Skunks?

[CBR1000rr]

A few days ago we came home from an all day adventure and my back yard smelled like a bunch of skunks got together and had a skunk orgy. I had just assumed my wife's cat had gotten into an epic battle with a skunk and came out a loser.

Well, tonight, I walked out onto the back porch and scared away what I thought was my wife's pet demon. It startled me at first as her demon doesn't usually scurry off. Instead, it sits there starting at me with its dead eyes.

Intrigued, I peeked around the corner and came face to face with a giant skunk. Yes, I ran and jumped on top of my car. Don't judge. Skunks are worse than demons. They look similar and act similar but are equipped with concoction of death that squirts out of their butt.

Once I determined it was safe, I jumped off my car and ran inside to get my rifle. I didn't make it back in time to launch an all out assault. Needless to say, I'm sure it will return now that it has a taste for cat food.

My question to you fine ladies and gentlemen; how do I rid my self of Satan's spawn?

 

[rbane3]

Skunks are pretty beneficial in all factors minus olfactory.

 

[1911ly]

You'll regret shooting that thing anywhere near your house! They come and go around here. My wife's dog decided to tangle with one once. Not fun! Hopefully your cats will scare it off without getting sprayed. Oh, I hit one once with the car about 30 years ago. OMG!! I hate them. But as mention earlier they do have benefits. They like rodents.

 

[Gluemanz28]

A live trap with sardines will do the trick. Once the critter is in the trap a head shot will end the varmint and no smell. I have several in my subdivision due to all the old ladies leaving out cat food. They make a mess of my yard digging for worms and grubs. They have no benefit for me so I will get rid of any and all that I can. My .22 cal Beeman pellet gun does wonders on them and a single head shot takes them out.

Good luck on the hunts.

 

[Brandon]

2 years ago I was riding my bike on a trail and came across a skunk. He was on the edge of the paved part just sniffing around for what plants he wanted to eat or what ever he was doing. He didn't seem to mind at all that I was only a foot or so away ( in front of him).

I know one got hit by a car early last week at one of my bus stops and it stunk for all of last week. I don't think I would shoot it anywhere near your home!

 

[oldpink]

As others have cautioned you, it's really not a good idea to shoot him anywhere near your house, unless you don't mind the stink to be far more magnified and longer lasting than his normal brief defensive burst that you described smelling.
About the cat food, is that to say that your cats are outdoor cats?
If not, then the solution is obvious: relocate the food indoors for a month or so until Pepe Le Pew moves to another location.
If your kitties are outdoor cats, how about moving them indoors temporarily for a similar length of time?
As long as he's not living under your house or attached structures, he won't do you any real harm.

I'm a third-shifter where I work, in a semi-rural large site, and I regularly come close to skunks, and they've always been remarkably hesitant to spray, even on the two occasions when I walked out of a building and accidentally had one a mere yard away.
When the skunks saw me, they glanced back, then waddled away as quickly as a skunk can, which isn't very quick.
There's a reason that they aren't nearly as apt to spray as the less informed would have you believe, and that is because skunks are very poor at defending themselves, with their spray a finite (each skunk has about four or five solid sprays in his glands before he must regenerate over a period of weeks) weapon that they must use judiciously and in only the most dire of circumstances.

My folks had a young skunk that took up residence under their yard barn about fifty yards from their house, and they never bothered him, and he returned the favor.
In fact, they would watch for him each day at dusk to see as he exited his den to go and forage for the evening.
They realized that he was good to have right where he was, because he ate all the mice that had been infesting the barn.
They came to like their free extermination service so much that they actually wish that he were still denned up under that little barn.

This is just my opinion here (guided by experience), but maybe it would be best to just let Pepe alone until he goes elsewhere, with one exception: If you see him roaming around in broad daylight, and especially if you see him acting disoriented, a nearly sure sign of rabies, which is very common with skunks and raccoons in Indiana.
If you see that, it really would be worthwhile to find a way to shoot him (well away from the house!) to prevent him from spreading his infection, especially to your pets.

 

[JettaKnight]

Too bad our first reaction with seeing any animal near our homes is to kill it.


And, am I the only one that kind of likes the smell of skunks? It's so pungent and different...

 

[Mark 1911]

My community is infested with them. There is one street in particular that I smell them in the morning on the way to work, sometimes two or three times a week. Saw a whole family of them in front of a house only about 3 blocks away from my house. This reminds me that I need to call the town and find out if there's something they can do to reduce the numbers. I can't remember ever having this many around.

 

[olhorseman]

Too bad our first reaction with seeing any animal near our homes is to kill it.


And, am I the only one that kind of likes the smell of skunks? It's so pungent and different...

You are not alone. While I personally don't like the smell I have a life long friend that does.

 

[CBR1000rr]

Too bad our first reaction with seeing any animal near our homes is to kill it.


And, am I the only one that kind of likes the smell of skunks? It's so pungent and different...

The reaction to shoot it has nothing to do with killing it because I don't like it. While I was hiding from it, all I could picture was one of my toddlers trying to pet the "stripey cat" and getting sprayed. Then I started thinking about the repercussions of getting sprayed myself. If that were to happen, I would have to take time off of work (I'm in retail sales and I can't be smelling like a skunk at work). None of these scenarios are favourable and could cause many problems financially and socially (for my kids). I never condone killing an animal for fun but I was honestly thinking about the consequences of leaving it to do its thing.

 

[pute62]

Sometimes,it smells like my neighbor has a skunk living in his apartment. It must be popular because people come over at all hours to see it.

 

[oldpink]

The reaction to shoot it has nothing to do with killing it because I don't like it. While I was hiding from it, all I could picture was one of my toddlers trying to pet the "stripey cat" and getting sprayed. Then I started thinking about the repercussions of getting sprayed myself. If that were to happen, I would have to take time off of work (I'm in retail sales and I can't be smelling like a skunk at work). None of these scenarios are favourable and could cause many problems financially and socially (for my kids). I never condone killing an animal for fun but I was honestly thinking about the consequences of leaving it to do its thing.

Your desire not to get sprayed is perfectly reasonable, but you'll practically need to either step on one or corner it to get it to spray at all.
My experience with them (I see them often where I work up pretty close, usually several times a year) is that they are very reluctant to spray, even on the two occasions when I walked out of a building into a dark area and found myself three to six feet away from one.
Remember, their spray is their only real defense, and they have a limited amount of it to use before they have to spend a week or so regenerating it.
Once they've expended it, they're little better at defending themselves than are rabbits.

 

[possumpacker]

if you shoot a skunk and he dont spray your very lucky. the best way is the live cage type trap baited with kittys food. when you find pepe lepew in the trap get a large sheet blanket or tarp and hold it up in front of you walk right up to the trap and lower the cover gently onto the cage , the skunk cant see you behind the cover and wont spray what he cant see, pick up cage and blanket altogether and set it in the back of a pickup and go for a drive in the country. lift blanket and cage together and set on the ground an open the doorgrab blanket and walk away. it may take him awhile to find the door, be patient. ive don this many many times and never had one spray

 

[whiteoak]

I am in agreement with Oldpink, I can remember about 15 - 20 years ago a group of us started to mess with a skunk to see who would get it. Nothing mean just following it and getting in front of it to cut it off. It would get annoyed a bit but never sprayed. You have to really annoy one to get sprayed if they are somewhat accustom to people. It's funny I have a large piece of land covered in woods, on the edge of thousands of acres of wild land, but see more skunks in semi-developed areas like parks than I do out in the more wild lands.

 

[1911ly]

I am in agreement with Oldpink, I can remember about 15 - 20 years ago a group of us started to mess with a skunk to see who would get it. Nothing mean just following it and getting in front of it to cut it off. It would get annoyed a bit but never sprayed. You have to really annoy one to get sprayed if they are somewhat accustom to people. It's funny I have a large piece of land covered in woods, on the edge of thousands of acres of wild land, but see more skunks in semi-developed areas like parks than I do out in the more wild lands.

There was a Mythbusters episode where they put a skunk in a bathroom and got i with it so it would spray them. It didn't go as easily as they though. But I am not pressing my luck! lol