The Old Folks Home

[sourland]

Skunk - the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[Bunnylady]

You can't imagine how glad I am that skunks don't live around here. It almost makes up for all of the venomous snakes and the alligators.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

You can't imagine how glad I am that skunks don't live around here. It almost makes up for all of the venomous snakes and the alligators.

I don't know how your husband can't smell it. I can taste it. My eyes water.

I don't know if I'd rather have scorpions and tarantulas and rattlesnakes (oh my!) versus a smelly skunk and ticks that carry Lyme.

 

[Latestarter]

You can't imagine how glad I am that skunks don't live around here. It almost makes up for all of the venomous snakes and the alligators.

Hmmmm venomous snakes and alligators... no skunks.... could it be a food chain issue?

 

[Bunnylady]

Hmmm. Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichiosis. West Nile, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, La Crosse Encephalitis and now possibly Chikungunya -somebody remind me, why do I like living here? Oh, yeah, must be the weather!

Though thank the Lord, there was nothing legendary about Arthur. Things never got worse than tropical storm strength around here. I was out driving when the storm was right offshore and the rain was going sideways (by necessity, not choice) and I've experienced worse in thunderstorms. Other than random power outages and the odd downed tree, there hasn't been much impact. I understand most of the communities on the Outer Banks had their 4th of July celebrations as usual yesterday.

 

[ronott1]

I don't know how your husband can't smell it. I can taste it. My eyes water.

I don't know if I'd rather have scorpions and tarantulas and rattlesnakes (oh my!) versus a smelly skunk and ticks that carry Lyme.

We do not have skunks in the city. We are not close enough to where they go I suppose and there are a lot of fenced yards with dogs. I do smell them on the breeze sometimes though.

Growing up on the Prune Orchard we did deal with skunks. Dad would shoot them and then we had to go bury them. We thought they likely had rabies because they were out in the day time. Good thing we did not expose ourselves to it. We were taught to slowly back up from a skunk if we came upon one. Same with rattle snakes.

I remember several times in the summer, with the window open at night waking up slowly thinking that someone had very bad BO....and then realizing it was skunk smell. It is also bad when one of them is road kill and you drive though the spray.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

The one yesterday was out during day time and we caught one a few winters ago out during the day as well. That's one reason why I wear at least double gloves whenever I go near their bodies. I suspect everything has rabies unless proven otherwise. I do not want to get rabies immune globulin plus the shot series. I hate needles.

Got the cleaning bug this weekend. I've got the house mostly done with the exception of mopping, but now I'm going to go brave the garage and basement. They are bad and need some serious TLC.

 

[Peep_Show]

When I had a ranch in Newcastle, CA, the geese chose to lay their eggs close to the house, which meant we'd get skunks close to the house, too. My Schipperke, Sparkie, was put out one night to do her dooty and I heard lots of barking from the front yard. She was at the front door and facing the trellis of jasmine in the entryway. I looked down and could see two little black feet stamping from behind the vines. I grabbed the dog as the spray went flying. Some hit the dog, most hit the front door. Dog ran under the bed, taking the potent fumes throughout the house. When it is fresh, it is surreally industrial in odor. Poor dog spent most of the night soaking in a tomato juice bath. Until the day she passed away ANY time she caught whiff of a skunk she would bark like a crazed dog. About the only good thing to come out of the encounter was that the Jehovah Witnesses avoided my front doorway for a couple of weeks.

We'd shoot trapped skunks (with the Game Warden's blessing...he even supplied the traps) and daytime skunks on occasion. We put them out on the back acre and watched as the only thing that would get near them was the buzzards, which ate EVERYTHING and left just a little curl of skunk fur. That is Nature at its best!

 

[sourland]

Peep Show - the mental picture of Sparkie meeting the skunk gave me a hearty chuckle. Thank you.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You can't imagine how glad I am that skunks don't live around here. It almost makes up for all of the venomous snakes and the alligators.

They might be uncommon where you are but you have them.

http://ncpedia.org/wildlife/striped-skunk

Spotteds are in the NC mountains.

We do not have skunks in the city. We are not close enough to where they go I suppose and there are a lot of fenced yards with dogs. I do smell them on the breeze sometimes though.

Growing up on the Prune Orchard we did deal with skunks. Dad would shoot them and then we had to go bury them. We thought they likely had rabies because they were out in the day time. Good thing we did not expose ourselves to it. We were taught to slowly back up from a skunk if we came upon one. Same with rattle snakes.

I remember several times in the summer, with the window open at night waking up slowly thinking that someone had very bad BO....and then realizing it was skunk smell. It is also bad when one of them is road kill and you drive though the spray.

They're in almost all the lower 48 states except a small patch of the arid southwest, the southern half of Canada and the northern half of Mexico.

We have both striped and spotted in MO. We were sitting by a fire on a campout a few years ago and a 3 legged skunk walked right through all of us. We just sat there and let him hobble on his way.