oof. Skunk got under house

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Dec 19, 2020
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This is getting a bit crazy. In the last week I have now trapped 6 skunks. I am beginning to wonder if my bait is drawing them to me heh. I didnt think they gathered in such a large group after maturity. Im running outta sardines too, smh.
 

mikester

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This is getting a bit crazy. In the last week I have now trapped 6 skunks. I am beginning to wonder if my bait is drawing them to me heh. I didnt think they gathered in such a large group after maturity. Im running outta sardines too, smh.
I've caught skunks simply with an open cage and no bait.

Empty unwashed cat food tins work very well on racoons. Generally I don't try and trap skunks, I just try and dissuade them from taking up residence near the house.
 

NCL4701

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No more comment needed i assume. What a miserable few days. 2 down one more to go from whats been caught on cam. That is all
I know this original post was several days ago, so the smell may have dissipated by now. If you’re still having problems with the smell, depending on what type of insurance policy you have on the house, you may have coverage to help with odor abatement. The chemical produced by skunks is something ozone works on pretty well. The companies that do fire restoration work have the ozone machines and know how to use them. If all is well now, great. If not, a call to your insurance agent to check coverage and call to a fire/smoke restoration contractor may get you moving in a good direction pretty quickly.
 

D2Cat

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NCL4701 mentioned removing the odor with an ozone machine. The work very well. I have 3 of them for various task. First time I use one I had a rental space that sold pet foods. After they moved I had the carpet professionally cleaned. I still noticed a peculiar odor and told the guy. He brought an ozone machine by and in one day the smell was gone.

I bought a PU and the previous owner smoked cigars and the interior was cloth. I put an ozone machine in the cab overnight, and to this day there is no indication of cigar smoke.

If you have pets and don't like a lingering smell, one of these will clean the air. Smells like a fresh rain as it works. You can adjust the ozone level and the fan speed. Easy to put in any room that need attention. They are not expensive.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10000mg-h-...hDarwoV3BBEV2b&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851
 
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lugbolt

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I have a cat inside (pet only) and several barn cats outside that eat everything, they spray everything, and they keep critters run off. Very effective!
 

bird dogger

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I have a cat inside (pet only) and several barn cats outside that eat everything, they spray everything, and they keep critters run off. Very effective!
🤣 will you train our outside cats for a fee? The wife feeds them so much (when I'm not around) that they have no desire or need to hunt mice or vermin. I don't doubt that they invite the other critters in to help them out with all the food that shows up in their bowls! And yet the wife complains when she finds evidence of mice in her garage. :rolleyes:
 

Old_Paint

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Went coon hunting one night. Dogs bayed pretty quick, and I'm thinking "this is GREAT. Don't have to walk 5 miles" We get to where the dogs are. 4 dogs, all looking up different trees. This concerned me, especially since none of the trees was more than 4 inches in diameter, and probably less than 20 feet tall, and OBVIOUSLY had no raccoon in them. While my step-dad was examining the tops of the little trees, I was the first that noticed one of the dogs kept running to the trees the other three were looking up, doing their best to show us the monster raccoon they'd treed for us in those twigs. I was hoping in earnest that an old wily coon had marked the tree on them, but they seemed rather earnest and were not swayed. But each time the one dog changed which tree she thought the coon might be in, she'd look down. Mind you, this was a high priced AKC registered champion coon dog behaving this way. "This ain't right" I said to my step dad and our neighbor, Mr. Stout. I got closest first, and apparently, close enough to startle whatever was making the one dog look down occasionally. Ring, the tree swapping champion coon dog, suddenly dives into the leaves and into a stump hole, and comes out swinging something which she hit me in both shins with about 4 times before I recognized the black and white colors, and the blue fog was rising. Too late for me, but my step-dad and our neighbor took off and left me there. I tried to take off too, but ran into a rather large bramble that ripped my light off and gave me some wicked scratches, but I didn't care. There was not enough acreage between me and that skunk so I kept running until I hit the fence, net wire with a barbed wire top strand, doing an end-over and landing on my face in standing water. I was cut, scraped, wet, bruised, and most of all STINKY.

The temperature that night was about 25 degrees F, I was soaking wet, but no way was Mr. Stout going to let me ride inside his Jeep, despite the fact I usually rode in the back with the dogs anyway where there was no upholstery to be concerned about. I rode home like a hood ornament while they (Mr. Stout, my step-dad, and the dogs) enjoyed the wonderful heat in one of the few jeeps in our area that actually had a heater. My mother turned on the light in the front yard when we pulled up and stepped out on the front porch, because we were home a lot earlier than we were expected. I didn't get off the hood yet, and she's telling me where the wash tub was, and that there's no way I'm coming in the house until I'm covered in tomato juice. A tomato juice bath outside in 25 degree weather is NOT fun. It was easily a week before I was allowed to enter a room where my mother was. My teachers weren't real impressed with me either, nor my classmates.

Some might understand why I might have an innate hatred of skunks now.
 

Magicman

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Several years ago a small skunk visited my neighbors while they were grillin' in the back yard. There was no smell whatsoever. They noticed that it was rubbing against the chair legs, etc. like a cat wanting attention so one of them reached and gently touched it., to which it responded wanting more attention. Apparently it was an animal that had been de-scented so they kept it as a pet. It lived with them in the house until one morning it was under the couch and one of the kids tried to pull it out.

When I came home from work I noticed all of the living room furniture sitting out in the front yard. I wondered what was up and soon found out what had happened. The kid was immediately sent home from school and I don't know what happened to the skunk but it was not their pet any more.
 

lugbolt

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🤣 will you train our outside cats for a fee? The wife feeds them so much (when I'm not around) that they have no desire or need to hunt mice or vermin. I don't doubt that they invite the other critters in to help them out with all the food that shows up in their bowls! And yet the wife complains when she finds evidence of mice in her garage. :rolleyes:

yeah that's a problem. She cares for them TOO Much. Sounds like she needs an inside cat to cuddle with, and feed the barn cats about a fourth as much as she currently is....they'll hunt and kill food IF (and only if) they aren't spoiled. BTDT!

Getting the wife to understand that she is not going to starve them is the challenge, from experience.

I could tell a heart-breaking story about cats and kittens but I will save it. If your wife reads it, she'll be feeding them even more. And the admin's probably wouldn't like it either. It bothers me a little too.
 
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Nicfin36

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Each cat can be different. Some have that killer instinct more than others. A mother cat had a litter of 4 in my barn stall, two bobtails and two long tailed. They were a month old before I realized they were in there. The mother was very friendly and a small cat, but was taking very good care of them as there were chipmunk and squirrel tails all over the stall when I found the kittens. Coyotes are bad here and she disappeared shortly thereafter and I had to care for them. They were feral and it took me a while. I gave one bobtail to a coworker and he still has him, but says he is not a sociable cat. Of the three I kept, the runt female disappeared, coyotes most likely. Another one was hit by a car and I just have my bobtail. He is a straight up killer. I have a cat door so he can come in, and I have him more or less trained to bring his kills and eat them on a towel I keep on the floor.
 

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Santa01

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Apr 8, 2021
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I've already caught 7 skunks in a month, it's scary how many they can climb under my house. It's like a bunch of skunks are going to take over my house, lol. By the way, yes, a really good bait is cat food, but I was already tired of catching them on my own and found a service https://treasure-coast.aaacwildliferemoval.com/raccoon-removal by trapping such creatures. The company did not immediately catch all the skunks, after a while they showed me how many skunks they found under my house, and I was horrified. But now I don't suffer and I live in peace.
 
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DustyRusty

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to get rid of the skunk odor on your animal, wash them with a strong amount Dawn dishwashing liquid, rinse well, and then mix up Massengill Powder and rinse with that. Let it dry on the animal, and it will neutralize the odor. The sooner you get the animal into the bath, the better the results. You can also give the animal a few sprays with the Massengill with a spay bottle for touch ups.
 

random

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to get rid of the skunk odor on your animal, wash them with a strong amount Dawn dishwashing liquid, rinse well, and then mix up Massengill Powder and rinse with that. Let it dry on the animal, and it will neutralize the odor. The sooner you get the animal into the bath, the better the results. You can also give the animal a few sprays with the Massengill with a spay bottle for touch ups.
I had a cat got up close with a skunk. We washed him best we could, mainly to get the gunk out of his eyes (yeah, REALLY close). Didn't know this trick. He is VERY affectionate, but he was a really sad kitty for a few months.
 

Daylight

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A dead dog under the floor of your office in a tropical climate also emits a spicy aroma...
IMG_20160310_142633.jpg
 

Code

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Oh man that not a fun time.

Current update. Two feral barn cats have taken residence under the shed where the skunks were operating from before they got under the house. It seems to have really helped the skunk issue.

Tally to date 9 skunks gone. And a Shit ton of happy turkey vultures in the back pasture (at least i think thats what took the carcass')

A dead dog under the floor of your office in a tropical climate also emits a spicy aroma...
 

D2Cat

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If you have a dead animal/bird that is leaving a foul smell get a bag of dehydrated lime and coat the ground it was laying on until it's all white.