I spotted a den across the creek (~ 75 yards) from our house early this Spring and yesterday my wife finally spotted a full grown skunk using it!! It's nice to look at but I want to get it out of there before my dogs run into it but don't want to stink up the neighborhood.

We've only seen him one time so what would you guys recommend for getting him gone??

They run our neighborhood pretty heavily...
a 10/22 works wonders or a scope sited 17 HMR or 22 Mag....

Just slowly walk up to the skunk and gently pick him up by the tail. He won't spray you... Trust me on this!

And now for the good news: Actually, this time of year, "he" may well be a female who just gave birth and has a bunch of skunklets in that den...

Seriously, get a Havahart box trap and bait it with cat food. After you catch the skunk, well you can do whatever you want with it if you stay quiet and cover the trap with burlap. Do you have anybody in your neighbourhood who you don't like?

John

do not shoot skunks upwind. i know this for a fact it is very bad...

some denned up under my folks house and i shot one (i was a kid) in the head as it poked itself out... bad idea.

ammonia or something down the hole should have them looking for a new home in short order....

woofer

Skunks help with ground bees if you have hornets or yellow jackets in the area. This is one reason why I'm reluctant to getting rid of them. Yellow jackets ate me up two years ago.

Skunks also carry diseases and are hell on ground nesting bird eggs, quail and turkey as an example.

If you're gonna shoot it, better absolutely destroy it. I'm talking blow it to chunks.

All they need is one little dying gasp and they'll spray you up...

CNS hit, only. And quietly.

A live trap will let you tarp the critter and transport to wherever, and without getting sprayed.

That said, it's almost a guarantee that he is a SHE with little ones.

Figured that ought to be out there; do as you see fit.

Suppressor and accurate rifle. Wife spotted one at the house. Right outside the door. I quietly popped it in the head. No spray. No more skunk.

Pmc

Nebraska: I recommend a carefully placed 17 HMR bullet in the Skunks head!
I have learned about Skunks since moving to Montana and getting a male Chocolate Lab!
The VarmintDog has lost 4 different fistfights with Skunks and the aftermath is incredibly unpleasant - horrific is a better word!
Our veterinarian says most all dogs never learn to stop accosting Skunks even though they get sprayed!!!
Another thing is go buy and have on hand some commercial "Skunk Odor Solution"!
Yes tomato juice and some hydrogen peroxide recipes help (horrible odoor still lingers for days) but only the true Skunk Odor Solution can neutralize the Skunks musk!
During two of our dogs run-ins with Skunks the Skunk solution was applied and the dog was able to sleep in the house that night!
Even with this solution its a 2 hour miserable ordeal to clean up the family pet.
A brain or spine shot on the Skunk eliminates its ability to stand up on its short front legs and fire its perilous musk! They are much more pleasant to bury having not sprayed before they expire!
Best of luck to ya!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I just read an article on getting skunks to leave an area. The author said to throw or dump a few bottles of black pepper in and around the nest.

She claimed they hate it and will find a new place to live.

I forgot to mention, that I saw television show where the fellow was sprayed three times attempting to throw a tarp over a havahart trap.

Many years ago while in my late teens, a friend and I had been out bowhunting deer in early October. I was dropping him off at a trailer home he was renting at the time after the evenings hunt, and it was just past dark. Early October in Missouri can sometimes still have some pretty warm weather. My buddy was living with his girlfriend at the time in this trailer. She had the windows up and the main door open, the screen up on the storm door. There was a wooden deck on the front of the trailer and his trash can sat just off the back of the deck. That's the set-up...

When my headlights swung onto his deck as I pulled up, there was a skunk on his deck. Evidently the skunk had been raiding his trash cans and making a mess, my friend muttered something bad about the skunk as he stepped out of the cab of the truck. He stepped back and retrieved his bow and I saw him step to the front of the truck and nock an arrow. He was about fifteen yards or so from the deck and I was thinking this wasn't really a good idea... The arrow flew true and zapped that skunk dead center! Problem was, the arrow penetrated through and stuck hard and tight into the wooden deck. That left the skunk pinned on the 30" aluminum shaft where the critter began to wither and clamber around on the arrow shaft. In the light of the headlights I saw the spray go forth - right through the screen of the storm door and into the kitchen! I heard a muffled screech from the kitchen and realized his girlfriend must have been right there in the kitchen at the exact wrong instant. The look of "Oh crap!" as he turned to me has never left my memory after all these years.

I did what all good friends would do in such a circumstance. I said, "Get your stuff, I gotta go!" and made fast tracks. He didn't get to go hunting for awhile and the relationship was pretty rocky for some time afterward. LOL...

MOGC, that is hilarious!

As far as "removing" a skunk, I have only two experiences.The first was when my buddy splashed one in his back yard with a .480 SRH.It sprayed.You couldn't go out his back door for a long time after that.
The second incident I did.I smacked one in the noggin' with a .22 Mag. from about 15 feet.It sprayed.The wife was less than amused when I came home.I didn't think either one would spray, considering the the chunk effect of the first round, and the brain shot of the second, but I was wrong.Next timeI shoot one it will have to be a couple hundred yards away with a varmit rifle.No more of the close stuff for me.

VG,

Back in MN, back in the 80s, the little lap mutt my ex wife had, got nailed by a skunk one night...a 7 lb dog took about 2 gallons of tomato juice and a gallon of peroxide to get clean...

and then it only substantially reduced the smell until it had dissappated a few weeks later..

Try mothballs...don't seem to like them and move out. The sent glands in the skunk are similar to the anal glands in the dog. They will spray when shot because muscles contract. The glands are located about 4&7 o'clock just inside the rectum, and surrounded by the perianal muscles.

art

Get your self a leg hold trap and attach 20 feet of wire to it, the skunk wiil not spay when in the trap and you can drag it away to the place of its demise(down wind from any where you want to be). My wifes grandfather showed me this trick and I thought i was being set up, but sure enough out in the barn he had the trap all set up with the 1/8 " solid telephone wire and a stake. I trapped three skunks this way and none of them sprayed until I shot them. I have to admit it was not a nice feeling dragging them away with that tail pointed at you but it workes like a charm.

Nebraska,
Why not just let the skunk be?

Unless your dogs run loose..you should be able to control where they go.
Worst case and they get sprayed, an good vinegar bath will fix that and maybe they will learn not to accost skunks..:)

In my younger days I killed alot of critters that prolly didn't need killed..which I didn't eat or use the hides from..

As I have aged, I have a bit different attitude concerning all life and so ask you to at least wait until the kittens are weaned...Jim
PS:
I caught a baby skunk years ago..had him descented by a vet friend and kept him as a pet for several years..Rabies shots included.
Neat critters, tho mostly nocturnal...Jim

I got sprayed while dealing with a skunk in a leg trap one time. That was the first and last time I tried that tactic...

What would happen if you ran a tube into the hole, tamped dirt around it, hooked the tube up to your pickup's exhaust, and let it run for a half hour or so?

LMAO!!

I actually just purchased a SWR Spectre 22cal can and am pretty tempted but with it being so close to my house, I'm kind of hesitant to shoot it because if I miss, we'll have to put up with the stink!!

I also considered some anti-freeze cat food but don't like the idea of poisoning an animal...

The Have-a-Heart trap might just be the ticket if I can work up the nerve to walk up and cover the trap once it's caught..... If I went that route, what size would be best??

The company has a good website with advice on which model trap for which critter, bait, etc.
How to catch a skunk advice from Havaheart

I have piled a burlap bag on top of the trap when I set it, then used a short pole to drop it down. Inside the dark trap, the citters stayed calm. Go slow and don't panic the critter and they won't spay.

If you are really worried, two people on the end of a rope tied to the trap could stay at a safe distance, but the trap will get bounced around and you could count on the trap getting stinky.

Plus, one advantage of getting this trap is that it is the same size one would use, say, if one also happened to have a nasty neighbour's tomcat spraying into one's house through a sliding patio screen door. In fact, this trap baited with the same sardines used for skunks might catch said tomcat. But I would have no personal experience with that...

John

The ammonia idea works great...they'll leave pretty darn quick...

I didn't know it until I went to a local game preserve here that takes care of injured animals...but fox leave a scent that smells just like a skunk...or is mistaken for skunks...

also found out some fox can climb trees also..

saw a beautiful silver fox while out for an evening walk just before dark tonight..

We certainly have some characters on this board....

I've never used a havaheart trap but used to jokingly call them havatarget traps....

"What would happen if you ran a tube into the hole, tamped dirt around it, hooked the tube up to your pickup's exhaust, and let it run for a half hour or so?"

Essentialy nothing, if your pickup (like most) has a catalitic converter. You need an exhaust that still has mostly carbon monoxide. They sometimes use this method to kill praire dogs (I prefer to shoot them).

http://www.varmitgetter.com/

This should get rid of the whole family. No touchy either.

Right out of Caddy Shack!!

That is the point of having the 20 feet of wire on the trap, as long as you stay 20 feet away from the skunk they will not try to spray you.

I've Thrown a large burlap bag over a haveaheart containing a skunk 5 or 6 times with no problem. Put the trap in my truck and released it in the woods with no problem. Move slow and quietly.

Let them go? Not around here! They get dispatched.

I have said this before and I will say it again. The best skunk medicine is a flame thrower. Burning diesel smells much better than a skunk and goes away quicker too!

Hemi

a 243 wssm with a 58gr vmax works really good on skunks, they even get a little air.