Skunks tearing up the lawn - no more!

Maybe they ambled off to die. Or just suffer miserably. Would have been more humane to dispatch them quickly.

I had a family of raccoons digging grubs in the yard, when they get their fill they move on to the next delicacy and I have fewer Japanese beetles.

I had one sneak in the garage while I had the door open after dark, little bugger. I quietly closed the garage door with it inside, went to an inside door to get the angle I needed and shot it in the head. It did not spray, burp, fart or anything smelly. I put it in a bag and brought it to work the next day, put it in the chip pan of a big lathe. When the operator (who had a skunk problem at home) saw it he took off running up the isle, saw me and another laughing and called us every name in the book...

Shot one with turkey shot out of a 12 gauge once, from 30 yards. Never again, I walked in the house and the smell knocked my wife out almost.

You can have them ramble off to die or you can have them die quickly and release toxic gas to displace you and your neighbors. I agree with kill em fast but skunks smell end of story.

My dad caught one in his basement in a have a heart trap (maybe a better way to go). It was using the cat's door to enter the basement (finished one I might add) to eat the cats food. He didn't know it was a skunk just that something was eating the food other than the cat. He covered the trap with a blanket on one end. They won't spray in an enclosed area. He grabbed the trap and put it in the bucket of his tractor and headed with it to the woods on the other end of the property. He hit a bump and the trap fell out of the bucket and he ran over the trap and the skunk. So much for being humane. We are certainly over run with them around here. Gotta do what you have to in order to rid yourselves of them.

One Saturday morning, I heard this horrendous noise outside the house. My Siamese cat was going nuts. He has this ability to always know when something just isn't right. I went outside to find the noise and soon enough I found a skunk in my empty garbage can that had the lid off to air it out. Hmmm, how to get a skunk out of trash can? Well, with a long board with a nail in the end. So I reached towards it and used the nail to pull the can over. And out came the skunk like a rocket. He came right for me full speed. I turned around and ran around the back of the house with the skunk right behind me. I got to the knee high fence I used to keep the dogs in (dachshunds) and jumped over it. The skunk didn't make it so I escaped getting bit or sprayed. Who would have thunk that a skunk could run so fast.

On his way out of the can, the skunk sprayed a gallon of skunk juice. My wife was hosing me to use the car (right next to the can). So I went in the attic and got my USAF issued gas mask which we were required to keep at home. Once on, I grabbed the can and put the lid on and moved it to the back of the yard. Lucky for me all the skunk smell was in the can. Smell dissipated quickly after that. I then got in the car and moved it out front for the wife. Aren't gas masks worth their weight in gold when you need one? Same mask I took to Iraqi Freedom.

I got a few more skunk stories up my sleeve.

The next evening (Sunday) I went to take out the trash, good husband that I am. Inside the can was that evil skunk who liked the inside of empty garbage cans. Not again. This time I put the bag in the can, lid on the can, and placed it next to the other can in the back of my back yard. Placed a rock on the top. He sits there to this day. Never had a skunk in a can again to this day.

Then there was the time I had a feral cat with four kittens. I asked farmer friend if I could bring them to his farm. With a place for the cat, plus the kittens, not to catch them. Borrowed the have a heart from my dad and went about catching cats and kittens. The mother cat got caught the first night. Empty tuna cans work well. I then went after the kittens. Caught one a night until there was only the cute little fluffy gray one. Set the trap and then went to bed. Sure enough when I got up the next morning I had a nice black and white cat in the trap. Not thinking I picked it up and then my blood got cold. It wasn't a gray kitten but a youthful skunk.

I put the trap down and choose the better route of going to work. I was in a shirt and tie already so no time to mess with a skunk. After work I did the blanket thing and walked him way out in the back field. I slowly opened the door to the trap and out came the skunk like he owned the whole world. He slowly waddled off into the sunset. Next night I got the gray.

Never saw the reason to kill a skunk. We have one that's been around for several years. It is so used to people folks just walk by and it ignores you if you ignore it. Before he/she showed up I had all sorts of bugs and spiders. I still have what I call good spiders, but it has eaten most of the black widows. Folks seem to think they aren't very bright. But they are smart as a whip.

I live in a semi rural area. People dump off their cats that kill the rabbits, squirrels, birds and EVERY other wildlife they can find. I have a scoped 10/22 with a can and lots of Gemtech subsonic .22 LR. I am 12 for 14 one shot kills. The best part is it helps feed the Coyotes that come around at night.

Steve in PA said:

Maybe they ambled off to die. Or just suffer miserably.

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Either way they suffer miserably - at least for a while.

Picher said:

I was skeptical when my son told me, but it worked well. Noise was minimal and at 30 yards, they ambled off to die.

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Yeah well Picher, my DAD taught me, "If you're going to kill something, kill it. You don't shoot to wound."

When I used to run a trap line I have caught a few skunks in leg hold traps. Usually in my fox sets. I was and have never been a skunk trapper. I have read a lot of articles on how to cleanly dispatch a skunk in a trap without it spraying. The one thing that I have learned is that if you piss a skunk off it is going to spray. Regardless of the method done to piss it off.

I don't agree with gut shooting any animal. Yeah, kill em, but do it as painless as you can.

Can not blame you for wanting to get rid of the stinking pests.

egd said:

. Yeah, kill em, but do it as painless as you can.

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If not, this just gives groups like PETA more "ammo".

Getting back to killing nuisance skunks, I remember my Grand dad shooting one in my Dad's old dirt floored garage back in the sixties with a .22. IIRC, it stunk in there for over a year! PU!!! Grand Dad was a fur trapper and never smelled it, but everyone else did!

The damage that a skunk can do to a yard can be frightening. Around here they are looking for grubs and can tear up a lawn in no time. They will get in your trash if you don't keep the lids on tight and as I have already experienced they will get into an empty can. Not sure how they got into mine. My neighbor down the street had to fix his lawn last year due to skunks. It went from green grass to a dirt mess. I use grub killer and haven't had the same experience as him. Around here there are many of them of all shapes and sizes. They carry rabies and other diseases. In the city they have no natural enemy except for the car. Not unusual to wake up with skunk smell filling up your house in the spring, summer and fall. I can't blame Picher for wanting them gone. I would prefer a clean kill, just like the next person.

It bothers me to kill an animal be it a wood chuck, skunk, mouse, or a deer. That doesn't mean that I won't.

We have problems with skunks in the spring. They dig up cottontail rabbit nests in the yard and eat the baby rabbits. After the baby bunnies are out of the nest and running the skunks go away.

I like cottontail rabbits a lot more than skunks.

dh1633pm said:

It bothers me to kill an animal be it a wood chuck, skunk, mouse, or a deer. That doesn't mean that I won't.

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Either it is a pest or it is food.......

But on the other hand, I think there are many of us who have been hungry enough to eat the back end of a skunk!?!

You shot the symptom not the problem- Id even argue unnecessarily. You have a grub problem not a skunk problem. Skunks will rototill the lawn when grubs are active like that but the lawn can be recovered by placing the rooted up grass clumps back into the soil. The grubs will be back though if they are not killed. And they will kill your lawn as opposed to skunks tearing it up. Get something with Dylox in it- it will kill grubs and unhatched eggs.

akarguy said:

You shot the symptom not the problem- Id even argue unnecessarily. You have a grub problem not a skunk problem. Skunks will rototill the lawn when grubs are active like that but the lawn can be recovered by placing the rooted up grass clumps back into the soil. The grubs will be back though if they are not killed. And they will kill your lawn as opposed to skunks tearing it up. Get something with Dylox in it- it will kill grubs and unhatched eggs.

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I was hoping somebody would point that out. If the lawn is getting torn up a lot..., you have a huge problem because you have lots of grubs. Not to mention the fact that if two skunks found your lawn, then more skunks will find it in the future. If not this year, then next year.
Take some time and go kill the grubs, I'd suggest.

LD

I had bad armadillo problems in my yard, as soon as I could get it looking alright, they would tear it up again. I don’t know how many I killed but they just kept coming. I brought out a trap and caught everything except an armadillo.

I put the trap back up after I caught a skunk. I did walk up to the trap with a blanket and draped it over the cage and let it go without getting hosed though.

The fix for me was getting chickens. They eat everything that moves in the yard so the others don’t come because there is no dinner for them.

You do gain predators to hunt though, I think everything likes the way chickens taste.