Skunks tearing up the lawn - no more!

[CraigC]

Anyone worried about "humanely" dealing with skunks never had one spray under their house. We had one do exactly that about 2.5yrs ago in the dead of winter. Woke us up from a dead sleep and we had to go to a hotel, where we spent three nights. We spent the next week fumigating the house, every window open, with it 20 friggin' degrees outside. Have you tried working an 8hr day at an IT job with it 20°? The smell eventually left the house but not our $2000 mattress. I spent the next 8 months eradicating them. I thought there might be two or three. Wrong! In 8 months I killed 19 skunks, all within 150yds of the house.

Similar situation several years before that, with one that got in a live trap right outside the bathroom window of my previous home. You guys so worried about the skunk's feelings can come and get them next time.

All that said, I have never shot a skunk that didn't spray. Probably totaling somewhere near 30 in my lifetime but the gut-shooting idea to have them run off and die is a good one.

 

[Speedo66]

Taking them out quickly or building a fence would’ve been effective for keeping them away. I had a family of Armadillo and I took them out with my .22lr. They were about 11 in number. Made sure they didn’t suffer and I didn’t touch them because they supposedly have some kinda bacteria on them.

They are known to carry leprosy. Several cases down south where people ate them.

 

[Axis II]

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.

Now, not being funny. Have you actually seen a cat kill a rabbit or squirrel? I always hear this but cotton tails are quicker and larger than a house cat and well i can see a squirrel jacking a cat up pretty bad in a fight.

Do you shoot the coyotes that eat the cats or you like them? Id go after the yotes before shooting cats.

 

[jmorris]

Now, not being funny. Have you actually seen a cat kill a rabbit or squirrel?

I have, we took around 9 feral cats down to our farm around 20 years ago to kill mice/rats in the barns. They would have kittens from time to time and kept them in the hay. I have seen them eating on more squirrels and snakes than rabbits but I was pretty impressed, they are little machines of death.

 

[CraigC]

Now, not being funny. Have you actually seen a cat kill a rabbit or squirrel? I always hear this but cotton tails are quicker and larger than a house cat and well i can see a squirrel jacking a cat up pretty bad in a fight.

God yes, like popcorn. Cats don't chase game across a field like a cheetah. They wait for an opportunity and ambush. Squirrels are more than capable of fighting back and cats are more than capable of winning. I watched as a squirrel bit completely through my cat's front paw. Her reaction was not to panic and run but to clamp down and break its neck with an audible "crunch".

I've never seen a cottontail that was larger than a house cat.

 

[MidRoad]

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

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

Ive always been taught eat what ya kill. No skunks for this guy!

 

[Axis II]

God yes, like popcorn. Cats don't chase game across a field like a cheetah. They wait for an opportunity and ambush. Squirrels are more than capable of fighting back and cats are more than capable of winning. I watched as a squirrel bit completely through my cat's front paw. Her reaction was not to panic and run but to clamp down and break its neck with an audible "crunch".

I've never seen a cottontail that was larger than a house cat.

Ive got some cotton tails in my yard that look like those pet store rabbits. lol

 

[LNK]

Ive got some cotton tails in my yard that look like those pet store rabbits. lol

We too have many cottontails. We don't shoot them, we actually maintain habitat to encourage them. Gives the bobcat and coyotes easier meals than breaking into our chicken and guinnea coops. We try not to run a grocery store around here.

 

[LoonWulf]

Do you shoot the coyotes that eat the cats or you like them? Id go after the yotes before shooting cats.

Cats are also hell on ground birds.
I LIKE cats, but they are generally still very capable hunters, the only thing out here nastier than a feral cat is a Mongoose....
Ive seen cats tangle with them, and while not being able to kill them drive them off. Big dogs sometimes fail on a big Mongoose, if they dont get them good on the first bite.
We had a pile of cats that someone dumped on Maunakea, they are mostly gone now, or at least i havent seen one last few times i was up there. But for a couple years you would see at least one every trip.
Im pretty sure the DLNR guys were getting them in live traps. Im also pretty sure hunters are helping remove them.

Ive always been taught eat what ya kill. No skunks for this guy!

That brings up the question....can you eat them?
.

 

[CraigC]

I reckon you can eat anything. The question is, do you really wanna?

 

[LoonWulf]

As long as Im not the guinea pig...yes, i really do......

 

[.308 Norma]

Now, not being funny. Have you actually seen a cat kill a rabbit or squirrel? I always hear this but cotton tails are quicker and larger than a house cat and well i can see a squirrel jacking a cat up pretty bad in a fight.

It's quite the coincidence that you brought that up. A few months back, some jerk dropped off a young, pregnant cat at our place - not a strange occurrence out where we live.
I won't go into the whole story because it's too long. But that cat (which was half wild) hung around our back deck for a couple of weeks. We kept her in food and water, figuring on taking her in for an abortion and spaying as soon as we could catch her. There's a no-kill animal shelter (PAWS) up in Blackfoot that provides real cheap abortions, spaying, neutering and shots for feral and dropped off cats. But before we could catch that cat, she disappeared. After five or six weeks, we decided she must have gotten out on the road and got ran over. We were wrong.
The neighbor found her because of the smell coming from underneath his storage shed. She had had her kittens (4 of them) and as near as we could figure out, she had decided that the large, 11 or 12 pound rockchuck (yellow-bellied marmot) that had also dug underneath that shed was a threat to her kittens, so she attacked him.
That was the last of her 9 lives. She was pretty much torn to pieces, and her throat was ripped out.
Her 4 kittens were barely weaned, and we had a heck of a time coaxing them out from underneath the shed so we could catch them. We finally caught 3 or them, and took them to the Humane Society shelter. The PAWS place up in Blackfoot wouldn't take the kittens because they were too young.
We kept the 4th kitten - a male. He's still pretty wild, but that's what we like. We like having a 2 or 3 half-wild, or totally feral cats hanging around out back. They keep the gopher and vole populations in check out in the pasture. They're obviously not much of a match for a full-grown rockchuck though.

 

[JeffG]

Shoot the skunks you have now, sure. Make sure you use your lawn spreader to apply a grub killer, or more will just move in.

 

[LoonWulf]

It's quite the coincidence that you brought that up. A few months back, some jerk dropped off a young, pregnant cat at our place - not a strange occurrence out where we live.
I won't go into the whole story because it's too long. But that cat (which was half wild) hung around our back deck for a couple of weeks. We kept her in food and water, figuring on taking her in for an abortion and spaying as soon as we could catch her. There's a no-kill animal shelter (PAWS) up in Blackfoot that provides real cheap abortions, spaying, neutering and shots for feral and dropped off cats. But before we could catch that cat, she disappeared. After five or six weeks, we decided she must have gotten out on the road and got ran over. We were wrong.
The neighbor found her because of the smell coming from underneath his storage shed. She had had her kittens (4 of them) and as near as we could figure out, she had decided that the large, 11 or 12 pound rockchuck (yellow-bellied marmot) that had also dug underneath that shed was a threat to her kittens, so she attacked him.
That was the last of her 9 lives. She was pretty much torn to pieces, and her throat was ripped out.
Her 4 kittens were barely weaned, and we had a heck of a time coaxing them out from underneath the shed so we could catch them. We finally caught 3 or them, and took them to the Humane Society shelter. The PAWS place up in Blackfoot wouldn't take the kittens because they were too young.
We kept the 4th kitten - a male. He's still pretty wild, but that's what we like. We like having a 2 or 3 half-wild, or totally feral cats hanging around out back. They keep the gopher and vole populations in check out in the pasture. They're obviously not much of a match for a full-grown rockchuck though.

In a confined space that honestly dosent surprise me.
Ive never seen a rockchuck (I read that thread about them being nasty ...largish...little devils), but cats dont usually do well when they cant move around, just not heavily enough built....well 'cept my buddies cat, I swear that thing kills stuff by falling on it, you never see any blood.

 

[jmorris]

Ive got some cotton tails in my yard that look like those pet store rabbits. lol

You just need the cats my Father had in his yard.

 

[22250Rem]

Couple occasions where I could have shot a skunk, I was planning on a head shot hoping it would be "lights out" immediately, but I chickened out because it was too close to areas I didn't want to get stunk up if they sprayed before dying. Had no experience shooting them and didn't want to learn stuff the hard way. Interesting thread, though, and if we ever start having skunk problems again I've got hav-a-hart traps that size and I could try the cover 'em with a blanket method if any are caught.

 

[jmorris]

cat are useless against squirrels because of their movement, squirrels are some ver fast MF

You don’t have to be fast to catch things. Alligators and crocodiles often catch things that would otherwise leave them in the dust, in a foot race. It’s actually the lack of movement that allows this to happen.

Cats often kill birds and if it were the ability to get away that should never happen, not to mention birds have a very wide field of view that would further complicate capture, yet it still happens.

Because cats are incredibly sneaky. How close have you followed a deer?

 

[nettlle]

And I have seen some squirrels do some pretty stupid stuff. They are mere mortals. Just like us.

 

[LoonWulf]

i thought deers have some kinda magical nose, wonder what happened here.

Wind favoring the cat, fresh rain or damp ground, deer being a sunday driver....They arnt that hard to get close to in the right conditions.
Or the cats just really sneaky....

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I used grub-killer, re-seeded, fertilized twice, but couldn't get ahead of the damage

Did you de-thatch it a couple of times prior to using grub killer and the rest?
Mulching mowers really don't do well "mulching" the lawn..., and what all that stuff does is form a carpet/barrier that stops or greatly retards whatever we apply on our lawns, and gives things like grubs a nice, protective roof over their heads. I've had small lawns most of my adult life and I've always been amazed at the bale of dried grass that I get when I power rake my lawn every couple of years. If you don't de-thatch..., all you do is waste ca$h and time.

We now end this segment of DIY Lawncare..., and return you to the hunting segment of our program.....

LD

 

[FL-NC]

I've always wondered about how to deal with the aftermath of killing a skunk. It seems like it would be a combination of considerations that would require a task force consisting of a sniper, an EOD tech, and a HAZMAT team. Fortunately we have very few here.

 

[Bfh_auto]

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.

Must not have dogs. Mine got sprayed and decided to kill them for me. Nothing like a skunked dog waking you up at 3am.

 

[.308 Norma]

Nothing like a skunked dog waking you up at 3am.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! That reminded my of what happened to my mom and dad 19 or 20 years back. Dad got up to let their Brittany (Babe) out, about 3 in the morning. Dad sat and smoked a cigarette while Babe did her thing outside. Then when Babe scratched at the door, Dad got up to let her back in.
Dad said as soon as he opened the door, he smelled skunk! But Babe rushed past him, and ran in and jumped in bed with Mom, trying to rub the skunk spray off her face and neck on the bedding.
Mom and Dad never got another wink's sleep that night. They put Babe in the shower, scrubbed her for at least an hour, used all the tomato and V-8 juice they had in the house, and ended up burning their bedding.
They never again let Babe go out at night without an escort. And Babe, who had always loved her showers, would never again go near the bathroom after that night.

 

[someguy2800]

I’ve shot a couple in the head with a 22 and they roll around and spray as they die. Luckily it wasn’t in the yard! Both times it was because I stumbled into them while grouse hunting so I shot them before the dog got into them.

 

[Picher]

Shoot the skunks you have now, sure. Make sure you use your lawn spreader to apply a grub killer, or more will just move in.

Yes, applied grub killer on the side of the lot away from the well. I don't poison anything near our drinking water source and am careful about fertilizing near it.