damn, just got startled away by a bump in the night. skunk under my house.

[vash]

3 bumps. thought i was dreaming. grabbed the stinger flashlight, and investigated. poked my head out the back window, and startled a skunk. it runs away from the house, goes around my hedges, does a U-turn, and then head right to me, from the right. then i veers off and ducks through the trapdoor, under my house...i have a skunk(s) living under my house! if he takes a few "test fires" down there, i my house is worth $100. what do i do now?

sorry, in my title...i meant startled awake...not away. very sleepy.

[imcarthur]

Wait until he is out foraging - usually about an hour after dusk & then seal the entrance & hope.

I had one take up residence under my backyard metal shed. It is up on piers at one end & I didn't backfill - at first. Once I realized he was there, I put gravel & dirt all around to seal the entrances. Of course, that was no challenge for him & he made 2 entrances. Then I did the above & waited one night until 11 or so & put rocks all around to foil his digging back in. Surprisingly, it worked. No smell so I assume he was out & I didn't block him in.

Maybe I just got lucky so your results may vary.

Ian

[vash]

yea. i am obsessing about this. OCD. i am going to lay down chalk powder (or flour)today around the entrance. at night, go out see which way the tracks go, and wedge the door if they are only going "out".

or i may hire a dude with live traps. let him carry them away.

[azasadny]

Use a Hav-A-Hart trap and take the skunk (in an open pickup truck bed) to your local Humane Society... chicken bones make good bait!

[3.2 CAB]

Skunk+trap=possible, severe amount of stink on truck and possibly on the trapper. I have not had to deal with a skunk for over 20yrs, and am certainly glad that, hopefully, I won't have to deal with another. It was not the best of outcomes that last time. It appears that skunks are high on the list of rabid animals. I don't know why they seem to get rabies more than other smaller mammals, just lucky, I guess. That last one I had to deal with was rabid, and mad as a hatter. It sort of reminded me of a tweaker blitzed out on PCP, and it took a serious amount of damage to stop it from progressing forward in the attack mode at full swing! Hope you get the little bastard blocked out so it will go elsewhere. Good luck!! Tony.

[vash]

yea, the way it ran AT ME to get to the trapdoor makes me think she has kiddie down there.

can babies spray?

[Mule]

[Moses]

Originally Posted by vash

3 bumps. thought i was dreaming. grabbed the stinger flashlight, and investigated. poked my head out the back window, and startled a skunk. it runs away from the house, goes around my hedges, does a U-turn, and then head right to me, from the right. then i veers off and ducks through the trapdoor, under my house...i have a skunk(s) living under my house! if he takes a few "test fires" down there, i my house is worth $100. what do i do now?

sorry, in my title...i meant startled awake...not away. very sleepy.

This happens in my neighborhood EVERY WEEK. You live in the Bay Area? Call animal control. They will capture the smelly beasts for you.

[Tim Hancock]

We have them come up to the patio all the time in the spring to eat our cat's food.

Standard procedure when skunk is at back sliding door:

Go out front door with flashlight equipped 12 ga and walk around side of house towards back porch.

Wave flashlight beam on tree behind house thus signaling wife in house to start tapping on sliding door to gently alert skunk to her presence.

As skunk departs wood decked porch, yell at skunk/stomp feet/throw pebbles etc to hopefully get skunk turned out into the yard.

If succesful turning skunk into yard, carefully "herd" it towards road with yelling and stomping being careful to not get too close. (If unsuccesful, carefullt chase skunk around house being careful to not get too violent to avoid having skunk go into afull spray mode.... sometimes it can take 1/2 hour of following around the house and bushes till the little bast@rd can be turned into the yard!)

Once skunk makes it to the road heading for the ditch on opposite side, take up a firing position on one knee at edge of road and blast the little b@stard in the @ss just as he starts down the edge of the road into the ditch. 50% of the time, the blast will knock the little b@stard into the ditch and the current will get rid of him withou having to toss him in with a shovel.

IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE D@MN sure the little bastage is DEAD, (I usually blast him a couple more times for good measure) as I once made the mistake of not finishing one off and it ended up crawling under the neighbors porch to die...... This is not good ... trust me.

[ikarcuaso]

Originally Posted by Moses

This happens in my neighborhood EVERY WEEK. You live in the Bay Area? Call animal control. They will capture the smelly beasts for you.

Yup, where we live, seeing a skunk is like seeing a fly. Good luck w/that.

http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/Professional-Trapper/city/CA-Oakland.htm

http://www.critter-repellent.com/skunk/skunk-control.php

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by vash

yea, the way it ran AT ME to get to the trapdoor makes me think she has kiddie down there.

can babies spray?

Depends on how old they are but the very young ones can't.

I had this problem and the answer was to seal off all openings to the underside of the house with metal screen. Skunk has not been back since.

[Porsche_monkey]

I have trapped dozens of skunks. Along with foxes, squirrels, raccoons, possums etc. I was sprayed once, but only when the neighbors dog attacked a caged skunk.

Skunks do NOT want to spray you. They do it as a last resort. Put some bones, tuna, eggs whatever in your hav-a-hart trap and catch the skunk. Approach the skunk from the side or rear and drop a box or blanket over the trap.

Throw the trap in a pick-up truck (or your trunk if you're brave) and take Mr Skunk out to the country for a ride. Slide the blanket back, open the trap and let him go. Don't be surprised if he's asleep or reluctant to run out.

Alternatively, slide the trapped skunk up to the exhaust pipe and... well you get the picture. Not that I would condone that.

[Tobra]

dish soap, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, when mixed together, do a surprisingly good job of countering skunk stench

if they can't raise their tails, theoretically they will not spray

call animal control and the above info is superfluous

[stevej37]

If you see shallow diggings in your lawn, that look like golf divots, you have skunks that are digging for grubs at night. Get rid of the grubs and the skunks will leave..or so I've heard.

[FastCarFan]

Years ago my wife & I began to smell skunk every morning around 5:00. We noticed tracks in the snow heading under our deck (which was very low to the ground).

So we hired an animal trapper to help. He set a live trap baited with 'Nilla Wafer cookies. The next morning we had trapped a skunk.

The trapper suggested setting another trap in case there was more than one. Well, next morning we had another...& another the next morning...& another the next morning. In all we trapped eight skunks! One morning we had trapped a skunk in the trap & there was another skunk on top of it trying to get his buddy out!

We also trapped a squirrel, a racoon & a possum -- I let those out so I wouldn't have to pay the trapper ($40/animal!) to take them away. They took them to some woods where the state had authorized them to release skunks. We joked he took them to a nearby neighborhood & let them loose so they would get more business!

I asked him about his technique. He said he approaches the trap holding a sheet in front of him so the skunk never sees him. He places the sheet over the cage, picks it up & puts it in his truck. He said, "If the skunk doesn't see a threat, it won't spray." I watched him do it once. He said it is trickier letting it out. He rolls back the sheet a bit, opens the cage & runs away.

People asked how we knew we weren't trapping the same skunk over & over. Interestingly they all looked quite different. Wide white stripe, narrow white stripe, two white stripes...one skunk was almost all white.

Ever since my family has called 'Nilla Wafers "skunk food".

A week or so later the owner of the trapping company called my wife to see if we were satisfied with their service. He asked if they even trapped a skunk. My wife replied, "You caught eight!". The guy replied, "That's nothing. There was another house with a large, multi-level deck where we caught 23!" And I thought our "experience" was expensive!

Update: Last night after making my post I took Shelby, our yellow Lab, out for her last time before bed. We have an invisible fence. I walked out with her (wanted to make sure she didn't start barking at something & bother the neighbors late at night). Well, as soon as we got outside I smelled skunk (which thankfully doesn't happen much around this house)! Our backyard is pretty dark so I couldn't see much. Thankfully, she quickly did her business & came back inside -- it was not one of those evenings where she had to sniff/explore every single inch of our yard looking for the perfect place to do you know what. But I thought it was ironic to smell skunk after becoming involved in this skunk "discussion".

[johnco]

long ago my father bought an old house with a large shed out back. while digging around in there I saw a skunk. first one I had ever seen and wasn't smart enough to run away. the little guy came towards me and I noticed one of his front paws was twisted up and crippled. the thing came right up next to me and just sat there. so I started petting him. ended up spending quite a while playing with him and carrying him around. mom wouldn't let me bring him home as a pet and said he must belong to the former owner of the house. next day the guy came by and I asked him if it was his pet and if I could have it it if he didn't want it anymore. the guy said he has never owned a skunk, wouldn't own a skunk and would have killed any skunk that came near him. seems I had spent an afternoon playing with a wild skunk that happened to very friendly. he was more like a house cat than what I imagine a wild skunk would be like. never saw him again after that day

[porsche4life]

My g/f's dad(vet) just soaks them with a hose so they cant raise their tails and then chases them to were he can blast them to little pieces.

[oldE]

Skunks have been around here for over 25 years (they re-populated the Valley after being wiped out decades before by, I think, distemper). We and our dogs and horses have learned to live with them. The last dog to get hit was the blind guy who just stumbled over the skunk and took a glancing shot as it ran for the bushes.

We know we have a family of them living under the barn and it's not uncommon to see them digging for grubs in the manure pile. One day my wife cleaned out a stall with a little skunk curled up in the shavings. He opened an eye, sized her up and figured (correctly) she was no threat.

We just don't worry about them any more. And yes, the hydrogen peroxide/baking soda and dish soap works.

Les