Posted: 2/10/2005 9:10:38 PM EDT
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I have been smelling a skunk from my office lately (like right this second), and my office window faces the front yard. When I go out the back door onto the deck, I can smell skunk really bad too. Somehow (???) a skunk is getting from the front to the back yard, there is a 6 foot wooden fence. The smell is so bad that it bothers me in my office at night. I'm also afraid that the stupid dog will try to make friends with it and he'll smell even worse than he does now. I've never seen the little striped bastard, but how do I repel or get rid of him? I just got back from a cautious flashlight mission looking around the side where the fence joins the house, and out back under the deck - nothing. |
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Ahhhhhh, the memories. I have seen many skunks around sheds and barns and usually never smelled them. Once however, we had one move in under our house. He must have come from the factory with a defect because EVERY time he was under the house he shot off - in fact, you could smell him coming. After about the second time I got home to a note from my wife that said "took the kids into Mom's so we didn't have to smell that" I went to town and bought a live trap. Baited it with duck eggs and finally caught him after two or three days. End of skunk. NMSight |
| Thats pretty funny same thing happened here, some skunks got into the pipes and ventilation systems at work and decided to make a nest there. They found them and scared them and they went back into the vents where they can't get them out. They've set traps but none have taken the bait so now the entire building smells like skunk. |
Once upon a time, I tried to kill a rabid possum that was literally on our back deck blocking our entrance. I put 20 rounds of .22LR into his head. That scary rabid motherfucker, had the use of one front arm, and was pulling himself toward me, like in the ending of The Terminator. Scared the hell out of me. This was in town, but to hell with it, next time I'm using slugs or a .308. I did draw down on him with my pistol when we first got home that night, until I realized that my backdrop was the neighbors picture window.  I had to get at him from above to avoid a bad situation.
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Well, that was the interesting part. Some friends of ours had chickens in an egg house. They used the live trap method to get rid of the skunks. I was out there one day just after they had caught one and I watched his Uncle walk up from the side, drop a gunny sack over the trap. He then picked up the trap and put it in tha back of his pickup, drove down to the field, opened one end of the trap, and when the skunk ran off he blasted it with his 12 guage. After my experience I decided that he must have also secretly used hypnotism. Every time I tried to get close enough the skunk would wriggle around in the trap and raise his tail. The trap was in the backkyard so I finally just shot the skunk in the head with my .22 - figured it would only smell once more. Then dumped it in a big hole. NMSight |
Geez--town people.  You just walk toward it holding a tarp between you and it. Cover/wrap the trap with the tarp and carry it to wherever you are going to dispatch it--water is best, be it a pond or a trash can full of water. Overall, skunks are useful critters, so you may want to take it for a long ride and release it. They are not afraid of people, very calm and will not try to "attack" you--unlike coons or most other critters. Keep the tarp between you though--the spray is very, very irritating to the eyes. 
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I recommend you crush them in a plastic bag first. They sprinkle it into the hole. |
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Trap it. Use a big live trap. Bait it with sardines. Place the trap inside a large cardboard box, with the end open. It should enclose the trap on three sides, top and bottom. Once the trap has been sprung, you can verify contents from a distance. If it's the neighborhood cat, you can deal with it as you please :-). If its Mr. Stinky, approach from the other side and close up the box. If the live trap is not in some way contained, you can still be hosed. Once the little bastard is in the trap/box, gas him, drown him, or shoot him. You can just shoot em outright, but all hell can break loose. It's "risky". If you are going to blast him, git him at the the base of the skull/neck juncture, and hope you don;t have an involuntary blast. |