Our house is about 4 ft above the ground. A skunk has moved under it. Wife is not happy. How do I get the skunk out where I can shoot it without getting skunked?

Baited live trap .I called the trapper who removed a family that way. The building was then very carefully closed in. I had not been careful enough before and the skunk found a little opening !

Can get a live trap - what do I bait it with? Possibly attach a long rope to the trap then drag him or her to the lake and pull it out with the John boat and drown the sucker?

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Originally posted by Palmer:
Can get a live trap - what do I bait it with? Possibly attach a long rope to the trap then drag him or her to the lake and pull it out with the John boat and drown the sucker?

I believe drowning a skunk will keep it from spraying, so +1 on that.

As far as the bait, cat food would be my guess. These experts seem to agree.

Some of us were discussing something that might be usefull on another site.
It involved a trebuchet and a snare that would hold the animals head untill the moment of release. How far is that lake?

A few years ago we had an old mobile home on a lease in Del Rio Tx.
There was a family of ring tail cats living in the walls of the trailer. At nite they would play hell running along the ceiling and in the walls.
I decided to trap them with a live trap. Baited it with sardines and dog food.
Well didn't catch anything the nite I baited it. When we got up, I took it outside. About 15 minutes later, one of my buds called me to tell me I'd been successful in my efforts. Only problem, I'd caught a skunk rather than a ring tail.
I didn't want to kill the critter. However I was in a dilemma as to how to get the live skunk out of the trap.
I ended up bending down real close to the trap and while holding a flash light in my teeth, and humming the melody of the Marty Robbins tune "El Paso" to the skunk, I reached on each side of the trap to open the door and set the latch. Now mind you, my face was about 12" from being sprayed. The bright light and the soothing sounds seemed to calm the little bugger. He kept eating the sardines and dogfood all the while. After I got the door set open, got the flashlight beam out of his eyes, and he finished the sardines, he ambled off.
GWB

Once upon a time on a Texas deer lease a buddy trapped a ringtailled cat.

He released him at camp, where he took to living under our cabin, that was 9" or so above the ground.

We "hired" him to take care of mice and rats, and gave him some extra food on occasion...

We could see him sleeping under the cabin durring the day.

We never had a rodent problem after he was "on the job".

RE: the skunk

Locals have told me that a generous helping of mothballs will run them off. I have no idea if it will work or not, but it might be worth a try.

Otherwise, as mentioned above, a canful of sardines (and probably similar catfood, but I've never used catfood) will catch any skunk that walks. Everyone I've ever shot released scent, so that won't work unless you can remove the live trap to a "safe" area. Drowning will work, again, if you can get trap to water without getting sprayed. I guess I'm getting softer in my old age, I don't know if I'd drown anything deliberately. Although if it was my wife or the skunk had to go.......hmmmmmmmmm.

If, and this is a big if, you've got a fenced yard with no dogs or cats around, then you can use a foot hold trap in one distant corner of your yard and shoot him when you catch him while just not planning on being outside for a while. Or, same thing if you just want to shoot him, can of sardines and a flashlight with shotgun (they're pretty tough, I'd recommend at least 5s) will do the deed. My experience is that after dark a can of sardines won't take long to be successful.

Somewhat related, a couple of years back I visited the Museum of the American Indian (not totally sure of this name, not being politically correct anymore) in NY. One of the exhibits was a deer hide shirt decorated with skunk hides for the collar among other things. It was from the 1840s. How they managed to kill and skin those skunks, then tan the hides, while removing the scent, was an interesting question in my mind when I saw it. My old (sadly now gone on to the great hunting fields) lab "found" a skunk on the way back from Canada, somewhere in the middle of Wyoming. It was comical, I'd never seen a lab wrinkle his nose and whole face before, I broke out laughing, but he rode in the kennel in the back for the rest of the way home. Schwwwweeeeyewwww. He was ripe and smelled like skunk whenever he got wet (lab remember) for months.

quote:

humming the melody of the Marty Robbins tune "El Paso" to the skunk, I reached on each side of the trap to open the door and set the latch. Now mind you, my face was about 12" from being sprayed. The bright light and the soothing sounds seemed to calm the little bugger.

Soothing sounds, yeah, right. The poor skunk was probably completely discombobulated wondering where the mountain lion with his nuts caught in a trap was.

Live trap it with sardines. Slowly drag a tarp over the trap when the skunk is caught. Throw several chunks of dry ice under the tarp and weight the corners down. Wait an hour.

OK I am going to get a live trap, long rope - Table Rock lake is only 40 yds away from the house, two cans (two is always better than one) of sardines - maybe mustard sauce in one can, a tarp and the words to El Paso. Im not sure I am brave enough to throw dry ice under a skunk inhabited tarp so will leave that to a last resort.

Im not too confident in my soothing singing ability either. However since I live in Branson Mo., the country music show capital of the world with over 60 live performance shows, I probably can hire one of the local singers to come out and sing to a skunk...worth a try anyway since the wife is getting more impatient with my planning without action every day this goes by.

I dont want to let my Chessie (Doc) out because he would attack without a doubt and then if the wife throws me out for utter failure to remove the skunk Doc and I will be sharing quarters.

All kidding aside, I'd try the mothballs, cost is minimal and it might work.

My experience has been that the regular oil sardines are ambrosia to skunks. I had an interesting night, to say the least when I opened a can of smoked oysters, high up in the Chisos Mts of Big Bend Park one night. I set the finished can out, upside down, with the idea that I'd pack it out in the morning. Bad mistake, I was surrounded by skunks inside of an hour in the dark. Did I mention they had just had a cougar stalk a hiker in the area? Not my best move and a very poor nights sleep, finally had to abandon area, move about 100 yards in dark to escape skunks. Can was clean in the morning tho.

I was using, if I remember correctly, peanut butter on apple in an attempt to catch a groundhog when I caught my skunk. I approached from the closed end of the trap, attached one end of a bungee cord to the far end of the trap and the other end to the door, released the catch on the door and ran. The skunk did nary a thing for an hour or two and then wandered off.

I know there is one living close to my house because I see it occasionally; it may be under my porch. So far, except for the trap incident, skunks haven't bothered me so I leave them alone.

When I was in high school, I used to do yard work for a couple of old ladies. One day I was weeding near a wooden fence and heard a noise on the other side. I peered under the fence and there was a skunk about 12 inches from my nose. I left that area without incident.

Well......is the skunk defunct? Update please.

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Originally posted by thirdbite:
I can sure tell you what doesn't work. Had a skunk for several months digging under the concrete front step. Tried mothballs burying rock, etc. and couldn't get him to stop. One night the damned thing squirted under the step. When I woke up from the smell told my wife it surely couln't get any worse. Believe me it can. I stuck my head out the door at 3 AM and saw his head coming out of the hole so shot him with a .22 pistol. It killed him instantly but the smell that came was ten times worse than before. My daughter was actually isolated at school from second hand smell - I tried to get her to bleach a streak in her black hair, but she said no way. So I dug and installed concrete and wire extending about a foot down around the step and that seems to have stopped them. Now if I could just keep the packrats out. Caught one and other one would trip the traps and then gnaw on them. Even caught one on a large glue trap and he just pulled out his hair and bit his tail off to get loose. Seems like you get one chance with them and then they wise up..

mix crushed glass in with the dirt- works on mice when mixed in plaster to seal holes, too.

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mix crushed glass in with the dirt- works on mice when mixed in plaster to seal holes, too.

Steel wool has the same effect.

They will find new residence with mothballs strewn about. They hate mothballs.

"Well......is the skunk defunct? Update please"

I guess I have failed badly on the defunct part. The trap is still vacant despite two changes of sardines.

Maybe the mothballs worked because he has not been under the house since I put them out.

On the other hand I have seen a skunk in the neighbors yard three times while leaving my driveway before daylight. I dont know if I moved him over or whether it is even the same skunk.

Hey, they say it's good to share with your neighbors. I'm like you, maybe the mothballs worked.

I used to ketch them in the dairybarn when I was a kid by the back of the neck like a cat and hold their tail down. Pick them up by the tail and go along way from the barn and throw then down wind . They can't spray with their tail down. If skunk spray gets in the milk you got to dump it, expensive,I wasn't.Really works.

The neighbors (elderly couple and very nice people) have been tormented by "my" skunk and I was feeling bad about it so I pulled the trap out away from the mothballs, into a stream bed behind my house and baited it up again.



At noon the wife called me and said "I dont know what kind of animal you have in your pen but it is bigger than a skunk and its got ears".

Thinking I might have caught the neighborhood fox I drove home and discovered I have now captured the neighbors cat.



I released it of course and the durn thing tried to bite me as it came out of the trap.

I am calling it time for a cease in hostilities toward the skunk. So far I have failed miserably and caused consternation in the neighborhood as well.

Buy the neighbors a box of mothballs.

Eventually the skunk will move in with some people you don't like.

Whacked one with a 3.5" blackcloud bb out of my 12 guage a couple weeks ago at 10 yards and he didnt have any chance to spray but there was still some odor in the yard for a few days from the shot ripping him to ribbons and spilling a bit of his pee.