Ask any cattle rancher or horse owner about woodchucks.
Unless you extirpate the beasts, they'll dig holes that can cripple cattle and horses. Either shoot the woodchucks or shoot the cows or horses after they break their legs. Your choice, ace.
J. Del Col
That's the best advice. Relocating a skunk often results in its death in an unfamiliar & "already taken" territory, plus two or three skunks or a racoon will start competing for the vacated territory so a gardener with an ideal skunk habitat will soon have multiple skunks instead of just one with an established territory of its own. If trapped spring or summer, there may well be a litter of kits that will die when the mother never returns. In my state it is entirely illegal to live-trap & relocate wild animals because it causes more problems than it resolves. Many other states have similar laws & a few states allow it only with a relocation permit, which is hard to get unless you can prove you know what you're doing.
Skunks are innocuous in gardens, not apt to spray unless cornered & threatened with nowhere to run, will not spray in conditions that cause them to spray themselves, will not spray if physically picked up expertly (forcing their tail under their butt). They eat insects primarily, & if they dig conical holes in the lawn, they've kindly informed the homeowner that the lawn is harmfully infested. Up to two-thirds of a skunk's diet will be insects harmful to humans or gardens. They have been known occasionally to tear the hell out of a sunflower garden to get the oily seeds, but being incapable of climbing would be more apt to look for oily seeds on the ground under birdfeeders.
One somewhat realistic fear is that a dog will corner it, which means only you will need to keep a recipe nearby so the dog can be effectively cleaned (a dash of liquid soap & a fourth-cup of baking soda in a quart of
3% hydrogen peroxide is what it will take). No permanent injury is done by skunk scent, & it is exceedingly rare that a dog ever harrasses a skunk a second time. An "appropriate habitat" for a skunk has no dog in it, so the skunk will only rarely settle into an area that is a dog's territory, though if predictable amounts of dogfood are put outdoors daily for a dog, a brave skunk may take its chances to share in the kibble.It is rare that skunks spray people because skunks give several warnings beforehand: they make a cute little growling sound as they stamp the ground with their forelimbs, fluff out their tail & turn sideways to make themselves look as big as possible, stand on their hind legs & wave their wee clawed hands, & spit like a cat. These behaviors give the human or predator two or three warnings to come no nearer, as skunks do not like to spray because they dislike the odor themselves, & don't want to muck up areas they hunt in or live in. Humans usually know to back away. Only really stupid humans, or dogs having their first such encounter, will next have the amusing pleasure of seeing the skunk drop its tail over its own face & do a sudden handstand, squirting six to ten feet with surprising accuracy right in the face.
Skunks are very mellow creatures & never attack, but if a skunk is behaving strangely, aggressively, or wandering about in the daylight hours, it could well be diseased. So the second realistic worry would be in regions where skunks are known to carry rabies or distemper, in which case one of the most dangerous things anyone could do is catch one in a live trap. In most states, rabies & distemper are NOT a problem with skunks or racoons, but wherever such disease outbreaks are occurring, it is important to avoid skunks & racoons.
Skunks don't hang around long in one yard unless it really is an ideal skunk habitat, & there are several ways to keep skunks from regarding one's yard as ideal. Skunk attractants are availability of food including fallen fruits, infested lawns, accessibility of petfood, accessibility of garbage. They'll knock your yard off their food-hunting route if lawn infestation or other food resources are removed from the equation. Skunks prefer their den to be a considerable distance from their food-hunting grounds, so usually they EITHER hunt food in the lawn & garden by night, OR live in the woodpile or under the shed by day, but don't den & hunt in the same place. Suitable daylight hiding places for a den include openings to get under porch, house, trailor, or shed, dense brush or briars, woodpiles or rockpiles, or fallen trees. They rarely hunt food where there's a dog outdoors by day, & rarely den where there's a dog outdoors at night.
As a kid, I used to care for & sell domesticated skunks, & as a result I was once brought a litter of wild baby skunks whose mother had been killed. For the first fifteen minutes of playing with the wild babies, they could be induced to do handstands & pretend to spray, but were not old enough to spray. After that first fifteen minutes, they figured out they were in no danger, & were instantly tame, & no amount of teasing would ever again induce them to take a threatening posture. They make excellent pets if neutered & descented (without spaying or neutering they become territorial when they grow up & make displays against visiting strangers & may bite), but unfortunately the state I live in banned them as pets due to a rabies scare 25 years ago that induced absurd legislative action which has never been repaired.
Most of today's pet skunk farms are in southern states, with domestic strains including albinos or strains with their stripe so wide they are mostly white. The spotted skunk is smarter & livelier than the striped, & just as sweet in captivity but more mischievous because unlike the clumsy striped skunk the lithe spotted is a fairly good climber with a great deal of curiosity about cabinets & whatever else they can get in. When we bought the house we talked about getting a couple of skunks from a southern breeder, because I especially love spotted skunks, one of the sweetest cleverest animals I ever cared for. But we decided it wasn't worth the risk that comes about due to public ignorance about skunks, the risk of having pets taken from us & destroyed if some neighbor became scared they had rabies. People who have pet skunks in Washington or pet ferrets in California have to be secretive about it.
-paghat the ratgirl
Never thought of skunks as source of strange holes in lawn. Incident happened over 10 years ago with trap and there was skunky odor around house that summer but none since. When you set out Hav-a-hart and bait with peanut butter, you have to be prepared to catch anything. I like to relocate groundhogs because of tunnels in property and squirrels and raccoons because they get in bird feeder. Have transported a couple of possums but don't know why ;) Frank
For a good while we knew something was living out in the huge brush pile, but since I rarely go out there I had no idea what it was. It's a skunk. I live it alone, it leaves me alone. The poor animals around here are so traumatized by all the building going on. A few months ago I found out they are building a Walmart in walking distance of our home...about a mile. How the roads will support this, I haven't the foggiest. Oh well.
So, this skunk lives back there, and has plenty to do, eat and the brush pile was put there so animals who have been displaced could seek refuge. Before the skunk, I saw cardinals, wrens, skinks and lizards back there. A corn snake a few times, maybe more than one.
So, I agree with you, paghat the rat girl.
v
Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
Don't forget to fill the holes anyway. If there is a groundhog, there are at least 2 holes.
Pretty boy skunk awaiting relocation:
Skunk *WILL* spray when confined but only when pushed to the limit. For instance, when they have been wandering around for hours with a cup stuck on their head and someone throws a blanket over them and then claps a 6 gallon bucket down over the blanket and an empty trash can on the bucket. They will spray bigtime. The blanket will be totalled. The bucket and trash can are salvagable with plenty of time in the sun far away from the house. The driveway will need cleaning. You will be OK, but out some $$ hiring someone to take the miserable, smelly skunk away.
I know this thing.
Releasing a skunk from a trap is much, MUCH safer and easier.
PS. McDonald's blizzard cup with the dome lid. I guess they don't want the lid to pop off accidently. REMOVE THE LIDS before discarding.
Yeah there's a slug of cattle ranchers posting to this thread.....
Actually the issue seems to be a pussy whipped husband with some delusions about not killing immediately, rather the illogical moving and slow death is preferred to continued whipping...
It's a woodchuck, people. Not a great white. What's wrong with letting it go in a non-residential area? Is it more manly to shoot it in his furry little head? ::eyeroll:: The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.... Lori
Because releasing is certain slow death, but a good solution for the emotionally handicapped unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. Certainly shooting the poor creature in the head would be far more humane!
How about just letting the critters whose territory you moved into stay and learn to live?
stay and learn to live?>>>>>
ding ding!!! I think we have a winner!
Once I understood that for every groundhog that was shot/relocated, a new one would move into the vacant (and lucrative for a groundhog) territory, I changed my strategy. I put up chicken wire fencing around the parts of the veggie garden that contain the most enticing plants. It act as a deterrent, but not an absolute barrier. I then bribe the hog by placing kitchen scraps it likes, such as melon rinds or corn cobs, at the edge of the compost pile, which lies between its main burrow and the garden. I employ negative reinforcement by running out screaming and stamping when I see it venturing near the garden. And I let the some of the drops from the apple tree lay on the ground to serve as fattening-up-for-the-winter food.
This year I lost two swiss chard plants and a good section of a row of peas to the groundhog. They are understandably hungriest early in the growing year. I admit to being annoyed about the peas, but not to the point where I was ready to do something elaborate like burying fencing or electrifying it.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Sue
Not in Pennsylvania. In fact several friends called the Game Commission they trapped and relocated ground hogs onto State Game Lands. There they either lived a long lire or had a very sudden death.
And woe betide anything, such as a little kid, that gets between them and their burrow.
J. Del Col
Heck yeah, who would want a little kid to learn anything about the natural world his phobic parents feel compelled to shelter him/her from!
I had one living in the fence row on the edge of my yard. One day I caught it venturing way into my yard. I got between it and its hole and tried to look as big and fierce and loud as I could. I screamed at it and acted like I was going to attack it. It just sat back his rump and showed its teeth until I got out of its way. It wasn't about to take any guff from anyone. Now I use a gun and don't let them know where I am.
"Learn To Live ... Live To Learn"
Are all BS'ers scaredy cats?
Hell yeah, what's a dozen stitches and a tetanus shot, plus a hundred bucks for the ER visit? At least the little brat will learn to leave woodchucks alone.
J. Del Col
When you sober up you need to stop hugging trees and get between a ground hog and his hole and see if you feel safe or threatened. I can guarantee you will feel threatened and never do it again and never suggest that other people do it either.
Is it legal where you live?
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