Home Guy wrote in :

mike wrote:

How to Discourage a Skunk?

I've removed about 2 dozen skunks from around my urban home over the
past 6 years.

I have a small video camera that I keep on my front porch hooked up to a
small TV in my den, beside my regular (large) TV. When-ever I'm
watching TV, I can see what's going on in my front yard. That's how I
know when a skunk is around (it probably doesn't help that I usually
have cat food sitting out on the porch as well).

How do I catch them?

I have a large fishing net and a plastic garbage can standing by at the
side of my house. When I see a skunk, I'll put on my rubber boots, and
(if it's nearby) one of those inexpensive painting respirators that have
a couple of cartriges and cover your nose and mouth. I'll grab the net
and approach the skunk and force the net down on top of him/her.
Sometimes they try to scurry away as I'm doing this, sometimes they
stand their ground and stomp their feet. They never let loose a spray
until I've got them hanging in the net as I'm carrying them to the
garbage can. They can't aim the spray when they're in the net, but the
smell can hang in the air which is why I'll use the respirator when I
can. There's a faint smell sometimes on my clothes or in my hair, but
washing them will get rid of it.

Once in the garbage can, I put the lid on the can, secure it with bungee
chord, put it in my truck and drive it about 7 miles to a relatively
rural area (with a stream nearby) and let them go. They run away
without much of a fuss.

Since I also trap racoons (with a regular trap) sometimes I'll catch a
skunk in a trap. Which is a bit of a pain because naturally it can
spray throught the cage if it wants to. So I'll take my garbage can and
slide the trap into the can and that basically solves that problem, and
take him out to his new home that way.

Something I've noticed is that since I've been agressive at removing
skunks over the years, I've seen hardly any around here over the past 2
or 3 years. So I think that if you can make a dent in their population
this way, they're slow to recover and you don't have to do too much
along the lines of "discouraging" them from trying to make a home on
your property.

I've recently seen what amounts to a closed-shell skunk trap which is
similar in size and shape to the medium-sized racoon traps. Sort of the
same size and shape as an airline golf-bag luggage shell. They go in,
the trap closes, and you can carry it away without being exposed to
direct skunk spray.

I wouldn't mess around with killing them. It would take me hours to dig
a decent hole in my hard clay soil. With catch and release, the whole
thing is over in 20 minutes.


Wild America on PBS yesterday was about skunks.
They are beneficial critters,eat rodents,snakes,and bugs.
they probably come around because there's a food source.

Of course,you don't want to run into them or corner them.
Or have them make a burrow under your porch. :-)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com