critters/skunks caught in hav-a-hart traps (avocados, trees, snakes, concrete)
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They are nocturnal and we were basically prisoners after dark......it was a terrible time......and our dog got sprayed 2 days in a row and ran into the house and leaned on me, tried to rub her fur and face in her bed, on the carpet, etc.....it was a TERRIBLE TIME! I washed her with vinegar, tomato juice, dog shampoo, Johnson's baby shampoo, you name it. I burned a lot of incense in the house, put perfume and baby powder on the dog, replaced her bedding, threw baking soda on the carpet, shampooed my carpet......anything to mask it, anything to get rid of it. There are skunk shampoos out on the market now, but I don't know how well they work......worth a try if your dog ever gets sprayed.
When our dog was sprayed by a skunk, vet told us to use:
32 oz. hydrogen peroxide
1/2 cup baking soda
1 tsp of Dawn dishwashing (to cut oil)
Rub all over dog and let sit a few minutes. Rinse off and repeat.
It won't completely eliminate the odor but reduces it immensely. Of course for about two months whenever the humidity is high or the dog gets wet, you will get a whiff of "puppy la phew."
I just went and looked at your wife's pictures and they're beautiful (although the one with the 'coon "holding" the duckling made me a little nervous LOL).
My son's mother-in-law has a family of raccoons who come up to her back porch every evening for Cap'n Crunch cereal and dog food (not something I would encourage, but she doesn't have poultry).
I was there for Thanksgiving, and she heard them on the porch, and went out to feed them. It was funny, though, because they are very tame with her but anytime someone not familiar to them (like me) poked their head around the corner, they would back off.
You do have to be careful with raccoons, though - the bulls can get vicious. I had a boyfriend who lived at a private campground and he came home one night and was attacked by a big bull that was on his deck.
My wife loved to play with the pictures. Of course that duck was nowhere near the raccoon. Years ago we had four ducks that were fenced in by a four foot high fence. An animal came over the fence and killed all four ducks. It took only one with it over the fence. We always suspected that it was a raccoon. We now keep our ducks fully covered with fence at night.
We always kept distance between the raccoons and us. The window, that we shot the pictures out of, was five feet off the ground and the bird feeder was about five feet away. We never cornered a raccoon - both their claws and teeth are very sharp.
I shot one baby raccoon several years ago. It was out in the daytime and had runny eyes. It probably had fallen out of a tree or had distemper. I actually called our game commission first - thinking that they would come and test it. They asked me if I was capable of euthanizing the animal. They also told me to pour Clorox on the carcass and put it in the garbage.
By the way; I am not crazy about drowning any animal. Although I haven’t hunted for years; I am proficient at killing with a weapon. I would much rather see any animal ‘euthanized’ with a bullet to the back of the head. It is just a lot quicker and less suffering.
When I was a young teenager; I petted a skunk by accident. I was out picking night crawlers when I thought my neighbor’s cat brushed against my leg. I reached down and stroked it’s back - before I put the flashlight on the black and white cat! I almost sprayed the skunk when I realized what I just did.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye
What I can tell you from our observations; is that skunks don’t aggressively spray.
My observations lead me to a different conclusion. It could be that I'm around a lot of dog savvy skunks and skunks that are frequently harassed by humans, but instead of "sidewinding" and "handstand" displays I usually just hear a "yip" and then see a dog rubbing his eyes and rolling in the grass.
OR, if you happen to set your shotgun down just out of reach and squat against a tree after being seized by an urgent call you may only see/hear a skunk sprinting towards you through the tall grass before you get it on the nose (I think what was so maddening was to know that the little S.O.B. was trying to get me in the eyes).
I keep a wide berth and don't bother polecats if they don't bother me, but if the only way you can keep from getting sprayed is to drown the skunk - I'm probably not going to pass judgement.
Also, Nature's Miracle skunk wash works as well as anything and is a lot easier to keep on hand than some of the witch's brews - but, as has been mentioned, the only thing that really works is time.
Why do you have to TRAP anything at all?
I don't get it.
There is a place for everything in nature.
Leave it alone.
Or move, and live in a concrete jungle.
Gesssh!
I keep a wide berth and don't bother polecats if they don't bother me, but if the only way you can keep from getting sprayed is to drown the skunk - I'm probably not going to pass judgement.
How does that work?
I'm trying to picture how you can drown a skunk as a means to not getting sprayed and I just can't wrap my mind around it.
Seems to me that if you are in a position to drown the skunk, you are also in a position to either relocate and release it or to at least kill it quickly and humanely.
I am actually quite impressed that your exterminator was willing to go to those lengths to release them humanely. So many (including my psychotic neighbor) will live trap and then shoot and kill them when they're still in the trap.
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting here at the computer watching some t.v. program on-line late at night and I had dozed off. All of a sudden, I got awakened pretty much simultaneously by my dogs inside the house barking like crazy and the most horrific skunk smell EVER. It was so bad, I could have sworn it had to have let loose right out on my front porch - just a few feet from where I was dozing.
The dogs were all in the house, so their barking had to be in response to the smell.
My first thought was that it was after "Greg" - the 10-year-old rabbit who is kept in a cage on the porch, so I opened the door so I could go check on him, and that of course sent a bunch of dogs running past me outside.
I was very, very afraid that one or all of them would get sprayed but wherever the skunk HAD been, I think he must have gotten spooked by the barking dogs in the house and he skedaddled away fast enough that he was gone before the dogs got outside.
Greg was fine - but that smell lingered for days; in fact, I still every once in awhile get a whiff of it when I'm outside.
Between my place and the small town that's about 12 miles to the east of me, there is a creek that runs under the highway and a bridge, and the highway dips down right there; it's between three and four miles from my home. And I'd say AT LEAST 50% of the time when I pass by there, there is skunk smell. Maybe even more often than that. I call it "Skunk Alley" and I think if I ever relocate another skunk, that is where I would take it - it would apparently have plenty of company there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal
Throw a big tarp over the trap and then throw the trap in a stock water trough or a pond. Skunks are not an endangered species but they can carry rabies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinebar
I can't imagine a more INHUMANE way to dispatch an unwanted animal than by a slow death by drowning.
If you're going to kill it, at least please do it as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Drowning is NOT humane.
Edited to add: While I realize that not everyone believes that catching and relocating skunks, 'possums, etc. is the right way to go, I can respect that - if they at least make it a point to kill the animal as quickly and as humanely as possible.
What I can't respect is someone with so little regard to an animal's suffering that they think a slow death by drowning is appropriate.
Let's rehash here. The guy that shoots the skunk for a quick death is psychotic. The guy that drowns it so it won't spray is even worse. Does that about cover it? Please tell me how to dispatch a problem animal (humanely) without it spraying. Relocating a problem animal just gives the problem to the next person.
Why do you have to TRAP anything at all?
I don't get it.
There is a place for everything in nature.
Leave it alone.
Or move, and live in a concrete jungle.
Gesssh!
I try. That is why I don't bother anything unless it bothers me (and mine) first.
That's why I leave the 'possums alone now.
When I hired the trapper years ago, that was a last resort for me and I really was at the end of my rope. It had been my experience, that for the most part, coyotes will come and grab something and leave, or maybe eat it there at the site, depending on how safe they felt. But I was having problems with them digging under and climbing over my fencing to get into my birds and the final straw for me was when one got in there and wiped out a bunch of my birds - apparently just for the fun of it. I had NEVER had that happen before and thought it was more likely someone's dog but my neighbor saw it and she was very experienced with coyotes and there was not a doubt in her mind that that is what it was.
Otherwise, I really do try to co-exist with them.
I won't even trap and re-locate if it's during the time of year when there could be babies back in a den somewhere (like when I was having problems with a pair of foxes). The idea of a bunch of babies dying a slow death by starvation is just as horrific to me as a slow death by drowning.
Let's rehash here. The guy that shoots the skunk for a quick death is psychotic. The guy that drowns it so it won't spray is even worse. Does that about cover it? Please tell me how to dispatch a problem animal (humanely) without it spraying. Relocating a problem animal just gives the problem to the next person.
Actually......I said that my neighbor is psychotic. I used that term in the same sentence as I did about him killing the skunk in the trap but the fact is he is psychotic NOT BECAUSE he did that but for a lot of other reasons which have nothing to do with killing the skunk.
Quote:
Relocating a problem animal just gives the problem to the next person.
I don't believe this has to be true. In my case, at least, there are millions of places around here where I can release where there are no homes and/or farms.
I always make sure there is a water source nearby (pond or creek).
If you can't figure out how to dispatch a skunk humanely without getting sprayed, then maybe you should find someone smart enough to figure it out to do it for you.
My observations lead me to a different conclusion. It could be that I'm around a lot of dog savvy skunks and skunks that are frequently harassed by humans, but instead of "sidewinding" and "handstand" displays I usually just hear a "yip" and then see a dog rubbing his eyes and rolling in the grass.
OR, if you happen to set your shotgun down just out of reach and squat against a tree after being seized by an urgent call you may only see/hear a skunk sprinting towards you through the tall grass before you get it on the nose (I think what was so maddening was to know that the little S.O.B. was trying to get me in the eyes).
I keep a wide berth and don't bother polecats if they don't bother me, but if the only way you can keep from getting sprayed is to drown the skunk - I'm probably not going to pass judgement.
Also, Nature's Miracle skunk wash works as well as anything and is a lot easier to keep on hand than some of the witch's brews - but, as has been mentioned, the only thing that really works is time.
I even took a skunk out of a two spring conibear trap many years ago. I did that without getting sprayed and without any protection. It was a very small skunk and the main trap wires were slightly bent - otherwise it would have killed him. It closed on his neck. I talked to him thought the operation of releasing the springs and did not get sprayed.
I simply talk in quite calm tones - like I would to a dog or cat. Maybe I have just been very lucky?
I came very close to being sprayed forty years ago. I had a broken sewage line in a crawl space under a commercial building I owned. I armed myself with a flashlight and a bottle of commercial grade disinfectant. I wanted to see where the problem was. I was crawling through when I saw movement to my left. I put my flashlight on the tail of a skunk only three feet from my face. I shot first with the commercial disinfectant. He put down his tail and ran. I presume that the disinfectant probably burned - at least on tender tissue. It probably would not have made any difference if he did spray me - I smelled that bad!
PS For those that are into relocating nuisance critters - did you ever think that they might be in your backyard because somebody relocated theirs?
PS For those that are into relocating nuisance critters - did you ever think that they might be in your backyard because somebody relocated theirs?
That certainly could be. That might explain why I've never been successful trapping the raccoons - maybe they've already BTDT and have learned not to go into the trap, no matter how tasty the bait.
And as long as they behave themselves here, they're welcome. If they start being a problem, then I will relocate, but like I said, I never do it to a place where there are homes or farms. In fact, I have miles and miles of national forest bordering the back of my property, and miles and miles of logging roads up there, and lots of ponds and creeks.
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