NOW what??? dead skunk in garden

Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up. It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead (partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe (this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's the same animal.

So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty. This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks. Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak
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I'd personally opt for "heft to the woods" and let nature continue to take its course else where.

Val

Reply to
Val

Do not do it yourself. Let animal control come out. If you rupture the stink thing you will regret it forever. It's their job to do things like this. Especially if rabies are involved. Do not do it yourself, Cheryl.

Reply to
Jangchub

Ah - but I don't know if animal control will come remove a dead animal that is not in the street.

Well, since I have to head to work and the rains are returning, I'll let it be until tomorrow.....

Cheryl

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

I don't have specific answers to your problem but you may want to look at

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did read one caution about not waiting until the dead skunk starts to swell-up to remove it. I doesn't get any better.

Reply to
Billy

Call me and my offspring weird or whatever you like, but sons and I, uh, enjoy skunk scent (not dead skunk). Sometimes it faintly wafts over the garden (see...actual garden reference) and we are in olfactory heaven.

However, Stan, the resident rodent exterminator, had a minor dustup with one last year and that was not fun. Giving a cat a bath is not an experience I wish to repeat.

Charlie, in a skunky state of mind...

Yosemite Sam: "All right, all you skunks clear out of here!"

[Everyone leaves the saloon; the last one out is an actual skunk]

Skunk: "My, weren't there a lot of skunks in there? "

Reply to
Charlie

If it was me... I would dig a hole close by, at least a foot deep (critters dig up shallow graves) and big enough in diameter that the corpse fits in easily. Carefully slip shovel underneath corpse, slide/carry over and place in hole. Cover with 6 inches or so and tamp down, add several more inches and tamp. Finish covering the hole.

If you leave it as is another critter will tear into it, dog, opossum, skunk... and it will stink again, if it doesn't already.

One was hit in the road maybe 3/4 mile west of us late last winter. The corpse laid in the ditch, never got buried. Just recently some scavenger found it again and stirred it up. It is still pretty potent smelling.

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Depends on the property size and proximity of neighbors. Animals die on my property all the time, either from natural causes or preditors. First clue I get is usually the appearance of turkey vultures circling, they make very swift work of cleaning up dead flesh. But sometimes I'll come across a dead carcass in one of my mowed or meadow areas, I usually smell it before sighting. Then I'll find a hunk of tree limb, hold my breath, and shove it as far into the woods as is feasible. Often in spring right after the snow melts I'll find partially skeletonized deer, possums, hedgehogs, wild turkeys, etc. Anyone tells me to grab a shovel and dig a grave in the woods has never attempted to dig a hole in the woods, just not possible unless one uses a back hoe, an excavator, or some such... there's no way any human being is going to get a shovel into a forest floor more than an inch or two, the tree roots, plus rocks make that kind of ground into an impenetrable matrix, you really need a machine, a pretty hefty machine, and even then around here there's a good chance that just below the surface there'll be boulders the size of volkswagons.

If someone lives on a smallish property, say a housing development with neighbors within shouting distance, then it behooves to have the authorities retrieve and dispose of the corpse... in a populated area especially, unless it's obviously road kill, there's a need to know what killed that animal. And in any event do not handle or let domestic animals near.

Reply to
Sheldon

I these parts it is considered good manners to dispose of corpses on your land for the sake of the amenity of neighbours. Now a decomposing skunk is not going to generate as much perfume as a cow or a horse but I am guessing your neighbours are much closer than mine so they may care.

The other issue is whether local scavengers (dogs mainly) are likely to visit you or their owners having had a little necrophilliac snack. Such can be tracked at a distance without radar and bathing them can require breathing apparatus.

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

I remember my grandmother's dog loved to roll in dead skunk. I don't mind the odd whiff; but as a long term "perfume", no thanks. We did lots of tomato juice baths.

The video of the cat bath would have been something to see.

Cheryl

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

I'm going to make a call to Animal Control in the AM. Not much a corpse left as of Sunday AM. Rabid skunks aren't uncommon, but the way this one favored a leg, I wondered if it had a glancing blow from car and was on borrowed time even if it wasn't rabid. Lots of coyotes and owls about here despite the encroaching civilization.

With all the rain, decomposition was well advanced when I found it. I could clearly see skull and ribs.

Cheryl

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

Makes me wonder if I just piled 6-8 inches of mulch over it how I'd fair.

C
Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

We have many dead skunks lying in the middle of the road along with occasional deer. I'd cover with lime and dirt and put a rock on it if needed.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

A rock on an animal in the middle of the road... a rock needed for what?

Reply to
Sheldon

It's a gravestone, and a location-reminder for when returning with silverware.

-paghat the ratgirl

Reply to
paghat

Ouch - that hurt as the tea came streaming out of my nose....

Thank you dear

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

Dead Skunk In The Middle Of The Road 2:30 Studio Group 70's Music Rock 7/28/08 4:26 PM MPEG audio file

Bill

Reply to
Bill

If you don't mind the skunk smell (possibly) re-appearing go ahead. The one I mentioned above, something found it, tore into what was left and the skunk smell was pretty potent. I was a bit surprised the scent/smell had a whole lot of punch yet after ~5 months.

I don't find the odor particularly offensive, but I wouldn't want to wear it :)

Reply to
Leon Fisk

On Jul 27, 9:07=A0am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:

this sure brightened my day reading all the responses from everyone about this, humor, serious solutions, great feedback. showed me that the newsgroup is still alive and thriving.........I miss just sitting and reading what I want to instead of having to watch the clock and wonder when my time at the library will be over. they're changing the hours August 4th. earlier times (8 a.m. to 8 pm M & Th.) and 9 a.m. to

5 Tu, We & Fr. closed Sat and Sun, which means no more Saturday.....comics and wreck gardening will have to be five days a week. BTW, INCREDIBLE skunk wash solution that absolutely 100% works. because I tried it not once, but several times when Sugar and Smeagol were skunked not once, but several times in a course of a few weeks and then again this year before we were evicted from Faerie Holler......... 2# box of baking soda (yes, some grocery stores have a 2 pound box, mine does, it's called Food City) ten bottles of hydrogen peroxide gotten at Dollar Store, Dollar General store, anywhere that it's cheap, like 25c a bottle or under $1.00. at least two cups of baking soda and all the bottles of peroxide into a bowl, then mix it up and sponge it on the skunked fur. sadly it doesn't work when the poor mutt has gotten a full facial spray like Sugar did.....where it IMMEDIATELY worked.........took the odor away INSTANTLY, her eyes, her poor ears and nose and mouth exuded skunk odor for many, many days, and you can't rinse eyes, ears (deep inside) nose or mouths with this solution. it's safe though. works like a charm and 1000 times better than the Wives tale solution of tomato juice baths. it apparently doesn't work regardless of the idea that the Vitamin C is what makes it work......the peroxide and soda solution works every time and is cheaper than the overpriced tiny bottle of "Skunk OFF" that you can get at the Vet's.............which is why I learned of this. my Vet's secreteary knew I was fund short and told me the solution. I used it again this year when Sugar got it again, and it worked like a charm. now I keep peroxide bottles and a 2 pound box of baking soda tucked away for just that reason. even if I do live in the city now................. maddie gardening in the heat and humidity of eastern Tennessee zone 7b, Sunset zone 36? (now I'll have to look that one up too) harvesting beans, tomato's, cow horn peppers, naturtiums and lots of love and memories to share with you soon surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest and Appalachian mountains in the green bowl
Reply to
madgardener1

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