PHEEWWWWWWW

[CopperTopMom]

I think a skunk has taken up residence either in our cellar or under our front porch The smell at this end of the house...... I checked in the cellar (carefully ) and didn't see the little critter. We have seen him/her/it several times lately and it has been making itself to home in the barn, I really hope it hasn't decided to move house

Does anyone have ANY ideas on how to encourage the wee beastie to move?

My mom came down for a bit to try and help me get a sliver of glass out of my foot (we've had to resort to an elm bark poultice) and when she got home she smelled of skunk. It is truly eyewatering sometimes (it seems to come and go). Of course the fact that it's pouring rain out is only making the smell stronger.

coppertopmom

 

[Camasjune]

Cat food or canned tuna will coax the critter out into the open after dark. I don't know what you wanna do with him, though. Live trap or shoot? Do you have animal control or a county trapper that can deal with it for you?

I've always liked the little stinkers and allowed them to hang out to clean up the mice and bugs. As long as I kept the neighbor's dogs from harrassing them, they didn't spray. Yeah, my neighbor didn't like the fact that I had 2 families of skunks living on my place, but their dogs stunk much worse wafting through my open windows than the skunks.

 

[CGTech]

Camasjune:
Actually I don't have a problem having them around for the same reasons. In the barn is just fine, we give each other our space (and don't try to collect eggs when it's eating it's share of the chicken scraps) and things work well.


IN MY CELLAR IS A DIFFERENT STORY THOUGH I don't feel quite so generous when it's stinking us out of the house.

Our neighbour reccomends poison but I REALLY don't like that option and refuse to use it. To many other critters could get into it, not least of which would be my kids. Besides I don't have anything against the skunk just where he's decided to reside right now.

coppertopmom

 

[EDDIE]

place some moth balls around in likely hiding spots. They don't like the SMELL.

 

[CGTech]

coppertopmom here

CGTech brought a box of them home with him and dumped them down through an unused heat dump in the middle of the floor. We're hoping it's decided that it should move. We have an old house with all kinds of weird gaps around the foundation but never had a skunk go down there before, cats but not skunks. We try to keep the holes plugged to keep the critters and the cold north wind out but don't always find all the gaps.

The skunks are usually happy to stay in the barn and roam the yard at night. In fact by this time of year they've usually headed for the woods for the summer. Then they come back in the fall for a bit before they hibernate some where around the barn (don't know where and ain't lookin ). Then usually they hang around for a bit in the spring after they wake up till the weather warms up and the snow goes, then they go. I think this is a young one that doesn't know the routine. We found a large dead skunk in front of the barn last fall, no idea what killed it, no visible sign of anything. If that was parent then I guess kiddo doesn't know where to go

 

[CopperTopMom]

The house is livable again

yesterday morning it literally drove us out of the house (with all the windows open so the nice fresh breezes could blow through).

Now it's concentrated in and around the back porch, a little "doghouse" type shelter built to store wood for winter. It's really low to the ground and judging by the blowflies congregating near there I think it may be dead under there
On the weekend CGTech gets to rip up the floor and see what he can find and dispose of any remains The boards are getting a little "worse for wear" anyhow so maybe he can salvage some boards from the old barn to use to replace the ones he rips up

Just another thing to add to his holiday to-do list