How do you kill

Joshie · #1 04/11/11, 01:32 PM

a skunk without getting sprayed? Apparently our barn is the local critter fast food joint. We smelled a musky odor a few months ago. Whatever it was killed several full grown chickens. We were getting few eggs. DD was convinced it was a skunk. One evening in January when hubby was in the hospital I found a possum between a pallet and a stall wall. My dad came out and shot it. The egg production increased and no more chickens were killed. A couple of weeks ago we once again started smelling a faint musky odor. It wasn't nearly as strong as it had been in January. DH put out a live animal trap and we caught another possum.

DH decided to reset the trap. We've been checking it daily to make sure we don't catch any of our cats. Today when I went out to get hay for our horsey I found a skunk in the trap. I cautiously got hay. How in the heck do we kill the thing without getting sprayed?

ghmerrill · #2 04/11/11, 01:46 PM

Good luck.... I catch several a year, and have yet to figure it out. I have loaded them, very carefully, into the back of the truck, and hauled them away, about 50% of the time they don't spray....

mekasmom · #3 04/11/11, 01:54 PM

from a distance with a firearm? You can also use a piece of plastic in front of you, walk up to the cage, and toss over the plastic. You will get sprayed, but it hits the plastic to protect you a bit. Then, (this sounds awful) but toss the cage into some water and leave it until the critter has passed. Take it out of the water, open the cage, and shake out the remains. Everything stinks, but, hopefully, it doesn't hit you. Just throw away the plastic and spray the trap. That's how my FIL always kill skunks.

driver308 · #4 04/11/11, 02:05 PM

10/22 ruger works well for me

Joshie · #5 04/11/11, 02:17 PM

I don't know how we'd shoot it without getting sprayed. We'd have to move the trap because of its location or risking our critters' lives. Stupid cats keep looking at the thing so I'm afraid our barn's going to stink pretty soon.

FarmerRob · #6 04/11/11, 02:22 PM

A while back I read a post, on this forum I think, from someone who had come up with a great method. Apparently they had to deal with skunks repeatedly. When they set their live trap they covered it partially with a tarp. Enough of the tarp was folded back to be able to completly cover it when it was occupied. When a skunk got in it they would push the rest of the tarp over the end (I suppose with a pole.) Then they ran a hose from the exhaust pipe of the truck and stuck it under the tarp and let the fumes do their work.

The advantage of this over shooting would probably be not accidentally shooting the cage and causing damage to it OR missing and frightening the skunk into spraying the cage and surrounding areas.

PNP Katahdins · #7 04/11/11, 02:32 PM

Whatever you (meaning anyone reading this) do with any skunk, possum etc. you catch, please don't take it somewhere else and release it alive to become someone else's problem. It would be a lot harder to trap or catch the next time.

/rant

Peg

Darren · #8 04/11/11, 02:42 PM

Skunk are curious. As long as they're lookin at you, you're OK. I've used a long pole to drag the trap out of the barn. the skunks have always watched were I was dragging them. Once the trap was out in the field a .22 in the head, did the rest. No smell.

Tracy Rimmer · #9 04/11/11, 02:50 PM

We deal with them CONSTANTLY. They're horrible, and they're particularly horrible with two dogs who hate them with a focus and zeal which even outstrips their love of their food bowls. When a dog hates skunks, you'd think that they'd leave them alone, at least give them a wide berth -- but NOOOOOOO.... dogs seem to look at things differently than a rational human being would. They somehow feel the very existence of the skunk as a personal insult which cannot go unchallenged.

We are on a main "pathway" from the provincial park area to the north of us to the marshlands to the south. Skunks are simply a fact of, if not daily, then at least weekly, life.

We have a have-a-hart trap that is skunk-sized. They get in there, and it's not big enough for them to either A) turn around, or B) lift their tail. Approach from the head-end (skunks aren't supposed to be able to spray if they can't lift their tail upright, but like most things, this is true only until it's proven otherwise, at which point, it's too late -- far, far too late), or have a LOOOOOOONG rope already attached to the head-end and laid out. WAAAY out. Drag away from trap area to an area with nothing but fields for about three miles in any direction. Get up close and personal (again, from the "head" end!) and place your rifle barrel inside the trap as close to the head as you can get. Shoot. Run. You have about twelve seconds before the nerves let go and that baby lets loose.

Wearing gloves, dump dead skunk into pre-dug hole. Dump in the gloves, too. Strip, and bury the clothes you were wearing, just to be safe. Leave the trap outside in a secluded area for several days, preferably in an area where you are certain it will be exposed to a nice, cleansing, acid rain.

It's a good idea to have several traps.

megafatcat · #10 04/11/11, 02:58 PM

Head shot they will spray. In the lungs 25% spray. Good luck. Pros use a long pole with a syringe.

Ryan NC · #11 04/11/11, 04:14 PM

Tracy look in to getting a kill pole, for one skunk it's not worth the trouble but they are worth their weight in gold if you have even a few a year. The biggest thing with them is to move SLOWLY They are threatened by movement, if the tail moves towards you it's time to stop.

caged critters can be SLOWLY covered with a towel or plastic and then as suggested given a swimming lesson. It's best to approach from up wind, skunks can only spray about 10-15' and it's always toward the lower range in cages.

If you shot them I concur with the lung shot, roughly 1 in 10 spray if you are a decent distance away where as 100% of the ones I've shot in the head have sprayed.

Again the biggest thing is to move slowly, skunks pick up on movement and if they feel threatened fast movement will prompt a response.

tinknal · #12 04/11/11, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarmerRob

A while back I read a post, on this forum I think, from someone who had come up with a great method. Apparently they had to deal with skunks repeatedly. When they set their live trap they covered it partially with a tarp. Enough of the tarp was folded back to be able to completly cover it when it was occupied. When a skunk got in it they would push the rest of the tarp over the end (I suppose with a pole.) Then they ran a hose from the exhaust pipe of the truck and stuck it under the tarp and let the fumes do their work.

The advantage of this over shooting would probably be not accidentally shooting the cage and causing damage to it OR missing and frightening the skunk into spraying the cage and surrounding areas.

This is the way to do it. They just go to sleep (make sure you do it long enough or they wake up!)

||Downhome|| · #13 04/11/11, 05:31 PM

start talking to it in a calm matter,does not matter if its coherent or gibberish just calm. once its use to you , cover the cage, take it to a open area gun in hand or shooter in tow.
open the trap and proceed to a safe distance, when the animal is clear of the trap shoot it.

willowworker · #14 04/11/11, 06:46 PM

Shoot it from the front, in the head. You can walk pretty close to them that way. I have had to do that a few times....only one of them smelled after I shot them.....must not have killed it instantly. Immediately after shooting, (and making sure it is dead), pick it up with a long handled shovel and take it waaaaayyyyyy out into the woods.

L.A. · #15 04/11/11, 07:00 PM

I've heard they can't spray swimming. Can you lower the trap into water?
maybe

showpigann · #16 04/11/11, 07:33 PM

My hubby is a trapper, he deals with them all the time. He never seems to get sprayed. i know in a live trap if u cover the cage they won't spray. I think in leg traps he just shoots um using a 22.

Belfrybat · #17 04/11/11, 08:49 PM

I've trapped many a skunk and never been sprayed. Approach the trap slowly with a tarp or sheet in front of you and drape it over it. Pick the trap up and move it to wherever you want. If you are releasing, just pull the sheet back from the door, stand in the back of the trap and lift the door. Gently tap on the back and the skunk will leave. I've never had one spray me.

If you want to kill the skunk, then move the trap to the outdoors, carefully remove the sheet. Shoot from a short distance -- 20-25'. They will release their musk when they die, so you have two options. Hold your breath and tip them out of the trap and move them after about an hour (I use a shovel held downwind), or douse the dead skunk with a small pail of water to which you have added peroxide, baking soda and dishwashing soap. That will cut the odor.

Dutchie · #18 04/11/11, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.A.

I've heard they can't spray swimming. Can you lower the trap into water?
maybe

That would be very cruel.

Dutchie · #19 04/11/11, 08:52 PM

Why can't you just live with it and secure your chicken house? I have never had a problem of skunks or possums or anything else killing my chickens and eating my eggs.

Fat Charlie · #20 04/11/11, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutchie

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.A.

I've heard they can't spray swimming. Can you lower the trap into water?
maybe

That would be very cruel.

It's cruel if you do it for entertainment or out of spite. If it's the most efficient method you can come up with to solve a repetitive problem, then it just sucks to be a skunk in that neighborhood. If you have to kill skunks on a weekly basis, just how much extra effort do you owe each particular skunk?