]

Eventually we hope to run out of skunks..... today isnt that day.

Chel <calling ex-bro-in-law-lives-in-a-trailer-on-my-farm to come take the skunkie for a nice long ride in the El Camino.

 

[mirecipes]

Any ideas on how to -repel- skunks?

I don't drive anymore, and my roomate drives a small car..My 2 friends with trucks have toppers on the back..

I'm guessing last night something got sprayed, cause the smell was really bad!!
All the dogs in the neighborhood were going nuts!!

Even if they tried to dig they'd have a hard time getting to my chickens after they've been put up for the night..
Raised wood floor in the original coop, and concrete in the new one.
(edited to fix typos)