A Skunk Is Making Me It's Bitch

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High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Feb 6, 2016 - 11:40am PT
Escopeta, thanks for the reply.

So one more question, it's still more or less the same one but now w more clarity. Do the slots in the box play a role somehow (eg, to hold the iron trap some way)? and/or is the iron trap simply placed on the ground in front of the wooden box? Thanks again. Just curious is all.

Here's more or less your iron trap type. Right?


When I had a couple, I just placed them horizontally on the ground. Isn't that the (only) way? With bits of food in the center?
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 6, 2016 - 12:54pm PT
Yes that is essentially the trap. I use a different type trigger system but that's it's. The slots on the box allow for the trap to be set back further into the opening.

Not only do the slots serve the purpose of holding the trap but also allows the trap to be recessed into the box which greatly reduces the likelihood of an incidental catch.

While perhaps back in the day you might just put the trap down with some bait, that type of action would be summarily panned by a modern trapper. The goal is to trap your target animal so using appropriate bait combined with proper technique is critical. Just laying a trap like this on the ground would be irresponsible and is not even something I would do on my own private property. YOMV

Like everything, the use of traps is managed, outlawed, regulated, or otherwise controlled so the rules and best practices vary by state.

Here is today's catch. A very, very large male skunk with outstanding fur. in addition to saving countless ground nesting eggs, he will become a part of a pair of atv mittens for my wife.

Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 6, 2016 - 12:57pm PT
Now that I re-read your question, I think taking a picture of the setup without a catch blocking the view would prove instructional. Will prob have to wait till tomorrow but will do.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Feb 6, 2016 - 05:02pm PT
Thanks again, Escopeta.

I researched it and have it figured out, I think. For the most part.

For example, I googled bridger body gripper traps.

Happy skunking!
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 6, 2016 - 07:07pm PT
Right. You will find the traps referred to as Conibear or BodyGrip trap.
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2016 - 10:01pm PT
Turnabout's Fair Play

To be a skunk trapped in a trap
You'll shiver and when you hear the snap
Likely I'll be not as I wish
A lowly snail that I had squished...

-bushman
02/06/2016
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 28, 2016 - 10:08am PT
Bushman 2, Skunks 0

Caught another skunk Friday night and discovered it there yesterday. Wire cage humane trap with tarp covering it for secure tunnel feel is getting them and bacon or cat food both work so far.

Move slow and keep the tarp on the trap and they won't spray even while loading and transporting. It was nerve wracking the first time and I thought that the skunk would spray during the eviction. But last night after relocating another stinky friend it felt easier.

Drove 12 miles away with my odoriferous passenger in the back of the pickup and let him out of the trap on the side of a backroad in the boonies near the Consumnes River (my new skunk release location). Carefully, slowly opened the back of the trap and after two minutes he realized it was open and was off like the wind, no muss no fuss. Better than shooting them or gassing them, or dealing with their spray, I think.

Bye bye for now Pepé...
ec

climber
ca
Feb 28, 2016 - 01:42pm PT
Don't want to really admit any relation, but some cousin-in-laws had some skunkies residing under their house. One of them, the 'great hunter' got out his rifle and kilt dem all from the crawl space opening. Of course, this was not without a tremendous 'outpouring of grief' from the skunkies' bladders. The interior of the house wreaked worse than when they were alive. So, brilliantly, he placed a sleeping bag over the old-school floor heater to block the smell...Frickin' burned down the house while they were out of the house the next day. 'Fixed that problem for good!

 ec
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
Feb 28, 2016 - 02:08pm PT
We can learn so many wonderful things on this forum.

This place is better than Wikipedia.
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 28, 2016 - 06:16pm PT
Bushman,

There is a reason why most professional firms are forbidden by law to release a skunk alive.

I'm up to 12 in 15 days.

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 28, 2016 - 07:18pm PT
There is a reason why most professional firms are forbidden by law to release a skunk alive.

It's the wildlife version of school busing.
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 28, 2016 - 08:07pm PT
There is a reason why most professional firms are forbidden by law to release a skunk alive.

It's the wildlife version of school busing.

Well, yes, there's that.

But in reality, skunks, foxes, coons and groundhogs are all rabies vector animals (animals that can carry but not exhibit signs of rabies) So they are normally dispatched in an effort to reduce the possibility of spreading rabies unknowingly. Oh, and bats too.
Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Feb 28, 2016 - 09:10pm PT
I find myself in agreement with Escopeta.

Ever since we "enjoyed" the "drunk" skunk who emerged mid-afternoon back in 1991 to join our first party with guests here in Choss Creek, I have known rabid skunks are endemic in the rural (and likely urban) west.

A few years back a teenaged girl was bit by a rabid skunk in a nearby rural town. (we have speculated on how a teenaged girl could be approached and then bit by a rabid skunk, but the news articles did not share details.)

I tell you, shoot them, just behind the head, to break the spinel cord, and they won't spray-------if your shot is just right.

And don't hug your hopefully vaccinated dog for a few days after it kills a skunk, and don't lick your hands after handling dead wild creatures.
JohnnyG

climber
Feb 29, 2016 - 07:50am PT
have you tried ammonia soaked rags in the skunk's burrow?

I had one living under my porch, used this trick as suggested by Boulder Animal Control, and never saw the skunk again
Although trapping is kind of cool.

-J


p.s. anyone know how to get squirrels out of my attic?
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 29, 2016 - 08:16am PT
p.s. anyone know how to get squirrels out of my attic?

Shoot em in the face!

No, seriously, you can trap squirrels too. Probably easier than skunks.

Two schools of thought here, one is you can simply nail a good old rat trap to a tree, bait it with peanut butter, and you will find yourself with a dead squirrel. Use the victor rat traps with the yellow square pan/treadle - not the little metal jobber.

Other way is with a cage trap, sold at just about any farm and home store, baited similarly.

But honestly, if you don't spend the time to find out where they are coming or going, you will find yourself in a demented version of groundhog day.

Or, you can use this. Which happens to be my preferred method.

http://www.airforceairguns.com/TalonSS-s/38.htm
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Feb 29, 2016 - 12:40pm PT
Sighted that puppy in today after a barrel change.

I think its ready for some squirrel work. 5 shot group
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 29, 2016 - 05:18pm PT
So I'm supposed to shoot the skunk in the back of the head while it's trapped in the cage?

I just have a hard time bringing myself to doing it. My wife says I'm getting too soft hearted. When I first moved out here I had a neighbor that was so horrible most of the rest of us in the neighborhood have been waiting for her to die. She looks like she's dead already and I even wrote a poem about her called 'The Murdering Old Whore.'

Well she's not dead yet, but I have often thought about building a pumpkin mortar and firing dead skunks and possums into the air across the road to try and drop one down her chimney. Might make a good use for dead skunks after all if I can bring myself to shoot them.
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Aug 17, 2016 - 05:48pm PT
Ho it is so long ago,
now when I drive down a very busy street,
that has grown traffic lights,
I smell skunk,.... No road kill insight?
Hey I know that smell.. sniff ,,,, N'big sifffffph?
oh, hell, its someones vented attic grow......









To Cute by half, (In french though) = trop mignon moitié













[Click to View YouTube Video]
Tom

Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
Aug 18, 2016 - 05:10am PT
So I'm supposed to shoot the skunk in the back of the head while it's trapped in the cage

No.

You are supposed to administer what the D.O.C. should be using when the court hands down an order of humane execution of an especially obnoxious malcreant:

CARBON MONOXIDE

thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Aug 18, 2016 - 05:15am PT
Mothballs, bags of 'em, dumped directly into the burrow worked for me.
Messages 61 - 80 of total 83 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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