Help, Now what do I do?

[notenoughtime]

Something has been killing our chickens. So last night we put a live trap in the chicken house. SKUNK!!!!! Now what, how on earth do I get it out and kill it without getting sprayed????? I am not touching this thing until I get some advice! I just wonder how it got in there, I really thought it was a possom or weasel but a SKUNK. Right now this could really stink but doesn't yet....HELP

[Callieslamb]

You might search for another thread on this issue. How big is the trap? Can the skunk raise its tail? According to wisdom found on this site - not personal exprience- if they can't raise their tail, you can't get sprayed. So, if the trap is small enough you are all set.

Good luck.

[farmmom]

I have also heard that if you cover the trap, so the skunk is in the dark, they are less likely to spray.

[THETOOLMAN]

If that skunk ever gets his tail up, YOU ARE SRAYED!! old trapper trick is.
Tie a piece of clothsline rope on the trap. (if it is a havahart style box trap) throw it in the creek. the skunk will drown ,this is a quick death & verry good way to keep the smell away. let it stay in the water quite a while, i would say 1/2 a day or more . when the skunk dies he relaxes & the PEE SPRAY will come out & be washed away.BE careful he will still stink a little.
GOOD LUCK &
*keep us posted*
Dan (x trapper)

[Janis Sauncy]

Drowning is a "quick" death?

Not in my opinion.

If you're set on killing rather than relocating, I would think a bullet to the brain would be more "humane" than drowning. I know from experience you can actually get quite close to a skunk in a trap and not get sprayed.

Personally, I would relocate (which I have done).

Janis

[DaleK]

Get a sheet of plastic or an old tarp you don't want to use again and wrap it around the trap. Some people will just move up behind the plastic and do it, I prefer to use a fairly sturdy pole about 10 feet long to drape the plastic over the trap from a distance. Then either drown it or shoot it through the plastic. Whatever you do, DON'T release it. It'll either come back or cause problems for somebody else, they hardly ever stay "relocated" once they've gotten the taste.

[galee]

We have one around the house somewhere as we smell it once in awhile. 2 nites ago the dog chased it and got sprayed and we were giving it a tomato bath at 10 PM. I'd like to trape and relocate it. What should I use as bait? I thought maybe a can of cat food. Sorry to hijack thread....

[mylala]

With skunks humane goes out the door. If you shoot it it will spray, and stink horribly. It is not like the smell you smell driving down the road when one was hit. It is 100x worse. It is so thick in the air you can taste it. NASTY!!!!. Move slowly and cover it up really good. If it feels threatened it will start stomping it's front paws. If so, back up and let it calm down. Once covered I would drown it. A filled garbage can is easy enough if you don't have another source of water. As soon as it's dead, and I mean right away dispose of it quickly, either buried or doubled bagged, and hauled way off. Like the poster said above that liquid will ooze after they die. Usually, my experience is you have a few minutes before this happens. Then I would reset the trap you may have more.

[Janis Sauncy]

Well, I've never seen (or smelled) any indication the one I relocated a few months back ever returned.

We released it away from any other farms.

I've done this with many 'possums and I'm pretty sure none have ever made their way back.

Janis

[Janis Sauncy]

Originally Posted by galee

We have one around the house somewhere as we smell it once in awhile. 2 nites ago the dog chased it and got sprayed and we were giving it a tomato bath at 10 PM. I'd like to trape and relocate it. What should I use as bait? I thought maybe a can of cat food. Sorry to hijack thread....

A can of cat food is what we used.

Our first attempt......we caught one of our cats (of course).

Janis

[DaleK]

I've usually used sardines for bait, that works for raccoons as well.

[CIW]

If you shoot him in the head he will tense up and smell.
He can't spray if his legs are off the ground. That doesn't mean that you won't smell it some, just means that he can't broadcast it everywhere.
Can you pick the trap up and put it and the skunk in a barrel, 3/4 full of water. Get a stick (5 or 6 feet long). One with a little "Y" at the end so it doesn't slide back down. Hook it in the ring at the end of the traps chain, or better yet, into the trap jaws itself. Then push it clear to the bottom of the barrel and hold him there.
After your done you won't know how bad you smell until you get away from the area. That musk permeates everything, including your hair. It hangs in the air. Your chicken coop will smeel for quite some time. You'll think its gone, then when you get a really hot day that smell will come back to visit.
Strip off your clothes and leave them outside. Then put them in a bucket covered with some tomato juice and citrus juice for a few days.
I then take mine to the coin laundry and run them through their machine.
I used to skin mink during the Thanksgiving holiday from school. My mother would make me sleep in the garage and I couldn't come in the house. It was really good money, though for the first few days back to school a feller didn't smell the best. At least I wasn't the only one. We just had to travel together in a pack. When you all smell the same, nobody stinks. Shaving my head helped also.
The University of Idaho developed a neutralizer for musk, to help the fur farms with the issue of the smell getting on their clothes. A friend had some, but thats been many years ago. You put it in a spray bottle mixed with some water and spray it over the area you want to effect.
When we skinned there was one guy that would remove the musk glands from the rectum. They sold them to used for the base of high dollar perfumes and scents.

[mylala]

Originally Posted by galee

We have one around the house somewhere as we smell it once in awhile. 2 nites ago the dog chased it and got sprayed and we were giving it a tomato bath at 10 PM. I'd like to trape and relocate it. What should I use as bait? I thought maybe a can of cat food. Sorry to hijack thread....

canned cat foor works well...so does tuna, or any smelly leftovers. Peanut butter on bread or on a apple works also.

I would not relocate it though. More than likely it's illegal if you check with your wildlife officers. It's a skunk there are plenty out there wherever you dump it doesn't need it!

[edcopp]

What kind of logic would relocate a "chicken killing" skunk or possum? Why should another person have to become responsible for that problem? Perhaps I just don't understand.

[LindaLK]

Good Morning Everyone,


You don`t go and drown the poor thing. Good Lord! I hope I never come back as a woodland creature, and wonder on to some of your properties!


I posted on another thread about ``Odd behavior of a ground hog.`` This is what I had said. Here goes....


I know I am going to get flack for this. So flame away. But why can`t we leave the wild life alone? Why is there such a need to shoot and kill animals? Where are they suppose to go? People are building up all around the woods and mountains. These poor creatures are just trying to survive just like you and I. I get so upset when I hear people say ``Kill it!``


If it isn`t a threat, relocate it, or leave it be. It seems like people have no regard or respect for wild life. Why is that??? No wonder why we have so many animals on the extinct and endangered list. JMHO.


Janis mentioned relocating, as did BethW. They each posted on this ground hog thread. BethW relocated a skunk with her children. She used a humane trap, covered the trap with a blanket, and released the skunk in a different location. Please read the thread.


Have a good day everyone.



Hugs,
Linda

[notenoughtime]

I didn't mean to make anyone upset here, I just needed help to get rid of this critter. Skunk spray is the most awful smell there is to me. It almost makes me ill. This skunk has cost us at least 5 big layers so it really has to go. And I agree there may be more.
and it can raise it's tail (that's what I seen and then I got out of there).

[CIW]

Linda,
I respect your opinion. And if you have other options by all means take them.
Around here we have a large problem with skunks and mink due to the attraction from the leftover food at the fur farms The leftover bread at the hog farm and the river that comes through the area.
When the skunk population gets too high they devistate the ground nesting birds such as pheasents and all waterfowl. They also are a large carrier of rabies effecting domestic pets and even present a problem to people.
We have had great sucess doing other things to protect our chickens like raising our hen house a couple of feet off the ground and locking the chickens in at night. But this doesn't by any means eliminate the problems that small preditors present to our livestock so other actions have been inacted.
While living in an apartment I even owned a skunk (Descented). Scared the landlady to death one day when she came in to change the furnace filter.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by notenoughtime

I didn't mean to make anyone upset here, I just needed help to get rid of this critter. Skunk spray is the most awful smell there is to me. It almost makes me ill. This skunk has cost us at least 5 big layers so it really has to go. And I agree there may be more.
and it can raise it's tail (that's what I seen and then I got out of there).

I would go for the covering with a tarp idea, and then run a pipe from a vehicles exhaust pipe under the tarp for a while, just till hes asleep good, then he can safely be relocated. Take that time while hes going to sleep to dig a good deep hole, take plenty of time, dig the hole very deep. Once the hole is dug, relocate his stinkin thievin self into it, and fill it back up.

[kscowboy]

get a long and lightweight rope , put a hook of some sort on the end , go to the hardware store and find something , fling that hook softly toward the the top of the trap , slowly pull the trap out of you building and away from things you like , dispose of him as you like.

I trap and dispose of varmints that invade my barn , i figure they are just going to bother someone else if moved and released

[CountryWannabe]

Originally Posted by LindaLK

why can`t we leave the wild life alone? Why is there such a need to shoot and kill animals? Where are they suppose to go? People are building up all around the woods and mountains. These poor creatures are just trying to survive just like you and I. I get so upset when I hear people say ``Kill it!``

First, I need to say that I have a "live and let live" policy around here. As long as the woodland creatures do not interfere with MY creatures, everything is hunky-dory. However, if a skunk, raccoon or possum (or anything else for that matter) attacks or kills my animals, then it is too bad for it.

These "poor creatures" do not just kill one bird, take it off and eat it then move on to the neighbors' places. If they did, and I only lost a couple of birds a year, I would be OK with that. But they often slaughter a whole flock, or at least the larger part of it, leaving killed and terribly maimed birds all over the place. Often with just the head or guts eaten. A horrible, gut wrenching sight to behold. And they will continue to do it until you are wiped out. Of birds and emotions.

I would never trap one of these predators and relocate it to decimate someone else's flock. I take care of it myself. By killing it. I have only set traps within a few feet of my pens, If the coon, possum, skunk, whatever is that close it probably has evil on it's mind.

I do have to say that since I have had my LGDs I have not lost any birds, or anything else, to predation. Other than a couple of chicks when the dogs were young and hadn't yet learned their role. So perhaps the OP needs to think about a good LGD...

Mary