in my tractor shed

cuby

Member
Got a skunk in my live trap, what is best & easiest way to remove it and to keep from getting squirted? Have heard about throwing a blanket over trap?? Anyone done this and what was end results?? My luck it will be a smelly outcome.
 
Not so hard, blanket will help. Don't startle him, use tact, use something long that can reach the latch/door, you'll be just fine. I use a hockey stick to open the live trap and all they want is to run free. If the back end comes up, then the blanket is used. I think racoons are 100x worst, nasty critters when in cage, I have let one go, but usually shoot them on sight.
 
Kick the trap a few times to make sure the skunk is alive. Kidding of coarse. I trapped one in an attic. I very carefully lifted the skunk down the ladder, and out the door. You might use a cover slowly put over the top of the trap for added safety, or pull the trap outside with a rope. Stan
 
I have removed several caught in traps, cover with an old tarp or blanket and remove the trap. Let the blanket or tarp sit over the trap for a few minutes and then gently remove to the outside. Now decide on drowning in the creek, putting a hose from the exhaust into the cage under the tarp or releasing with a long stick. Shooting usually goes bad and the skunk will spray
 
You can use a tarp. Hold it up in front of you walk up to the trap and throw the tarp over the trap. Then you can pick up the trap and carry it out somewhere to release him if that's what you want to do, or shoot him in the trap once you have him where the smell won't be a issue. I've heard if you shoot them just perfect they don't spray. I have no personal experience with any of this information, but I did see the tarp trick used on TV. I guess a person could get a cheap one time use rain suit and have at it, it would be a one time use suit regardless of price most likely after an attempt like that.
 
i have done it over half a dozen times. i use an old black hooded sweatshirt. you have to cover the whole trap. i usually drown them in a tank of water. i tried to teach this to the blonde horse woman down the road i dont know what she did wrong but she got hosed twice by 2 different skunks. one last thing move slowly. fast jerky actions upset them.
 
I guess I have never shot one just perfect, they always spray! A cardboard box large enough to fit over the trap, with a hole in it for a hose from an exhaust pipe.
 
The only time I caught a skunk in a live trap, I stood about 15 feet away and blew him all to hell with one shot from a .30.30. He didn't spray.

I figured I only had one chance so I better make it good.

I'd set this trap next to our garage to try to catch a stray cat that had been getting into our cats' food and I got the skunk instead. We'd just had new siding put on the house a month before and my wife threw a fit when she saw the .30.30. She just knew I was going to splatter skunk all over the new siding, but I didn't.
 
Keep in mind while a nuisance they eat rodents and probably the biggest reason it is around besides possibly picking through the trash. As long as they are not too close I don't mind them. Obviously, you now have a trap to empty so do that per the advice given perhaps a thousand feet or more away from the buildings if possible.
 
I caught one in a jaw trap. It had killed several of my chickens. It took a few 22 shots but I got it and it never sprayed. Appeared to be a very pregnant female.
 
My method of choice is a tarp. Sometimes they spray but the tarp will protect you. My preferred method on release is to uncover the door only sit the trap on the wall of a nearby bridge that spans a small creek but is around four feet deep and shake the skunk out of the trap. Has no time to spray on the way out and then just swims to the bank and leaves. I bet I?ve done over 100 skunks this way and knock on wood it?s always worked in my favor
 
Hold the blanket/tarp over your head and procede slowly.They wont spray if covered. Toss the trap into a stock tank;pond;irrigation ditch......
 
NY 986: I agree with you wholeheartedly, except in our part of the world, eastern Montana
(and other places), they are known rabies carriers. Dad and Mother had to take the 21 rabies shots
a number of years ago because they were doctoring a calf that had contracted rabies from a
skunk (they assumed, because of a local rabies outbreak at the time). Was not fun for them at all.
Therefore skunks are not my friends.
 
I agree. I have live trapped many raccoons and used to give them to a local club. Now that I no longer have horses or horse feed for them to eat they generally stay away.
 
First racoon I had in a live trap was PIZZED!.. I had set out some cat food in a magnetic tray...he literally tore off both magnets, and bit the tray, denting it. Had a skunk once...shot him with the 22, hardly nicked the wire on the cage. He didn"t spray, but I wasn"t too close when I shot him.
 
I built a oversize rabbit box about 5 years ago to try to get skunks away from a rental house I have. I had some rope handles to pick it up with. When it tripped, I would cover it with a small tarp and load it in my truck to carry off. Most times it would be a possum, maybe 2 skunks, I stood behind the trap and opened the door and shook it. I didn't get sprayed but I was nervous about it.
 
A skunk has to arch there back to spray, just shot them in the back bone or use a big enough gun to kill them fast. Done it several times
 
Hold a tarp in front of you and slowly cover the trap. Vacuum hose from the pickup exhaust pipe to under the tarp and let the pickup run for 10 minutes. Never had one smell doing it that way. Bud
 
I use the blanket over the trap trick....it works most of the time. They are really good mousers and by nature docile. No noise or sudden moves and they are easy to deal with. I could live with them, no problem, but my dog can't! He HATES skunks & getting sprayed doesn't bother him at all. He can kill one so quick it doesn't remember dying.
 
I caught one in a live trap in my sweet corn patch, first thing in the morning, thought I'd better wait until after I got home from work and the cobwebs left my head. Got home ,grabbed a 22 Auto, snuck around a shed, steadied the gun on the shed and opened up. Skunk must of died during the day, I shot the hell out of a dead skunk.
 
The trap was in a bad place to do anything quiet so he got some lead in the head. stinks some but not bad. Will wait a couple days then pull him out.
 
My father found a skunk in the hen house back in the seventies. He went in, stood in front of it, with his hand he turned it and guided it out, had to lift it's front end over a couple of 12 x 12 inch beams and out the door. It walked off into the woods, never sprayed. I stood well back and watched, didn't volunteer!
 

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