OT - Skunks

[DaddyChoc]

has this been the year of the skunk, geesh they are everywhere!

 

[HuskyNan]

Yep. It has been a smelly late summer.

 

[Icebear]

Here in PA, too. For awhile one seemed to make a daily visit to our air conditioner just to let us know that he was around.

 

[DaddyChoc]

I agree... making their presence felt

 

[Aluminny69]

I agree... making their presence felt

making their presence smelt .... there, fixed it.

 

[Icebear]

making their presence smelt .... there, fixed it.

Now that's a red herring.

 

[pinotbear]

..rapidly turning green!

 

[EricLA]

we don't seem to have a lot of skunks out here. i've seen more possums and raccoons, but you'd think skunks would be just as prevalent as those 2. in fact i found a possum about 6 months back in the dog food i keep stored in a big plastic garbage pail. he'd been in there all night apparently in hog heaven chowing down on the dog food. had to to throw all of it out. he was kinda funny tho - just a juvenile...

 

[DaddyChoc]

lol HOG HEAVEN

 

[timedout]

A sure way to get skunks off the property: Use a garden hose It works!.

 

[Icebear]

My father used to catch skunks bare handed without getting sprayed. The harder part was always putting them down. We had a descented skunk as a pet for a couple of years.

 

[vtcwbuff]

We generally have skunks around the house. No big deal except for the time my wife's cat got sprayed. She came to the door crying and my wife let her in - over my shouted NOOOOOOO! Huge mistake. The cat came in, freaked out and ran all over the house finally hiding in my wife's closet. It was weeks before we got the smell out.

Ever try to hold a cat down for a tomato juice bath? Tomato juice doesn't work BTW but my wife insisted.

 

[Icebear]

Huge mistake. The cat came in, freaked out and ran all over the house finally hiding in my wife's closet. It was weeks before we got the smell out.

Now that is what I call really having a skunk around the house.

 

[CTyankee]

We had visitors staying with us from Germany a few weeks ago... They liked their bedroom windows open at night and would not hear of using the installed room air conditioner... Needless to say I warned them about the potential of a nighttime visit by skunks (not a native animal in Germany). I was not sure which they were afraid of the most as the next morning after the warning the wife told me they both had sweltered all night because they refused to use the air conditioner or to open the window...

 

[UConnChapette]

One year we had a family of skunks make their home under our shed. My husband wanted to just fill in their entry way, but I wouldn't let him unless he did it at night, since skunks are nocturnal and they would be buried alive, which sounded barbaric. My sister-in-law suggested using moth balls around where the skunks entered their "home" to discourage them from going in. Great idea, right? Wrong. Apprarently the moth balls killed the family WHILE they were under the shed. We called the town to help get the remains out. But they wouldn't do it since the skunks were dead on private property. Go figure.

The only way we were were going to get them out was to tear out the floor of the shed. That wasn't going to happen.

You think skunk smell is bad? Combine that skunk smell with the smell of decomposing flesh. It was a LONG late summer and autumn. The smell wasn't gone until the dead cold of winter. Fortunately, by spring the smell was completely gone. But, we haven't had a family of skunks move in since then.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Skunks are fairly easy to trap. I moved a family of 5 from under my steps a few years ago. I used a Hav A Hart live trap baited with chicken necks, Just be sure to cover the trap and keep it covered until after they are released. The Hav A Hart is also great for squirrel and feral cat removal. Release the skunks and squirells and turn the feral cats over to the town animal control for elimination.

 

[UConnChapette]

I would be more inclined to neuter/spay and release the feral cats. My avatar would frown on it otherwise, being a former stray.

 

[vtcwbuff]

I would be more inclined to neuter/spay and release the feral cats. My avatar would frown on it otherwise, being a former stray.

My wife took in a stray from the pound once - never again. She's a cat person and she agreed it was a wild animal that could not be controlled. We returned it within a couple of weeks.
There is a huge difference between a stray and a feral animal. Check out the Audubon estimates of the number of birds killed annually by feral cats. Spaying feral cats ( Audubon society estimates 50-90 million in the US) does not stop them from killing. The only way to do that is by eliminating them.