So We have a porch that we started building a roof over to screen it in last year, but ran out of money. Just today we smelled the strong scent of skunk, and my wife says she sees a skunk hanging out in the well of our cellar window that is under the porch. What can be done to catch this critter without being sprayed.
I don't mind the smell of skunk, but I don't want to be sprayed either.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Chris
We've speculated if this ever happened we'd be trying to encourage it out with the spray nozzle on our garden hose- would let us stay a good ways away while still hopefully being effective at getting the thing to move.
We had one in our yard a few weeks ago that our dog found and tried to mess with. THAT was not a fun night- he only now has finally stopped smelling at all like skunk...
Not a shotgun.
Animal control down here will take care of nuisance animals.
Just start the Porch and drive it somewheres else! Duh!
Put mothballs in an old sock and chuck it in there. The skunks will move outta there pretty quick.
Kia_Racer wrote: Animal control down here will take care of nuisance animals.
Not here, at least according to the county/city's website. We'd have to hire a company to take care of it were we ever to not be able to handle it ourselves.
That belongs to the skunk now.
Well update time. I shot the skunk with my pellet gun. I didn't kill him with one shot and it pissed him off pretty good. I didn't get sprayed but he did spray while under the porch. The whole house smells like skunk and we are having a party tomorrow for our sons birthdays. Any ideas on how to get the smell out?
Chris
Fire. 
Next time use a bigger gun.
Probably not mothballs.
Haha. Actually from what I understand you can bait them pretty easily with some smelly food put further away from the house at night.
Yeah I'm a frickin idiot!!!
You could try soaking the porch in tomato juice
It might be time to make reservations elsewhere for the birthday parties.
Bait them out with cat food, then either trap and release or steer them toward your least favorite neighbor's yard.
You bait them out specifically with wet catfood then hopefully see a cage match between them and a possum over the catfood.
Only one? My sister had 9 under her house two summers ago. That house stank like you wouldn't believe. They all had to be shot one by one over a period of a couple weeks. One day all three of her kids were sent home from school because they stank so bad. And none of them were even sprayed.
Many years ago we had to shoot a skunk on our front proch that had become entangled in a hockey net. All we had was a pellet gun. That did not go well and I know what you are going though. All of your little guest ARE going to smell like skunk tomorrow!
Myself, I would have places a set of speakers over the window well and blared some nasty rock and roll with a lot of bass.
Course, I also know from experience that the mothballs work just fine. but that's boring.
Shotgun, aim for the head, dispose of body quickly.
FWIW, live traps made from skunks keep them from spraying by being too short for them to lift their tails and spray.
When my father was a kid my grandfather made a living off raising skunks, raccoons, and bobcats for pet stores. I think my dad said he was over 20 generations into the skunks when he died and they pretty much all behaved like house cats.
Here's how the local animal guy did it at my Dad's house:
Set up a normal wire cage animal trap, skunk sized. Capture skunk. Approach trapped skunk carefully while holding up large sheet of clear plastic. Skunk did not spray (possibly because of the theory presented earlier about the cage being small enough to prevent it?). Wrap plastic around skunk/cage. Remove.
The problem then becomes what to do with it at that point. I asked the guy, and he provided the simple politically correct response of "We have to kill them" but wouldn't elaborate on just HOW. I imagine the reverse procedure of the above could be done somewhere and a proper ballistic item inserted into it's body.
Goodwill Ghetto blaster keeps the critters away. Does not need to be turned up loud.
ddavidv wrote: Here's how the local animal guy did it at my Dad's house: Set up a normal wire cage animal trap, skunk sized. Capture skunk. Approach trapped skunk carefully while holding up large sheet of clear plastic. Skunk did not spray (possibly because of the theory presented earlier about the cage being small enough to prevent it?). Wrap plastic around skunk/cage. Remove. The problem then becomes what to do with it at that point. I asked the guy, and he provided the simple politically correct response of "We have to kill them" but wouldn't elaborate on just HOW. I imagine the reverse procedure of the above could be done somewhere and a proper ballistic item inserted into it's body.
I have accidentally live trapped two skunks and have done a modified version of the above method.
I used an old blanket and slowly approached the cage while a buddy watched the skunk from a safe distance. With the blanket spread out I was able to walk right up to the trap and cover it. The skunk stayed calm during the process.
At this point it's ether lead poisoning or relocation. I don't have a beef with the skunks, I'm after the groundhogs... so I moved the trap to my 4x8 trailer and relocated the animal.
My traps are set up with ten foot of rope to remotely open the doors. Obviously the rope must be in place and you must be well practiced in opening the doors from a distance.
In any case, once the trap door was opened the skunk ran off without looking back.
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