Close call with a skunk

[lesa]

I would say a little of both, Cat! By the time I flung it by its tail- I was just plain tired of messing around with it- what can I say? I don't have too much patience!

 

[dickiebird]

I've only trapped one skunk, and it was by mistake, I was after racoons.
I was using BBQ pork steaks for the bait, and I guess skunks and racoons both like BBQ.
My wife won't let me kill wildlife so they are placed in the bed of my old PU and hauled a few miles away across the Big River and released in a wooded park.
Well I wasn't going to touch the trap with the varmint in it so I got my "tree hugging, owl kissing" wife to cover the trap with a tarp, we put a long pipe through the handle in the top of trap and gently placed the trap in the PU bed.
When we arrived at the park I opened the tail gate, slid the trap out, removed the tarp and she opened the door on the trap...all the time talking to Mr Le Pew.
He scampered out of the trap and out into the woods.
No muss no fuss!!!!

THANX RICH

 

[catjac1975]

My husband used to relocate them too. We found out that is illegal to do. At least here it is.

 

[thistlebloom]

Owls are one of the few predators that will hunt and eat skunks, they have no smelling ability.

Sled dogs love them too. There are a lot of funny stories about mushers on training runs with their team and the whole group getting skunk ADD and tearing off course to capture and devour one.

Not so funny for the skunk I guess.

 

[MontyJ]

We have a skunk living somewhere nearby. A few weeks ago I found three yellow jacket nests in the ground while I was cutting the grass. I just left them alone. Sunday afternoon, I discovered that the largest one had been dug up and mostly destroyed. There's only one animal around here that's brazen enough to do that. If it moves on, fine. If it decides to stick around, I have a special concoction that will kill it in seconds, with no spraying. I don't like to use "coon juice" but I will if I have too.
Dew and I once had a raccoon invasion. On the advice of an old farmer who gave me the recipe, I made a batch of "coon juice" and set it out. I killed 14 raccoons and one opossum in just a few days. The stuff kills them so fast, I never found one more than a few feet from the pan, and many times I found them with their face still in the pan!
It works on 'coons, opossum, skunks, probably even a full grown bear, and will certainly kill a dog (though I have never killed a dog with it, and would never attempt too). It will not work on cats, deer, rabbits, squirrels, or groundhogs, because they won't drink it.
The stuff is so scary that I now only use it as a very last resort. I'll try trapping the skunk first and shooting it from a safe distance with a .22 if it continues to hang around.

 

[Christina E.]

I'm always afraid of getting sprayed by a skunk! what would happen, and would you start vomiting? close up skunk smell is not as pleasant as far away smell. My friends house got sprayed and it left this orange residue that didn't wash off. they had to replace that section of their siding even after washing it because it still smelled like skunk for months after it was sprayed.

 

[Christina E.]

@MontyJ , what is in "coon juice" it sounds really bad!

 

[MontyJ]

I won't share the ingredients or recipe online. It's a concentrated cholinesterase inhibitor...a nerve agent in other words. It's very scary stuff and I would bet it's illegal to make. I always hated using it because I was nervous about spilling it on myself. I was afraid it would be absorbed through the skin, which it probably would.
Fortunately, it appears my skunk has moved on. The other two yellow jacket nests are alive and well.

 

[Smart Red]

Thank you, MontyJ. I am sure someone who is determined enough could do their own research and find the recipe, but we don't need it here.

 

[MontyJ]

Thank you, MontyJ. I am sure someone who is determined enough could do their own research and find the recipe, but we don't need it here.

Not a chance Red. I have googled it many times in every variation I could think of and got nothing. As I said, this recipe was given to me by another farmer. I think he may have stumbled upon it by accident. It consists of common, easily purchased ingredients nobody would ever think of combining. I have never posted the recipe or ingredients online, and never will. It's just to dangerous. I believe atropine would be antidotal, but if you had an accident, you wouldn't have time to get a dose I don't need or want that on my conscience.