Get rid of skunks

[Jim Laumann]

Skunks, 'Coons, stray (feral) cats get lead poisoning.....after first visiting my live traps

'Coons and cats get a .22 in the head, skunks get a 3" .410 loaded w/ #6 shot. Work well, you need to make sure you hit the skunks head/spine to disable the nervous system.

[Jim Andrew]

I have caught skunks in live traps, when was planning to catch coons. The trick with the tarp is to grab it by the corners, holding the tarp in front of you when you put it over the live trap. I got a pellet gun, pump up type, that will do a good job if you are worried about disturbing the neighbors.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Crossin the highway late last night, He should have looked left and he should of looked right, he didn't see that big stations wagon car and skunk got squashed and now there you are..... Loudon Wainwright III

[Kev Williams]

My llamas and alpacas would be setting it off all day on purpose. All I have to do is get out a hose and they come running and crowd around me.

JKJ

[Dave Zellers]

I LOVE it!

[Jerome Stanek]

When my dad was young he would catch skunks for their pelts. He said that if you grab their tails and keep their hind legs from grabbing anything they can not spray

[John K Jordan]

When my dad was young he would catch skunks for their pelts. He said that if you grab their tails and keep their hind legs from grabbing anything they can not spray

Is that like putting salt on a birds tail? If you can get close enough to the skunk to grab it's tail please post a video. I would love to see that!

[Jerome Stanek]

He would trap them

[Phillip Gregory]

All of a sudden I have 2 or 3 skunks around the place.
Any idea how to discourage them from hanging around the place?

Keep any and all pet or livestock food out of reach. The person who puts out a bowl of cat food on their back step to feed their outdoor cat or the stray that wanders around just attracts a ton of skunks, raccoons, and possums.

If you need to get rid of them, trapping them in a raccoon-sized trap and then dispatching them is the most effective way to do so. Live traps work well to catch them but then you have a live skunk caught in your trap and you will get sprayed in the process of dispatching it. A leg hold trap is easier as you can approach them from a distance and shoot them. You can use a typical .22 rimfire (Long Rifle) but it won't die before it sprays everywhere unless you are a really good shot and hit it right in the head. I'd recommend using a shotgun with #4s or so as that would immediately and easily dispatch the skunk. A varmint round from a centerfire rifle would work well too but you'd need to be much more careful about your backdrop.

[John K Jordan]

I caught another skunk yesterday outside one of my peacock cages.

Good advice about the pet food. I leave no pet food out but the skunks are attracted to peacock and guinea eggs and feed that always gets scattered around the feeders. One skunk dug under a building wall and destroyed several peacock eggs and killed and ate half a young peahen (female peacock) - since a young peacock represents months of care and $100 or more when sold this irritated me. I've since added concrete to the base of the wall and trapped skunks outside the enclosures.

As mentioned before, I always catch skunks in a live trap then submerge the trap in water. I've done this many times and not one has sprayed.

Leg-hold traps are not practical here due to the danger to my barn cats and visiting neighbor's cats, and to my livestock and free-range fowl. Also, people who live in some areas such as inside a city may be unable to discharge firearms but could use the water method. Dispatching with a 22 point-blank is safe and easy for non-skunks in a live trap but I wouldn't try it with a skunk. I started using the water method after learning it from a pest removal professional.

Now if I could figure out a reliable way to catch rabbits we could feed a lot of people - we are overrun with them this year. Mowing the horse pasture yesterday I scattered several more batches of young, old enough to run fast across the field. The good thing is they seem to be satisfying the local hawk population. This is the first year I haven't lost a single guinea or chicken to a hawk.

One thing: to avoid catching cats in a live trap I bait with peanut butter and eggs.

JKJ

Keep any and all pet or livestock food out of reach. The person who puts out a bowl of cat food on their back step to feed their outdoor cat or the stray that wanders around just attracts a ton of skunks, raccoons, and possums.

If you need to get rid of them, trapping them in a raccoon-sized trap and then dispatching them is the most effective way to do so. Live traps work well to catch them but then you have a live skunk caught in your trap and you will get sprayed in the process of dispatching it. A leg hold trap is easier as you can approach them from a distance and shoot them. You can use a typical .22 rimfire (Long Rifle) but it won't die before it sprays everywhere unless you are a really good shot and hit it right in the head. I'd recommend using a shotgun with #4s or so as that would immediately and easily dispatch the skunk. A varmint round from a centerfire rifle would work well too but you'd need to be much more careful about your backdrop.