Sure fire way to get rid of a traveling skunk...HELP PLEASE!!!!

[MROO]

glad my gift for sarcasm made you smile.

It's rather sad that so many youngsters will never understand the ingenuity ... and the idiocy ... and the sheer FUN of Wile E.. Long Live Roadrunner!

 

[Krugerrand]

It's rather sad that so many youngsters will never understand the ingenuity ... and the idiocy ... and the sheer FUN of Wile E.. Long Live Roadrunner!

beep beep.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I liked that cartoon, all the "violence" was self-inflicted.

 

[cassie]

Dear BYC Friends,
I know you won't let me down. (Yes I know I can hunt for this information on threads, but I would love to hear your input for my particular problem).

We have a trolling skunk. It began about 4 months ago when the chickens in the main coop went off in alarm around midnight. I didn't see anything, but all the chickens were out of the coop, and the eggs (which normally I collect but left a few for a pondering broody) were disturbed. I locked them up for a week, nothing more.

Then 2 months ago, the broody hutch hen went off in alarm screaming at 1am. My trusty rat terrier and I trudged out to the small broody coop to find her in the rafters of the closed run (coop door had been left open for her to access run.) This is a raised coop, and the dog tracked something under the coop, rushing to the coop fence below. I bent over just in time to see the black and white tail go up. Yep. We both caught it both barrels. Thankfully I had raised up quickly enough on sight to avoid getting it in the face. Dog? Well he got it full face and front. Me just the right half of my chicken coat. (I'll not go into detail about the next 2 hours of clean up on dog and me to go back to bed and how it's triggered my asthma). The broody eggs were pulled apart. Hen hysterical. He came back later that night and got them all...I'll not go into words about how they were my best blue eggs for hatching my blue line. Morning came, we shored up the hole under the coop and closed the door hatch to block broody safely in coop. (Reset eggs).

So we set the animal trap with cat food. Nothing but squirrels, and the idiot rat terrier when I wasn't looking. We thought maybe he'd been spooked enough by the dog to move on. Found out the neighbor's dog also had been sprayed recently. Apparently it is a traveling skunk as it doesn't seem to live on my property.

Nothing for 2 months. Took up trap. Then last night the nasty varmint sprayed the south end of the house. I awoke at 3am to a horrible stench in the house. I assumed skunk and opened windows to clear. Checked furnace and natural gas which seemed to be fine as the smell was in the house but not bad outside. The natural gas crew checked lines today and determined it was indeed skunk.

I did a perimeter check, and I really don't think it is under the house as we have things netted up pretty tightly. No skunk smell under house, but I did track the smell in the raspberry patch on that south end by the neighbor's side (who has the dog that got sprayed recently).

People, I NEED to catch this skunk. It's personal now. I've been sprayed. The dog's been sprayed. I've lost my best blue line eggs for a broody. Today my clothes in my closet now reek of skunk and my asthma cough is back.

It obviously is traveling the neighborhood as it only seems to go through periodically. Any down and dirty sure ways of getting it to accept the bait in the trap? I'd really like to avoid the cost of an exterminator (who's just going to set a trap and charge us $300).

Okay go folks....I want this critter gone!

A smelly Lady of McCamley

Just a comment. Personally, like skunks. Except for the one that lived under my house in Missouri. I used to set out a pan of food for them. You can go on the internet and get a formula to get rid of skunk odor. You mix up a concoction of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dishwashing soap. It was formulated by an organic chemist, and it breaks down the skunk spray. I have used it on my dogs. It is very effective. It foams like crazy, and it must be used right after you mix it up. If the skunk can get in your hen house, the skunk is the least of your problems. If the skunk can get in, so can a raccoon and the raccoon can do a lot more damage than a skunk ever could.

 

[MROO]

I liked that cartoon, all the "violence" was self-inflicted.

Yup! As our Scout leader used to tell the boys ... "Stupid" is SUPPOSED to hurt ... it keeps us from repeating the same mistake. I guess Wile E was never a Scout ...

 

[BigBlueHen53]

How to get rid of a traveling skunk? Tell him you already have a vacuum cleaner and encyclopedias, and that the farmer down the road does not, but that he has a real cute girl skunk living in his barn.

 

[MugsyM]

Dear BYC Friends,
I know you won't let me down. (Yes I know I can hunt for this information on threads, but I would love to hear your input for my particular problem).

We have a trolling skunk. It began about 4 months ago when the chickens in the main coop went off in alarm around midnight. I didn't see anything, but all the chickens were out of the coop, and the eggs (which normally I collect but left a few for a pondering broody) were disturbed. I locked them up for a week, nothing more.

Then 2 months ago, the broody hutch hen went off in alarm screaming at 1am. My trusty rat terrier and I trudged out to the small broody coop to find her in the rafters of the closed run (coop door had been left open for her to access run.) This is a raised coop, and the dog tracked something under the coop, rushing to the coop fence below. I bent over just in time to see the black and white tail go up. Yep. We both caught it both barrels. Thankfully I had raised up quickly enough on sight to avoid getting it in the face. Dog? Well he got it full face and front. Me just the right half of my chicken coat. (I'll not go into detail about the next 2 hours of clean up on dog and me to go back to bed and how it's triggered my asthma). The broody eggs were pulled apart. Hen hysterical. He came back later that night and got them all...I'll not go into words about how they were my best blue eggs for hatching my blue line. Morning came, we shored up the hole under the coop and closed the door hatch to block broody safely in coop. (Reset eggs).

So we set the animal trap with cat food. Nothing but squirrels, and the idiot rat terrier when I wasn't looking. We thought maybe he'd been spooked enough by the dog to move on. Found out the neighbor's dog also had been sprayed recently. Apparently it is a traveling skunk as it doesn't seem to live on my property.

Nothing for 2 months. Took up trap. Then last night the nasty varmint sprayed the south end of the house. I awoke at 3am to a horrible stench in the house. I assumed skunk and opened windows to clear. Checked furnace and natural gas which seemed to be fine as the smell was in the house but not bad outside. The natural gas crew checked lines today and determined it was indeed skunk.

I did a perimeter check, and I really don't think it is under the house as we have things netted up pretty tightly. No skunk smell under house, but I did track the smell in the raspberry patch on that south end by the neighbor's side (who has the dog that got sprayed recently).

People, I NEED to catch this skunk. It's personal now. I've been sprayed. The dog's been sprayed. I've lost my best blue line eggs for a broody. Today my clothes in my closet now reek of skunk and my asthma cough is back.

It obviously is traveling the neighborhood as it only seems to go through periodically. Any down and dirty sure ways of getting it to accept the bait in the trap? I'd really like to avoid the cost of an exterminator (who's just going to set a trap and charge us $300).

Okay go folks....I want this critter gone!

A smelly Lady of McCamley

 

[MugsyM]

Sorry, i did laugh through your tale of woe here!
We have trapped skunks in live traps, using cat food, among other things. Of course other critters will also get trapped, and cats and small idiot dogs can be released...
Trap and shoot is our plan, if a raccoon, opossum, or skunk is caught.
And our coop and small night time run are as predator proof as we can make them! Here broodies are confined in safe spaces 24/7, so critters can't get to them.
There's nothing quite like fresh skunk spray, up close!
Mary

Several years ago my father's house had skunks under the house. The Wildlife department came to trap and catch them and they used Cheetos as bait and caught them all.

 

[happybooker1]

Many many moons ago, my first job out of college was at the Texas Zoo. We got in a lot of critters local farmers had found/rescued/run over, etc. One was a litter of skunks some farmer found in his barn. Since we were a zoo of "indigenous animals of Texas" the director wanted to keep them. The official 'zoo vet' said "I'm not descenting them in MY clinic" and refused to do it. But he agreed to tell me how to do it. And gave me the Ketoset to do it with. (This was back in the 70's.) I proceeded to descent 6 baby skunks in the zoo shed, which is impossible to do without getting skunk scent all over you. Afterwards, I then washed up and continued my day. After work, I wondered, as I stood in line at the grocery store, why people kept moving away from me and holding their nose.......

 

[happybooker1]

Also, (another thing I learned at the zoo) when I looked up information in a book at that time, all the info available said baby skunks would learn to "spray" around 8 weeks or 2 months. Well, we had the baby skunks (this was another litter) in a box on the counter (kitchen-counter height) n they were about 4 weeks old. 5 of them. We also had a fox cub that we were raising just like a puppy in the kitchen too. He was about 2 months old and just ran loose. He became curious about the scrabbling noises he was hearing out of that box on the counter and jumped up to investigate. He got 5 barrels on the nose from all five baby skunks! We learned several things out of this incident: One, the books were wrong. Baby skunks can spray WAYYYYY earlier than 8 weeks old. Two, foxes can clear kitchen counters at 2 months old. Three, skunk scent will last in a kitchen/building WEEKS and WEEKS in the summer!