Close Skunk

filipows

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2014
Messages
129
Reaction score
71
Location
Eastern Washington
Does any one here have information on how to dispatch a skunk in a live trap and NOT have it spray?
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
They make a commercial wire trap, that is small enough the skunk cannot raise it's tail to spray you. But large enough for him to get inside. Then you can use your own ingenuity on how to get him "out of the cage".
 
OR, get upwind, and shoot him with a pellet or 22 rifle. :D

In the head.

Or what animal control did in the burb I use to live it. Carefully cover the cage with a blanket or cloth you will not use again. Carfully get it to a body or water and put it in and drown it. This works well most time, but only MOST times. One of my wife’s best friends was a control officer and this is first hand info from her!
 
As "Gaffer" stated above, cover the trap. Gently pick the trap up and either place it in the bed of a pickup truck or, better yet, on a bumper cargo carrier. Towards evening (if possible), take it to a location far removed from your home and after placing the trap on the ground, uncover it and open the door. The skunk will walk away on its own. Absolutely no need or reason at all to kill it. Why is it that everyone just wants to kill, kill, kill?!!?
 
Good advice. I've trapped several skunks and moved them to a reservoir with a bridge they can't cross. They are good animals generally so no need to kill them.

In approaching the trapped animal keep the blanket covering your feet and face so the skunk can't see you. Talk gently to it while covering and it will not spray.
 
The spray when one dies is a misty green that rises like all enveloping fog - ask me and my dog how we know...........


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
terrible to kill it. Everything wants to live. Leave no food or water out, they love bird seed as much as the birds.
 
I shot one several winters ago my wife cleaned up the mess
sk2.jpg


sk1.jpg
 
Good advice. I've trapped several skunks and moved them to a reservoir with a bridge they can't cross. They are good animals generally so no need to kill them.

In approaching the trapped animal keep the blanket covering your feet and face so the skunk can't see you. Talk gently to it while covering and it will not spray.

this is true, I can vouch for this.
God knows it took a lot of vodka before I first tried it though.

As for dispatching them ... theres no real good way here.
Head shots don't work. They spray less, but less spray is still spray.

It is better to drown them by submerging the live trap in a 55 gallon drum.

this leads into .. the rest of the story.
so my mother calls for me to deal withe the wood kitten she live trapped, but didn't fully think things through.
well we happened to have a 55 gallon drum full of water, unfortunately, it also had a few large rocks in the bottom as well, which prevented the live trap from being fully submerged.

Picture if you will, hours later, removing the blanket to see Flower treading water in the very corner of the cage, affording it about an inch of breathing room.

well back to the headshot method ....
A 22 pistol ended the drama and created more.
Picture if you will ... a young man with a 22 in hand, trying to think of people remaining on his must get even with list, having realized that he just created a 55 drum full of eternal stench.

The story ends there, the rest is classified
 
Head shots work but they work slowly. The skunk will still spray. If you have to shoot one, shoot it in the back. This will sever the nerves that activate the muscles needed for the tail to raise. Then shoot it in the head.
 
On a road trip back home last week I passed 6 dead Skunks and I just could not believe how far their stink carried and how strong the odor was. I could not even think about shooting one unless I was moving!
 
A few cvc's of acetone is a quick end almost always without spraying. You can make or buy a skunk pole.
 
I have never figured out just which animal has the gall to bite one, and therefore pass on rabies.

Our family ranch dog when I was a kid absolutely hated skunks (or should I say loved to kill them). She would kill at least 2-3 a year so needless to say she smelled most of the time. She was smart enough to figure out a routine of rolling in mud and swimming in creek to actually make it tolerable. We kind of got used to the low-level skunk smell most of the time (I don't think the other kids on the school bus ever did). Now when I smell skunk it brings back powerful happy childhood memories!
 
I was staying at grandma's as a kid and they was a skunk in the hen house. My uncle Norman told me to reach in a grab him by the tail, as he said "If you got him by the tail it takes his shooter out of gear." I was about nine at the time and reached in and grabbed the skunk by the tail and was hauling him out a snarlin and spittin, uncle Norman was laughin and tellin me to throw him off into the bushes, the skunk got heavy and when I hauled back to heave him into the bushes he got ahold of my leg. I forgot to add that all the while this was a goin on grandma's old shepard dog Sneaky was a barkin and jumpin around, uncle Norman was laughin so hard he was spillin his cup of shine. So when that old skunk got a good grab on my leg he managed to brace real good and really let me have it, full bore...I don't remember it actually blinding me but I do remember just wanting to get shed of him. Me an ole Sneaky ate a few meals out on the porch, try as she might grandma could not get that stink off me and the dog. She tried some homemade canned maters and juice but nothing seemed to work, she thought uncle Norman should have ate with us but he was always her favorite.
Odd thing is after that spraying episode I have never really minded the smell of skunk, in fact I love the first smell of skunk in the very early part of spring...its a good sign that critters are up and about and hopeful winter is over.
Skunks are amazing mouse catchers, if you have one in the area you will never see a mouse or snake for that matter, they are just one of the critters some folks consider varmints that I have never had a problem with...If I kept chickens around I might feel different.
 
Back
Top