Skunks... should they stay or should they go?

I caught one in a livetrap here about two weeks ago. I was trying to catch a feral tomcat, I should have known better than setting the trap within 25 yards of the house. I shot that skunk right between the eyes with a .22. He didn’t spray, but he “leaked” a little bit. I got him and the trap away from the house ASAP. I threw him in the woods a couple hundred yards away. When the wind is right, I can still catch a whiff.

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@Hillbillyhort - I have a Trapping Book… S. Stanley Hawbaker and Sons… that I bought in 1977 or so when in HighSchool… all kinds of tips on trapping, lures, sets, even advice on how to kill a skunk without spraying.

He says that a heart shot is your best bet to take a skunk down without spraying.

I have done that successfully myself… with 22 pistol - which I always carried when trapping.

Head and spine shots will occasionally work too… but I shot a big striped skunk in my backyard one night, at about 30 yards with my 17 HMR… there was literally no brain left once that super fast tiny bullet did it’s thing… but the tail went up and spray he did.

That was the last one I killed with a rifle.

With a 12 ga shotgun (mine is 30" full choke), and 5 or 6 shot (a good turkey load)… at about 15 yards, if you make a dead on shot, you are going to get brain, spine, heart, everything. I have had the best luck at kills with no spray with that.

Once shot I just leave them until the next morning, and take my manure fork (which I use for turning my compost pile)… long handle… I take it out and scoop him up, and keep him on the down wind side of me, while I take him quickly… way off, downwind of our house to dispose.

That has worked best for me.

TNHunter

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I used to have a compost skunk and we got along great and he mainly lived out of my compost and slept in between my neighbor and I’s fence. A few nights I would go toss food at him then I would scream and he would hand stand up and everything was fine. He did eat a few bees but not many (they will sting in the eyes) and definitely ate on rodents and grubs and veggies from the compost.

Never got any of my dogs or the wife or I but after some of my dogs passed I ended up getting this black and white cat that would troll my cat by sitting against the window or sliding glass door. Well one night the skunk was doing his deed and she was just on one and she got outside and b lines it for the skunk jumps over the fence and then we just hear these awful cat sounds :joy::rofl: (she got sprayed after cheap shotting the skunk). So then I had to glove up and wash her.

Sadly after four years we assume it passed or moved on and no skunks moved back in to replace them. Our city skunks are different than your rural skunks as they are essentially the apex predator and have a calm confident fire.

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Well, at least the apex predators with brains tend to leave them alone. The perfect defense is not predatory. :grinning:

But it certainly takes the edge off when you have one going for you.

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My favorite skunk memory is being downtown and everyone is waiting in line at this club and this skunk just handstands his way through this huge crowd and everyone runs and yells and he calmly walks past while people run into the road :joy:

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I vote for go, simply because of the rabies angle. We have a small farm and years ago our dog killed a skunk, skunk was checked and had rabies. All our cats and kittens were put down. The bulk of the cattle, thankfully, were gone already to pasture but we were quarantined for 6 months, not allowed to get new cats, and not allowed to sell calves or cattle. Not trying to fear monger but I won’t have a skunk on the place since.

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While skunks are the principal wildlife rabies reservoir species here (I performed fluorescent-antibody testing for Rabies, as part of my day job, for 25 years; in other areas of the country, raccoons, foxes, etc. may predominate), I have kind of a live-and-let live relationship with them. Only when they dig in and take residence under the tackroom in the barn (making it REEK of skunk) do I go out of my way to attempt to trap them and take them swimming.

Last one I caught was nearly 3 years ago… pitched him into the gully where we pile all logs, prunings, etc., just below the pond here, near the house. I can still catch a whiff of him, even today, when I’m working in that area. You wanna get them FAR away from the house, when you’re disposing of the carcass.

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