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Thread: Skunk mating season

  1. #1
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    Skunk mating season

    Boy will I be glad when it's over. For the last week or so we've been woken up at least once each night by the screeching. Actually, it wakes Golda, our dog, and she "warns" us by barking her fool head off and asking to go out to play with the funny cats. There is at least one female who (I think) doesn't want to mate (maybe too young) because soon after the screeching, the unmistakable odor wafts it's way indoors. I understand that when a female doesn't want to mate she will spray her pursuer to give him the message. (Even my teenage self would have got that message!). One night I was out with Golda so she could do her business when there was a screech and two skunks rounded the corner, one in hot pursuit of the other, and barreled right toward us. Fortunately, they were as surprised to see us as we them and they veered away, and I was able to shove Golda back inside before there was trouble.

    I love living in the woods with all the wildlife around, but could do without the skunks.
    --I had my patience tested. I'm negative--

  2. #2
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    IIRC from my childhood, skunks are French. Perhaps you could lure them away with some escargot and a nice Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2009??

  3. #3
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    Good idea, but I find we are fresh out of both of those
    --I had my patience tested. I'm negative--

  4. #4
    Crossing the highway late one night
    he shoulda looked left, he shoulda looked right
    he didn't see that staion wagon car
    the skunk got squashed
    and now there you are

    you got your dead skunk in the middle......... by Loudon Wainwright. 1970 I believe.

  5. #5
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    Northern MN
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    We have a dog that is a slow learner re: skunks. One time he got hit three times in one day. Fall is the worst when they're looking for a place to spend the winter. Spring is almost as bad. . .but spring his still 2.5 months away here in northern MN.

    The stuff at the link below is really amazing. Forget all those home remedies with the tomato juice, peroxide, Dawn detergent, etc. -- just buy this. No affiliation, but I ought to be a stockholder at the rate we use it -- always have at least three quarts on the shelf.

    Available from other sellers if you'd like a world with more than one retailer: https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Mirac.../dp/B000NJJKCM

  6. #6
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    I have personal experience with a dog sprayed by a skunk. We washed it with the Dawn, Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda solution and within minutes the odor was completely gone.

    Mix together:

    1 quart of 3-percent hydrogen peroxide (available at any pharmacy)
    1/4 cup baking soda.
    1 teaspoon Dawn liquid dishwashing soap.

    For larger dogs you may need two or more batches to cover the entire dog if necessary.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

    My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul F Franklin View Post
    Boy will I be glad when it's over. For the last week or so we've been woken up at least once each night by the screeching. ....
    I love living in the woods with all the wildlife around, but could do without the skunks.
    Yikes, how could I have missed that??? Living with plenty of skunks around for over 40 years and I've never heard one screech. Or make any kind of sound except for rustling leaves.

    I've caught dozens in live traps, though. And gave a couple the evil eye until they vacated the barn.

    The biggest racket I've heard in my woods turned out to be an owl who somehow got stuck in a tree.

    JKJ

  8. #8
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    In the last two days I’ve seen 10 - 11 skunks hit by cars in my area. Now I know why...
    Joe

  9. #9
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    Hot Springs, VA
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    It is a definitely early mating season for skunks. Every time we going outside - new wave of smell coming to us. Luckily our dog has no interest to investigate source of it.
    Ed.

  10. #10
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    I wonder how they would react to being squirted with a water hose?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    NE Ohio
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    Skunks in the yard are a hot topic on my local social media.

    I'll post here the same warning I do there.

    Before you do anything - and I mean anything - to any fur bearing animal in your state - check the rules and regulations with your state fish and game people.

    There are enormous fines for those that run afoul (no pun intended ) of the laws & they are more than happy to press the issue.

    (PS - at one point, we had a mother and 5 or 6 babies move into our crawl space under the house. I live trapped all of them, then covered the live trap with a blanket - stuck it on the roof of my car & drove it about 10 miles away to a huge park & let them go. A ranger saw me with the empty trap and saw a baby waddle into the brush and gave me a detailed description of what my life (and wallet) would have been like had he shown up a little bit earlier....it was pretty ugly)
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Engelhardt View Post
    .
    Before you do anything - and I mean anything - to any fur bearing animal in your state - check the rules and regulations with your state fish and game people.

    There are enormous fines for those that run afoul (no pun intended ) of the laws & they are more than happy to press the issue.

    Roger that. That's the way it is in TN too, and probably elsewhere. The law here is if you catch a varmint (skunk, raccoon, possum, fox, etc) in a trap you have two options:
    1) Euthanize it (with 22 rifle or whatever)
    2) Release it exactly where you caught it

    One big concern with transporting is related to spreading rabies.

    I often catch skunks animals here on the farm. I usually take destructive critters to the pond and introduce them to scuba diving. The non-skunk animals (including deceased farm animals) accumulate in a spare freezer and are given to the veterinarian school for educational purposes. The neighbor's dogs go back to the neighbor with the request to constrain them. The skunks take a dirt nap. (I mentioned this once before but one evening I set three traps in the corn and the next morning they contained one raccoon and five skunks.

    If I encounter a skunk inside the barn I chase it out. They are easily intimidated if you don't surprise them.

    JKJ

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    ......................................
    If I encounter a skunk inside the barn I chase it out. They are easily intimidated if you don't surprise them.

    JKJ
    That's the key. If they can find an escape route they'll usually take it. I've also read that youngsters are more likely to spray. Apparently it takes a few days for a skunk to 'reload' and older ones know to not waste their 'ammo'.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curt Harms View Post
    That's the key. If they can find an escape route they'll usually take it. I've also read that youngsters are more likely to spray. Apparently it takes a few days for a skunk to 'reload' and older ones know to not waste their 'ammo'.
    The very young will spray when startled. I've very careful around them! I had one spray as I walked past about 20' from the trap. It didn't spray at me but I ran like crazy around to theother side of the barn. Just the scent spreading through the air from 50' away was enough to make my close smell like skunk when I went in the house!

    JKJ

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