My horse barn is adjacent to my shop and I have a problem of skunks getting under the floor of the barn(part where I store feed and hay) and nesting. I have eliminated three or four of the critters over the past couple of years, but others seem to come back. My question is this: I have access to a live trap, but what do you do once you catch one? I had to contend with the odor in the past when I would eliminate one, but not up close and personal, as it seems you would have to do with a trap. I just thought some of you may have experience with this and could tell me what to do it I should try the trap.
Thanks,
Tony
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You'd be surprised at a trapped skunks docile behavior. Remember, he can't spray unless he can get his rear off the round and his tail folded back. Most exterminators take advantage of this physical trait and never have a problem. Remember that word, however. A really small skunk can do amazing things in a confined space.
IF, IF you can get your hands around his tail, you can pick him up this way and he cant spray ya. then just cary him out to the woods, and toss him. To prevent skunks from geting under your floorboards, sprinkle moth ball flakes over the area. It will sweeten the soil, much as the same way you get rid of armadillos down south. They do not like it ans should not return. Should probably reapply after a couple of months if the rain washes it away!
hi tony, skunks are not very hyper like coons or fox, i have been trapping for yrs, and always shot them from a distance to get them out of my traps, i told this to a friend of mine and he ask me why i don't let them go! i told him he was crazy being i catch them in leg hold traps, he told me to call him the next time i caught one and he would let it out. so i did, and he got to within about 20 feet of it and stood there for about a minute,and then moved slowly to about 10 ft. and closer and closer and within about 5 minutes he reached down slowly and released the jaws of the trap and the skunk just waddled off at a slow pace, i couldn't believe it myself! now i am not in any way telling you to do this, but if you get one in a box trap take an old blanket and put it in front of you and slowly cover up the box trap and you can carry it to where ever you want, it shouldn't spray, then carefully open the box trap with most of the blanket still covering the trap to let it out. good luck joe
A tube trap. I have some that we made I dont know it you can buy them or not but it is basicly a typical live trap just instead of a cage type it is made from pipe. It works great on skunks they dont spray because they cant get there tail up. They are easy to make if you need a reference look at the trigger mechanism on a live trap and copy that. Just use a piece of 8-10 inch pvc and a piece of plexy glass or whatever for the door. once you catch one it cant spray so take it to the woods and let it go or if you want to get rid of them put the trap in water and drown the skunk.
Joe"s blanket suggestion is a good one but I us to use a garbage bag cut it open and cut an eye hole so you can see where the trap is and cover it with the bag
And Jakes idea on taking the little stinker swimming is a good one as it will not spray than and you can even give it a shot mounting it after
As for the mothballs. Flakes or balls they might work in some areas but all the ones I"ve seen I think they take them in and use them for interior decorations lol
What does seem to work is to smash up some glass and throw it into there tunnels going under your barn you can cover it with dirt in a few days after they decide they don"t like the new )carpet) you laid out for them and if the come back to try and dig in they will get the point
Tony, Well, we had these skunks moved in on us and the odor was ...well, they were skunks. I set a live trap and caught a nice one. I covered the trap with plastic and loaded it onto my trailer and towed the thing a couple miles away to a heavily wooded area and no houses. No problem. A couple of hours later one of my customers showed up and told me he had just seen a strange thing--a skunk was running along in the ditch headed my way about half a mile down the road. "He'll be here in a few minutes." said the customer. Made my Day! Then a couple of days past and I was in the shop when my wife got home from work. As she pulled into the drive she saw her old hound had a cat cornered in the yard so she piled out of the car right into the cloud that that "cat" had just let go on the hound. Well, I'm in the shop and I hear Mary yelling such profanity as I don't get to hear too often and I do what seems safest--just keep working on a duck. Then Mary comes and opens my shop door and she has hold of that hound's collar. She's still yelling "##*x!*XX!. No words were needed, I knew in a breath all that had happened but the message I got was "kill that #*!* skunk!" I went and shot the thing and came back to find my wife in the bedroom throwing off her clothes-somehow it wasn't an attraction. Now the house smelled like skunks as well as the shop,the yard, the wife and the hound. I was talking to a wildlife officer the next week or so and he told me that NC actually has a law that says it is illeagle to release any skunk caught in a trap since they often carry rabies. So Tony, I can't recomend relocating skunks and I wish you luck with the situation. -Aaron H.
Is Diazinon. It's a fine dry chemical that looks like sawdust that's sold at most garden centers. It kills grubs and earthworms in the soil along with crickets. These are what the skunk is looking for anyway. Get rid of them and the skunks don't come around.
Rope, water and a kiddie pool. Tie the rope to the box trap. Catching a skunk in one is about the easiest thing there is. Just drag the trap with the rope to the kiddie pool and into it. Keep kids out of that one though...