We've been on this place 20 years. We had one Skunk in here 20 years ago, killed it, no more Skunks.
This year my dog got sprayed twice, the cat got sprayed once.
My wife saw one in the barn, I set out some dog proofs with cat food in them, no dice, didn't go for it.
I switched over to peanut butter, just a dab on a small stick.
So far killed 5 around here with peanut butter in a dog proof, they love it.
I cannot figure out why we go 20 years here and have just 1, then 5 since may.
How do you trap and kill one without making the place stink to high heaven. I considered poison but we have other animals that I don't want to kill, whats a guy do? Keep trapping and just put up with the stink?

Keep trapping or hope that Distemper rages through. Not likely but Distemper kills skunks.

Take a 10 foot piece of PBC pipe glue a syringe into one end. One can add another section for a longer reach if one needs to.

Fill the syringe with acetone. Approach the skunk calmly and slowly until with in range of the pipe.

Very slowly in a calm manner push the pipe and syringe towards the skunk. One can talk to the skunk also.

If the skunk gets upset stop and let it calm down push the pipe and syringe closer.

Do so until one can gently push the syringe needle into the skunks chest injecting it with the acetone.

Let the skunk die.

works on live trapped skunks don't know why it wouldn't work on skunk in a dog proof.

The trick is to be calm and slow.

Conibear 110 in a box set up with a bit of tuna fish has worked perfectly for me. I always set it up in the evening before bed and then put it away in the morning. 100% kill every time. Just make sure your cats and dogs are locked up overnight.

quote:

Originally posted by thirdbite:

quote:

Originally posted by d.unger:
Conibear 110 in a box set up with a bit of tuna fish has worked perfectly for me. I always set it up in the evening before bed and then put it away in the morning. 100% kill every time. Just make sure your cats and dogs are locked up overnight.

No smell?

I find the double spring 110 catches them right behind the skull and kills them instantly so they don’t spray. There can be some “leakage” but at least they don’t spray all over.

I have killed several with a well placed .22 to the head. Zero spray, instant death.

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Originally posted by clayman216:
I have killed several with a well placed .22 to the head. Zero spray, instant death.

Every single skunk I have brained did spray.

When I was trapping fox and coyotes.

I shot dozens of skunks tried every way of shooting them they always sprayed.

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Originally posted by p dog shooter:
When I was trapping fox and coyotes.

I shot dozens of skunks tried every way of shooting them they always sprayed.

That has also been my experience. Seemed like a reflex.

I agree, I always heard that + so always head shot them but they still smelled like skunk. Maybe it was just on them but they still smelled just as ripe. Years ago I shot one in a live trap by he chicken oop + my buddy drug it out + must have got some scent on his boots; we couldn't smell anything else right then. Later that day he had business in the court house + all the ladies perked their noses up + said there must be a skunk in the basement.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I agree, I always heard that + so always head shot them but they still smelled like skunk. Maybe it was just on them but they still smelled just as ripe. Years ago I shot one in a live trap by he chicken oop + my buddy drug it out + must have got some scent on his boots; we couldn't smell anything else right then. Later that day he had business in the court house + all the ladies perked their noses up + said there must be a skunk in the basement.

I thought I had a feral cat in my barn, so I set a trap. Surorise, next morning I had a skunk in a wire cage in a narrow alley. Figuring if I popped him between the eyes with the .22 he would die quietly and peacefully. He did, but oozed all over the dirt floor of the barn. Took a gallon of bleach to mostly kill the smell.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I agree, I always heard that + so always head shot them but they still smelled like skunk. Maybe it was just on them but they still smelled just as ripe. Years ago I shot one in a live trap by he chicken oop + my buddy drug it out + must have got some scent on his boots; we couldn't smell anything else right then. Later that day he had business in the court house + all the ladies perked their noses up + said there must be a skunk in the basement.

Reminds me when trapping I would go to school everybody wondered where the skunk was.

A hazard of the job.

Set a cage trap in a trash bag. Be slow and calm. I’ve caught several this way and zero spray. I’ve transported them in the bed of my truck with no problems. Release some where’s else and let ‘em go or choot em when they come out. Happy trapping

If a skunk cant raise his tail he cant spray. I have a live trap that is enclosed and compact they still go in it and I just hand carry them to the stream and lower them in . Never had one spray with this trap . JT Eaton 475 N Catch/release skunk trap or the Snare Shop #6 Tuff Trap.

quote:

Originally posted by twilli:
If a skunk cant raise his tail he cant spray. I have a live trap that is enclosed and compact they still go in it and I just hand carry them to the stream and lower them in . Never had one spray with this trap . JT Eaton 475 N Catch/release skunk trap or the Snare Shop #6 Tuff Trap.

I like it, even have a stream for the final bath.
Thanks

I agree that the conibear traps work well, but I would use a 220 in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. They will hit quite a bit harder than a 110, Rarely have I ever had one spray after getting caught in a 220.

I maybe missed it if somebody already mentioned it, but you can buy kits from trapping supply businesses that are called skunk dispatching kits. You load up a syringe with a drug and attach to a special pole. When you have the skunk in a regular foothold trap you approach and inject the chemical and it kills them without any spray.

Be careful if you use 220 Conibear traps. They really hurt if you get your hand caught in one!

About 5 years ago a friend + his Dad + I were going fishing down at the marina at about 3:00 in the morning. The old man was driving when this skunk appeared in the road. The old man hit the brakes + said, " I hate those stinkin' SOBs" + got out of the truck. The rest that followed was classic. Ken said, Daddy don't!!! But old Dee just ran at that skunk + said, "Don't you hike your tail at me you SOB!" + kicked him square in the ass; the skunk landed + tried to hike his tail + damned if Dee didn't do it again. He did that 3 or 4 times before the skunk just looked at him + took off for parts unknown. Meanwhile Ken + I were in the truck with the doors locked, thinking that old Dee would be riding in the back. But that skunk never had a chance to spray. That was an experience + to this day I don't remember if we even went fishing after that.

BTW, the key stuck on the keyboard; that was 35 years ago.

Jab stick dispatch is your best bet in a DP. I keep one on all my service trucks. Segmented .22LR in the lungs is a 50/50 proposition, but no risk of being sprayed yourself by a misstep with a jab stick.

My method with contract skunk work is enclosed PVC tube traps and a euthanasia chamber. I'm a full time Animal Damage Control professional and this equipment has proven its worth over the years.



https://www.wildlifecontrolsup...m/animal/NWSTT6.html

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I AM GUESSING THAT IN ALL MY TRAPPING YEARS, I HAVE CAUGHT AROUND 85 SKUNKS, NEVER SET A TRAP ON PURPOSE TO CATCH A SKUNK. ONE THING I AM SURE OF IS EVERY SINGLE SKUNK PISSED AFTER I SHOT THEM,EVEN THE SKUNKS CAUGHT IN 220'S.
P.S. THEY WERE DEAD IN TRAP, STILL PISSED!

Try shooting them directly in the spine about midway down the back.

Ive shot many skunks with most calibers, intraps and out of traps, sometimes they squirt sometimes not, my 220 swift works well it seems..but not in traps...maybe I took out the spine doc??? In traps I shot them and picked up the trap when it quit stinking sometime later, but not in a barn just in the pasture...In the barn I tried to chase them out and follow them from the house area to shoot them..Seems like a big charge from a 12 ga. was favored by my boys at night and they claimed with a center shot they didn't stink?? We had 3 commercial chicken barnes operating for a couple of years and man did the skunks show up...I actually preferred the skunks to the damn chickens..

I just call city animal control when I trap one in my yard. They have a needle on about a four foot pole and just walk up to the cage and place the needle against the skunk and the skunk leans into it and that shot puts them to sleep. They change to a different syringe and give the sleeping animal a second shot which kills it. Put on a rubber glove put dead animal in plastic bag and off to the next one and it took less than 5 minutes. One person said they did get sprayed a couple times over several years and another person said they never had been sprayed.

Watched a groundskeeper at a golf course one night. He caught them in a cage trap that was small enough the skunk couldn't turn around on him. He approached from the head end and threw a small tarp over them. The tarp had a small hole where the handle of the trap was. He picked it up and dunked them in a water hazard (the trap had a small rope attached). No stink. He said some years he gets dozens of them digging up the greens and this is his go-to method.