So about a week ago I saw some tracks in the snow..., and I am still pretty sure they were rabbit tracks leading up to the hedge in front of my house next to my front porch.

SO..., today at 06:00 I am leaving the house for work and I open the front door a WOOOOOF what a stink! I mean a heavy skunk smell, and as there was a light northern breeze..., a very very recent skunk smell.

So I pulled out my LED flashlight and my sidearm and looked around for a minute but didn't see the skunk. The smell lingered a good long time, so I don't know if I now have a skunk moving in around or near the base of the house, or if a skunk encountered a cat in front of my house and got spooked and sprayed. GAH! I could barely breathe.

Well... if the wife and my son mention the smell when my son leaves for school today... it being two hours after I smelled the stink..., then it definately sprayed and might be moving in nearby.



LD

Skunks don't stink unless they spray. They only spray in self-defense. So, my guess would be that your skunk encountered a dog or a cat sometime during the early morning hours.

Skunks are omnivors and will eat just about anything. They can be as good or better mousers than a cat. However, they also raid chicken houses to steal eggs, and sometimes kill a chicken. I often see them around here, digging in lawns after grubs.

They are notorious carriers of rabies, however, so beware if you see one that seems to be acting strange.

Great Horned Owls are a major predator of skunks. The stink doesn't seem to bother the owls. The owls eat the skunks regardless of the stench.

There was a time when skunk oil was actually used in the manufacture of lady's perfume. Of course ambergris, which is basically whale vomit, was also used to make perfume. UGH!

Rancocas,"Stink" is a relative term....We have skunks that make regular patrols through our property,and you can generally tell where they are by the progression of "stink".When they spray,in self defense,is where you get the overwhelming stench that lingers.Skunks are generally easy going,sometimes eating out of the same bowls,at the same time as cats.I have an acquaintance that got rid of his "doggy door" because a skunk invited itself in to see where his friend hung out.The Lady of The House was less than amused.....

Here's a picture for you.....Imagine trying to gently,and calmly,convey to a skunk standing in your kitchen looking quizzically at you,that he wasn't welcome,while your wife is going hysterical in the other room......

If the "smell" is faint it was there,,if you faint something riled him up and he marked it.My dog went out one morning,got real close,took the entire blast right in the chest.See him running to the house,so I opened the door,inside and upstairs,,to late did I realize why he was running so fast...difficult to figure how an animal is so pretty and smells so bad!!!!!I shared a ground blind, in a spruce thicket, with one afew years ago,didnt see him when I got in,heard something,turned and there he was,,that was the start of a very long day.Skunks for the most part are night timers!!!!!Cute when they sleep at your feet....

...smell that smell it ain't no rose, roll up yer window an' hold yer nose... ha! you can tell it's really fresh (or close by?) when you don't really smell it but somehow your other senses detect it as an actual physical presence. In other words, WOW!!!! It is very hard to unlock a door and turn the knob fast enough to escape.

Caught one in a live trap some time back. There it was, peaceful as the rosy dawn, curled up like your favorite cat on the couch. Early morning. Sunday morning. By the church . . .

Visions of young'uns running by . . . infuriated parents . . . general suffocation inside the sanctuary . . . Hadda get it out of there!

God helped this preacher with a b'ar onct . . . maybe He might with a skunk? Don't reckon He's skeered of his own creation---is he? Gulp!

Got down on my knees (that had to help!) and began crawling silently up to the cage. Its head was pointed t'other way, eyes shut. Big ol' cage. Big ol' door on it. A feather falling to earth couldn't have been as quiet as me. The beat of a wren's wing would be thunderous compared to my terrified sneaking. Ever closer . . . the skunk must've weighed 80 pounds . . . and growing as I came nearer, nearer. I allowed as to how he carried enough stink oil in him to fill a number 3 washtub. Or a butter churn. But I might've had the big eye.

The thing was so peaceful I began to love it. Suddenly wished I could take it home. Pretty as a peach. Then I re-remembered things, and the bind I was in if it all . . . uh . . . blew up on me.

Couldn't believe it when it never twitched while I softly lifted the door back up through it's slot and wedged it open. And backed away quicker than I'd gone in---kinda like the Philistines runnin' from the Israelites after David kilt Goliath.

The pretty little feller woke, stretched, looked blearily around, and shambled out the door like it had been his plan all along. Made me feel like I hadn't needed to sneak and sweat after all. Now I wanted to grab it up and hug it.

Thing is, I couldn't smell it at all. No odor whatever---and believe me, I was doin' some powerful sniffin'. Silent like, so it wouldn't wake up and think a hound nearly had it by it's tail.

Smelled as clean as a rabbit to me. Don't know the whys of it . . .

Skunkwhisperer'Sticks

I catch then in a Live trap.then cover the trap with a blanket,in the dark they remain calm,cant see me,Put the cage in the bed of the truck and take the skunk for a ride out back in the woods,Open the door, prop it open and out walks the skunk,looks back and wonders off,Never a by you leave or any agressive moves ever,
Now if you get a racoon and try the same,well now that is another story for another time....

My Dad once told me a story about his old trapping days. It was sometime back during the Great Depression. Dad was a teenager then, and he trapped and did whatever he could to help out the family.

Anyway, Dad had some leghold traps set in some holes in the side of a roadside dirt bank. He had caught a very lively skunk and Dad was holding the trap chain and jerking it around to keep the skunk aimed away from him while he manuevered to bash it in the head.

Just then a car came past, and the skunk fired a salvo. The stream of stink juice hit the side of that car!

Being winter, the car windows were closed. The people inside probably didn't realize what had happened as they kept on driving away. But, I'll bet they figured it out soon enough!

'Schticks,
Now you were THAT close to taking that story into the tall tale type. I know you could've done it and it would have been a right amusing story...if you hadn't jerked yourself back to reality.
Shame. Now you go sit in the corner until you dream up a good tall tale from that story.
And get it written. I could use a good story and olefart doesn't grace our pages with them anymore.
It's YOUR turn. I am waiting.
León

I've moved quite a few skunks as described by Walking Crow, my wife has handled more than I have that way. Most often had a rope tied to the handle and threw them in the river to soak for bit before shaking them out of the trap. Used a piece of tarp. If it's not stiff material and they can get ahold of it they can pull a surprising amount through the mesh of the wire trap. In case some of you wish to chew me out for killing them, I am a bird hunter and in the strip habitat of farm land small predators can dramatically reduce nesting success. Also, if one is living under the porch, or house, a 120 conibear will usually kill them without them spraying. Will also get cats so take that into consideration. If skunks are a habitual problem don't leave dog or cat food on the porch and plug up any access to places where you don't want them to go. I've been sprayed pretty thoroughly a couple times.

Volie, I thought I stretched it out there pretty far the way it was. Your comment has left me so speechless that I don't reckon I've got any more in me . . .

Frozeup'Sticks

'Schticks,
You have a very creative mind.
Stick your head in the fireplace and unfreeze it, haw, haw!
volie

Well my boy smelled it about five houses down from us on his way to school about an hour and a half later. So either it encountered another critter..., maybe a fox..., or maybe it was right at the front door when I unlocked the door and that noise scared it. Anyway the smell didn't linger, and it hasn't been back so...

LD

I used skunk scent when I trapped coyotes. It will sure draw them to a leghold trap. I got used to the smell after usin' it for a while, but my then wife could smell it on me! Maybe that's why she is an ex!!

quote:

Originally posted by Jeremiah/Az:
I used skunk scent when I trapped coyotes. It will sure draw them to a leghold trap. I got used to the smell after usin' it for a while, but my then wife could smell it on me! Maybe that's why she is an ex!!

Using some skunk in coyote lure is especially effective in winter, as the skunk smell will carry out when some other odors do not.

If you ever kill one and want to skin it, have good lighting so you can see what you are doing. DAMHIK

If that critter is staying under your porch, a strong light will discourage him. Just a bare 100W bulb left on for a day or two should do it.