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Skunks.......
William81
Member Posts: 25,491 ✭✭✭✭
Lots of them out there there this year....for years I would see one or two in a year...4 in the yard last night. Lots of dead ones on the road between here and town.
I don't like them much......any one else seeing more of them this year or are they just hanging around our place ?
Comments
No more than usual here.
Do you have a yard that might have grubs and yellow jacket nests in the ground?
They love them. When they look for grubs they leave a small cone shaped hole in the ground, skunk nose size.
I think they can smell them.
We have persistent skunk issues. Earlier in the summer, I burned an old house that I figured was a skunk den. No skunks there but 3 weeks later while mowing hay the boys found the skunk hideout under a big old steel water tank. I shot 7 skunks when the tank was moved and our skunk incursions have been reduced by 90%.
Grubs for sure this year....and I have seen the little holes you described....
That's a lot of stinkers !!!
well here's my stinker story
over the years I have dispatched a few at night walk up next to them ( they have terrible night vision ) and pop and one less
but a few years ago we had two maybe four that moved in and I have gave them a pass as being good neighbors they have been around several years no real problems the skunks and cats and poultry all get along the skunks do steal a egg or three but we do keep the dogs away best we can two years ago one dog got to curious and well bath time .
fast forward the skunks had a litter about 5 more added to the herd but they also jus share the yard and cat food with the cats they are not aggressive ( except to each other during mating or eating time) and I can stand /sit / right next to them with no issue , if they do not think there in real danger they will not waste there spray ( from what I can tell based on my contact with them ) funny they hear me feeding the cats and show up also looking for a free meal . from what I have gathered they will avoid contact as first defense and walk away nest up as a warning will stop there front feet now when they turn around flip there tail up its there last waring so I think LOL but will still leave if they have a open path . I have never been sprayed in countless encounters with them , maybe why I have a live and let live toward them
however tonight I discover at least 4 maybe 5 more very young ones dang skunks they cranked out another litter . I grabbed one by the tail it was scared but mostly just wanted to get away no spraying bighting just wanted to get back with its siblings , so I let him go run with the other young ones ( no I would grab the older ones tails they may not be so easy )
I told my wife we (as in I) have to do something one or two I can deal with but a growing herd no way, I will start live trapping have done that in the past also and sadly may use a few 22lr but it like shooting fish in a barrel , however my wife" insist "I do no harm as she calls them our some what domestic black and white cats . if I move them it will be about a mile so in the same area just away from our place
When we have a lot of rain, as we have recently, the burrows are flooded, so the skunks are abroad, foraging even in the daytime. Most of the ones I see are dead on the road, but there are a lot of them.
We generally leave them alone, but we did encounter one apparently rabid skunk, many years ago. It was in the daytime, and when the skunk saw us, it charged with its mouth open, as though it intended to bite us. Fortunately, I had a shotgun in my hands and one round took care of the skunk. Dawnie also fired her S&W 36 at the same time, and she thinks it was she who killed the skunk. I let her think so.
Skunks are a "SOS" varmint and I don't touch them. If the remains need to be moved I use a long handled shovel.
They are a lot like the domestic cat, devastating on nesting gamebirds. I have no tolerance for them. A cat around the barn is fine, just not in the field.
We noticed skunks when we moved to Eastern Oregon in the Fall of 2017.I began trapping them in the Spring of 2018 and continued every Spring and Fall.I dispatched all of them.I caught #60 yesterday ,in the carport,no less.
.22 LR..............to the head.
It is the two legged skunks, I worry more about.
The 4 legged merely stink. The two legged not only stink, but can rob you blind and take away your freedom.