I caught a skunk!

[GitaBooks]

So, for over a year now I have had a resident skunk that comes to the barn and eats the chicken food and eggs that the chickens lay. My chickens have never been taken by it, but I have lost three clutches of brooding eggs this year. That was enough for me, and when I saw it was eating more and more chicken food, and taught my hens to be egg eaters, and I am getting new chicks that could be eaten, I just needed to get rid of it.

I did some research and learned that if the trap was covered, then the skunk wasn't likely to spray. So I covered the trap in cardboard and set it up with some chicken food and a broken egg in it, so I wouldn't catch the cats (they don't like either). I knew I would catch it with-in an hour, so I set it up in the evening and waited. I stepped out the door to check, and I could smell it from the house. The closer I got, the more it smelled like a rubber tire had caught on fire. My asthma started acting up when I got to the barn and I could barely breath. I heard it digging and I realized that all those things I had read were wrong. STINKY

Boy it stinks. I am not relocating it till morning, and the barn is going to stink for days. It has sprayed before, but never this bad. How am I going to open that trap without it spraying me again?

At least it won't be eating my eggs anymore. I'm suppose to look at the bright side, right?

 

[IceAngel]

Can you call animal control and have them dispose of it humanely?

 

[Toddrick]

You're supposed to walk up to the trap from behind a raised blanket, and then cover the trap. They won't spray you if they can't see you, apparently because they don't like to waste their precious perfume. Watch some videos of it on YouTube.

 

[GitaBooks]

Can you call animal control and have them dispose of it humanely?

We could, but while I know this is a terrible excuse that seems like a bother for both us and animal control to do something we can do ourselves. Lame excuse, I know.

You're supposed to walk up to the trap from behind a raised blanket, and then cover the trap. They won't spray you if they can't see you, apparently because they don't like to waste their precious perfume. Watch some videos of it on YouTube.

I didn't even walk up to that crate! It sprayed because the door snapped shut, I stayed a good 30 ft away when I went out to check on it. This morning I moved it away from the chickens and it doesn't smell that bad now. Thankfully.

Thanks for the advise all!

 

[chiques chicks]

Drop the trap with the skunk inside in to a large trash can filled with water.

In my state, it is illegal to release trapped animals off of the peppery on which they were trapped. Your state may vary.

 

[GitaBooks]

We released him in good habitat, away from our farm (and we picked a location hopefully away from other farms as well).

Coming out of the trap



We had that trap in our car! It was like having a ticking bomb. But it didn't spray or cause any trouble, though we did stay quiet so as to try and not spook it.

 

[Folly's place]

Please don't ever trap and release! It's illegal in most states, and with good reasons. You can release on your own property, but not outside of your county, and not without landowner permission. Your skunk now is trap wise, and loves human habitation, food, and poultry. He could have rabies, who knows? He's now someone else's problem! He will try to get home, and generally won't do well out there. Check with your DNR to find out what's good to do in your state. And feed your cats meals, so no food is every left out. Mary

 

[GitaBooks]

Please don't ever trap and release! It's illegal in most states, and with good reasons. You can release on your own property, but not outside of your county, and not without landowner permission. Your skunk now is trap wise, and loves human habitation, food, and poultry. He could have rabies, who knows? He's now someone else's problem! He will try to get home, and generally won't do well out there. Check with your DNR to find out what's good to do in your state. And feed your cats meals, so no food is every left out. Mary

I do agree with you, and I certainly understand the rules.

Will it sound bad if I say I think that trap and release is a good idea? I try to follow laws, even ones I don't like, but we live with so many fields and forests and land. We found a place with lots of forest, fields and trees, away from poultry as far as we could see. Rabies kills animals very quickly, so I doubt it had rabies (though I was careful all the same). It didn't eat cat food, it ate chicken food, eggs, and probably the beetles that call our barn home.

Please don't take this as an argument, I do agree with you, it just seems senseless to shoot or drown a healthy young skunk that didn't attack poultry when it could have walked (eventually) to where we released it. If an animal showed health problems we would call for some one to put it down so it wouldn't pass it on.


Sometimes its hard to know what to do, but I wouldn't want to drown a skunk, and we don't have a anything stronger then an air rifle.

 

[Folly's place]

Unfortunately skunks don't die of rabies quickly, and that's why they are so dangerous. They can transmit the disease for long periods. Different species behave differently with this disease. I do hope he doesn't arrive here, because we do trap and shoot. Baby skunks and raccoons are adorable, as long as they live out there and not in my barn or coop. Mary

 

[GitaBooks]

I've done a ton of research on skunks, as I'm writing a book that includes their natural behaviors, diet, ecology, ect. I've heard a lot of animals can carry rabies for years, but there is only a certain amount of time that they actively shed it, at which point they will show foaming at the mouth or neurological conditions.

Rabies is very scary, as once symptoms are seen in humans there is basically a 99% chance you will die, or have neurological problems for years after you survive. I hope one day that virus will cease to exist.

As a cool side fact, while opossums can get rabies, they rarely do because their body temperature is lower then other carnivores.