"Old Wives Tales" NOT Working For Skunk Control!!

Hi All,

Does anyone know of any EFFECTIVE way to keep skunks out of the yard. For about 3 weeks now, we have had a skunk coming out at night and destroying the yard. Also, they aren't destroying it because of grubs ( we did a grub treatment back in July ), the skunk is eating the earthworms.

I know this because in the morning, there are holes everywhere in the grass, and there are half-eaten, dead earthworms everywhere in the soil.

Also, I definitely know it's a skunk because I have witnessed him at different times throughout the night in the backyard. A few times I was able to scare him away by banging on the metal storm door, but because he comes at all hours of the night, it's hard to stay up all night and wait for this pest.

Anyway, here is what I have tried so far that HASN'T worked:

1) I left a portable radio out all night long on a AM talk show radio station - didn't work.

2) Human hair from shower - didn't work.

3) $40 dollars in different hot and/or strong smelling spices - Red crushed pepper, cayenne pepper, black pepper, ground cinnamon, garlic, chili powder, onion powder.

The Cayenne Pepper seemed to work, but the stuff goes fast, and what the skunk does, is he just digs in another location where there is no cayenne powder!!! 2-3 bottles of the stuff at $4 dollars a bottle, isn't enough to cover 5,000 square feet!!!

4) Ammonia and/or ammonia soaked rags - TOTALLY USELESS!!!! The skunk actually took a dump and left a nice big pile of his poop right next to an ammonia soaked sock that I put out there!!!!

5) Spotlight/Floodlight - totally useless!!!!

6) Bits of shredded "Irish Spring" soap - useless

So besides leaving a sprinkler on all night long, and wasting precious gallons of water, what options am I left with here??

I have read everything from human urine, to bear urine, to antifreeze, to chocolate, to rat poison?? Most of those are all out, because there are stray cats in the neighborhood, so I don't want to poison anything with antifreeze or mouse/rat poison.

Shooting this thing is out of the question. I live on a residential street, and I have neighbors houses 5 feet on the left side of me, and 5 feet on the right side of me. Also, the neighbors weren't to happy when I left the AM talk station on all night long!!!!!

We don't have an "animal control" officer in our city. The only thing the useless city will help you with, is if its a large animal like a deer, bear, wolf, moose, etc, etc.

I called a couple of exterminators, and they all want between $150 and $200 dollars to try to catch the skunk in a cage and then relocate it. The problem with that is I am only working part-time right now, and CAN'T afford those prices.

My neighbors lawns aren't getting destroyed by this nuisence skunk, only our yard!? I guess the previous owners of the house had 4 big truck loads of dark, rich loam installed in the backyard, so there are lots of earthworms for him to eat before winter.

What the heck is chocolate supposed to do!? I know that it can be dangerous to dogs, but why would it be dangerous to skunks when they rip open peoples garbage bags and eat through there anyway!?

Does human urine really work? Am I supposed to pee in a cup, and dump that everywhere? But won't that kill the grass?

What about mothballs? Will the smell of mothballs keep the skunk away? But aren't they bad for the lawn and grass? What if they were in a cup?

Someone told me to use powered lime, coffee grounds or dried blood?

What about a strobe light?

All I know is that in the last 2 weeks, I have spent $40 dollars on hot pepper spices, $30 dollars on topsoil, $25 dollars on grass seed, and $18 dollars on peat moss, and I just can't keep this skunk away so that he stops destroying my backyard.

Like I said above, I can't just wait for him to show up at a specific time, because he comes at different times throughout the night. One time he came at 9 pm. Another time it was 11 pm. Once it was 4:30 am. And once at 5:30 am.

I am at "wits-end" with this skunk, so ANY suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

Reply to
MICHELLE H.
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So I go to Home Depot to see if they have this stuff that I read about called "Critter Ridder". It's made by some company called "Hav-A-Heart", and it is supposed to be a pesticide-free way to keep all kinds of wildlife out of your yard and garden. It comes in a blue bottle, and it is suppose to repel dogs, cats, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, opossums, etc, etc. from your yard and garden.

It is made up of a bunch of different strong smelling peppers that the animals don't like to smell, like Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Red Pepper, Hot Chile Pepper, etc, etc. All these hot and spicy peppers are mixed together, and they put something on it, so that it's waterproof, and it lasts for 30 days, so you don't have to worry about the rain washing it away, or it washing away when you water your lawn and/or garden.

Anyway, I didn't see it in the garden section of Home Depot, so I ask the guy working there. He tells me that they "don't have any in stock".

I tell him that "I have a skunk destroying my yard every night".

He says "you got grubs".

I tell him "no, our grass is nice and Green ( grubs turn the grass Yellow/Brown ), and we did a grub treatment back in July".

I tell him that "in the morning we are finding half eaten, dead earthworms all over the yard".

He says "oh yeah, skunks will eat earthworms too, because they love them!".

He then says "If you want to get rid of the skunk, then you have to get rid of the earthworms".

HUH!!!!!!???? WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!?????? GET RID OF THE EARTHWORMS!!!!???

Oh my god, this guy is working in the freakin garden center at America's biggest home improvement chain!!?? I felt like telling this guy that he needs to either transfer to a DIFFERENT department, or he needs to go back to school and retake Science class, because number #1 unless you plan on pouring something like gasoline, nuclear, and toxic waste in your yard, there is no way to kill every single earthworm, and number #2 earthworms are BENEFICIAL to the soil in your yard!!!! You WANT earthworms in your lawn!!!!!!

Home Depot guy: "well if you want the skunks to stop digging up your yard, YOU GOT TO GET RID OF THE EARTHWORMS".

OMG!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply to
MICHELLE H.

I ignore the occasional hole and use milky spore disease. Take a look at

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Reply to
Bill who putters

it is called a "water cannon" or scarecrow. motion activated jet of water. works very well.

or, a low electric fence that the skunk will have to cross at entrances.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago

Reply to
dr-solo

Try a motion-activated sprinkler. (I'm not sure if they work in the dark.) Nobody likes getting hit with a stream of cold water -- except maybe a duck.

So be glad it's not a flock of ducks tearing up your yard. ;-)

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

hi Michelle H, Living in England, I know nothing about skunks except even over her we know that they have foul smelling glands but I am also a very avid salmon angler and know all about worms, as we use them for bait and the way we collect them is to quietly creep around lawns at night with a torch as the worms come out of the ground and lay on the surface and obviously your skunk knows this as well !! So the garden centre guy was right, get rid of the worms and maybe you'll get rid of the skunk as well ?? So now with my horticultural hat back on, lets deal wit this !! you are also right, worms are very beneficial but in lawns, greenkeepers also try to get rid of them, especially golf club greenkeepers as the casts are an unwanted byproduct of worm's activity !! In England we used to use a chemical called 'Chlordane' which was watered on and it would kill the worms !! I would suggest you talk to your local gof club greenkeeper and ask him what they use, as I dont know any names of chemicals in use in USA !! hope this helps, best wishes, Lannerman

Reply to
lannerman

Chlordane was banned here many years ago. (IMHO, it should still be allowed but only for treating/preventing subterranean termites.) I may still have a pint of it.

I thought the ammonium sulfate fertilizer that they use so much of on golf courses drove the worms away.

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Ammonium Sulfate saturated solution will kill slugs on contact.

Reply to
Bill who putters

If your city or town does not have any kind of animal control, you might call the local ASPCA, or better yet, look in your county and state listings. Look for a county extension agent; this sort of thing is exactly up their line. (Um we even have county extension agents in New York City). State Department of Environmental Control/Protection are also good. Failing that, try a local zoo or animal rescue center. If there's a college/university with a big bio or wildlife ecology department, there might be a prof. there with a license to collect mammals.

Also, skunks are notorious rabies carriers and if you have a kid, or if your neighbors have kids, you might be able to play that card (although if the skunk is only coming out at night, chances are it's not rabid). If it's that important to you, you can try laying out some poisoned bait. I would not be willing to do that myself unless I thought the animal was rabid, but you might have different priorities.

Chris

Reply to
Chris

Poisoned bait is a terrible suggestion! Nothing could justify another pet/animal being poisoned for the sake of a lawn. If the skunk has free access to the yard, so do other animals including children. Emilie

Reply to
mleblanca

Poisoned bait is a terrible suggestion! Nothing could justify another pet/animal being poisoned for the sake of a lawn. If the skunk has free access to the yard, so do other animals including children. Emilie

children have free access to a neighbors back yard in the middle of the night?

Poison seems sensible, but I would put it out late and take it in early. A few stray cats wouldn't be missed, either.

Reply to
Pico Rico

There's a good reason the skunk is foraging in your yard but not your neighbor's yards, YOU ARE A FILTHY SLOB.

You need to be poisoned, and especially all your family members... don't need your sicko genes reproducing.

Normal brained folks would use a have-a-heart trap so the critter can be relocated... AWAY FROM YOU SICK RETARDS.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

back when I was in the lab one of the grad students had a problem with a family of skunks under their breezeway slab (covered walk between garage and house). a bee keeper had told me skunks can empty a bee hive in a couple nights because they dont mind the stings. they come at night and scratch at the bee hive, the bees come out and they munch them down. what he used was a raw egg, make a tiny hole, injected cyanide into the egg, sealed with bees wax and then left under the hive. skunks like bird eggs better than bees. we did this, rolled the egg into the hole in the ground and the skunks were gone very quickly. mama skunk shares her food with the babies.

Ingrid ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago

Reply to
dr-solo

Hi,

The problem with a poison bait, if it's something "store bought" like mouse/rat poison, it's usually ineffective against bigger creatures like, skunks, raccoons, opossums etc. etc. I know this because about

10-15 years ago I had a neighbor who had a problem with the same opossum that kept jumping into his uncovered trash barrel every night.

He knew it was the same opossum, because the thing was missing part of it's left ear. These were the days when cities/towns never had the big

90 gallon barrels with the lid. People used the small unlidded barrels.

Well every night the opossum would climb up onto his deck and jump into the barrel. The guy would then knock the barrel over the next morning, and the opossum would run away, only to come back the next night, and jump in there again!

The guy got sick of the opossum jumping in his barrel every night, and dumped a box of mouse/rat poison blocks in the barrel. That night the opossum jumped in the barrel and ate all the mouse/rat poison!!! The guy thought that was the end of the opposum and that it would die, but guess what, it came back that night, and the next night, and the next night, and the next night.

The guy threw more mouse/rat poison in there, and the opossum ate all that, and still kept coming back every single night!!!! After about 2 weeks, the guy gave up and bought a trash barrel with a lid, but the opposum still showed up every night trying to get into the barrel, even after eating 2 full boxes of mouse/rat poison blocks!!!!!

Was this some kind of Super opossum or something!? Maybe he should have tried Kryptonite!?

Reply to
MICHELLE H.

We have NEVER had a problem with skunks digging up our yard in the last

10+ years. But guess what, he was out there again last night at 4:30 am destroying our yard. I got up at 4:30 am to get a glass of water, and I look at the window, and there he is, like 5 feet from the back steps ripping up the grass and making dirt fly everywhere.

I banged on the back, metal storm door, and the SOB skunk looked at me, and went back to digging up the yard. I banged it again, and he looked at me again with an earthworm in his mouth, and went back to digging yet again! So I banged on the door again hard a Third time, and he finally wandered away.

Also, moth balls are now proven to be TOTALLY USELESS!!!! I put about 20 mothballs each in some empty plastic soup bowls, and placed them in about 6 spots where this pest has been digging. Well guess what he did, he just dug AROUND the bowls with the mothballs like they weren't even there!!!! The smell didn't seem to bother him one bit!?

Reply to
MICHELLE H.

many places relocating is not permitted

don't be such an asshole

Reply to
Garrapata

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