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skunk'd!
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Posted by dirtgirl So. Illinois (My Page) on Fri, Jan 16, 09 at 2:04
If it weren't zero outside I would have all the windows and doors flung wide open and desperately trying to air this place out. We have a new tenant under the house, a young skunk. We have one outside dog, a collie who has for 16 years been intelligent enough to give the creatures a wide berth. Never had to deskunk him...until two nights ago this all started. Our dog is a geriatric old gentleman, stiff of gait, hard of hearing and these days also poorly sighted. When he came around the corner of the house he very likely did not even see the skunk in his path and probably ambled directly up to it despite the foot stamping and raised tail warnings. It was bad enough the first night but the next night when the second encounter took place, the spray was a direct hit...to our dryer vent. Needless to say I have been literally belching sulphur for a few days now, and just when you think it is going away you go outside, breathe freash air, and then return inside to realize you just got numb to it.
I plan to trap the skunk in a havahart-one small enough to keep him from raising the tail very high- and am also fully prepared to accept the consequences if I cannot convince him to remain calm. In all honesty I would expect the poor thing to be totally terrified, although I have approached him several times now and addressed him in a low soothing tone with fair results. (And he is surely ready to become a contributing member of PBS with all the TV he's been getting through the floorboards.) All accounts say a dark sheet or drape slowly and quietly placed over the cage will help, but I wonder if there are any other helpful tips one might offer. Most people have looked at me as if I were a total idiot and asked why I did not simply shoot the thing, but I don't see them as any kind of threat, and I certainly don't consider shooting animals as a thing to do out of convenience to myself. If it were sick, maybe, but this is not the case. I try to put out only enough dog food that Casey will consume in a day's time, but the skunk seems to really like the compost pile as well, and to add to the appeal of the place has found a gap under the back of the foundation...in other words it's my fault he found a cozy home.
Relocating will not be a big problem, as we personally own plenty of land here and there are dozens of brush piles and den trees to choose from along the creek bottom. I can only assume that since he's only been holing up here for a week at best, this is likely where he came from in the first place. AND I do not plan to do ANYTHING stressful to ANY creature until this cold spell has passed.
And of course once he is ousted there will be a patch put down over that entrance!!
But have any of you had personal experience with live trapping skunks? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: skunk'd!
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| I would just wait until the skunk is out (probably at night is a good bet) and seal up the entrances it is using. I think the skunk will go away on its own given some time. Trapping the skunk doesn't seem like a good idea at all, I've had nightmeres of one getting in my cat trap. |
RE: skunk'd!
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| Sorry to hear of your dilemna. We have a wildlife habitat on 15 acres; after feeding and providing housing for so many of the critters, they no longer have fear of us and our skunks walk around casually and don't bother us. I just read a post where someone drowned a skunk to gid rid of him. I don't advocate cruelty of any kind. Thanks for being a decent person who doesn't want to harm wildlife. |
RE: skunk'd!
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Firstly, I apologize to anyone who might have been kept waiting for an update on my situation, and secondly, a hearty thank-you for those kind words, longlegggs. It both saddened and amazed me that absolutely NONE of the people I spoke with locally suggested humane trapping, all were pretty much "shoot it and be done with it" responses. It was only after I did a bit of research online that I decided to give it a try... I just accepted the fact that there would be no one but myself to hold responsible if I screwed things up. Having said that, I must also add this warning: state laws vary on the whats, wheres, and hows of trapping and releasing animals. In some states it is illegal to release on anything but your own private property...ignorance of the law is no excuse. And you must realize and accept the risks associated with messing with any wild animal. Tetanus? Rabies? Bacterial infection from a deep bite? Be prepared.
And lastly(and this one almost caused me some problems myself), familiarize yourself with the animal you are dealing with. Read, and ask questions! When is the breeding season? Is the animal nocturnal, diurnal, what things does it prefer to eat and are those things found where you plan to release it? If you remove an adult female, are there kits you just unwittingly doomed to a slow death? Try to think of these things for the sake of the animal, so that you aren't just "getting rid " of it. I am pleased to announce that it is not only possible to trap, transport and release a skunk without the expected ill effects, it is almost easy. ANd I know for a fact that it wasn't just because I got a "lucky skunk" either. I found out by accident what most of the sites failed to mention: multiple skunks will den up for the winter, sometimes as many as 12 to a site. I did continue looking up info later to explain this, but the first night I set the trap, I was shocked to see not one but three adults return from night foraging and go under the house, with one coming back out later to become my first capture. Had I not been watching I would have assumed I had the one skunk in hand and would have sealed up the hole, trapping the others inside. I only set the trap when the weather was mild in order to try to keep their stress to a minimum and the location I chose for release is an area full of levees and brushpiles, with plenty of old coyote/fox dens. As luck would have it I also discovered the carcass of a canada goose that someone had breasted out and then dumped...so there was an easy food source close by as well.
The first release went so smoothly that at first I was sure the poor creature must be dead...it never even shifted around in the cage until I pulled back the trapdoor, and then it was just a slight shuffle. I had brought two sturdy sticks along to help brace the door open, and I used these to gently easy the sheet from around the front of the trap. Every source I read stressed the need for the skunk to not be able to see you, and the suggested sheet ( I have since switched to a large sunflower seed sack for ease of removal) worked exactly like they said it would. Despite the feeling of being picked up off the ground, being lowered over a tailgate AND the horrible rumbling of a beat-up old 4x4 truck, there's not been a single discharge. Even when they emerge blinking in the sunlight through the reopened door and see my form standing quietly several yards away, they don't even raise their tails.
I did make one mistake the first time, ansd since it was my maiden voyage I guess I am allowed a blunder or two: I parked the truck too closely and I realized just about the time the skunk stepped free of the cage that it might decide to head straght for the nearest shadowy place...my undercarriage. It did indeed start that general direction and I immediately began making noises and herded it straight ahead instead. Even then, no warning shots across my bow. So there...you most certainly DO have an alternative to shooting your skunks, or sadly, drowning them, and if anyone tells you it can't be done, they never tried it. |
RE: skunk'd!
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| That was a brave and considerate way to get rid of the skunk. Good going-I'm glad my house is on a slab after reading that though... |
RE: skunk'd!
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| The other alternative to shooting skunks (impossible for about 80% of the population since you cannot shoot a gun in city limits) would be to repair the house so skunks and other animals aren't living under there in the first place. |
RE: skunk'd!
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| I'm so glad you captured them alive and released them! I, too, have large skunks in the nearby woods. I've seen them in the early morning and racoons too. I also have a family of groundhogs living under all my outbuildings and my front porch. I have left them intact as they are 100% vegetarian and I am hoping they will prevent anything from taking up residence that will eat my chickens. They are large and fierce and beautiful, and leave the chickens alone.(My flowerbed is another story.) Congrats on the skunk capture! |
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