It turns out the skunks are digging up grubs. In our yard, the large grubs were 17 year locust larva.
I learned about grub control stuff and applied it to the yard. The skunks quit coming because the grubs were dead
I have to force myself to do it because it's a stinking mess to dispose of them.
I drop them in a heavy duty construction garbage bag, quickly seal it, then drop it in another one and repeat. Then I have to leave it on the side of the garage till garbage pick up day. But you can still smell it.....
I live in a highly populated area north of Detroit and skunks are everywhere. There's more skunk roadkill than there are squirrels.....
.22 thru the lungs, and I’ve never had one let loose.
Maybe I’ve been lucky but was given this advice by someone who swears by it.
Having chickens, or a grub infested lawn makes anyone a target for skunks.
Skunks can lay waste to both.
Put out grub killer on your lawn and the skunks will go away.
Owls love skunks.
Occasionally we catch s skunk in a live trap around the chicken pen. Safe easy way to move them out is to toss an old towel over the trap. Spray it with starting fluid till the skunk goes to sleep (ether) Then you can dump him out safely and shoot him. Cover the trap with Line for a few days and the smell goes away.
If you shoot a skunk while in the trap it will release and you will have the odor there for a long time.
It turns out the skunks are digging up grubs. In our yard, the large grubs were 17 year locust larva.
I learned about grub control stuff and applied it to the yard. The skunks quit coming because the grubs were dead
So, are there bags in or under your trees?
It sounds like you have the right idea. Tie it to a stake and you may get your picture.
We had a rabbit population that was out of control, and they were destroying my wife’s garden, so I told her I would trap the rabbits and get rid of them. (I am in a neighborhood, so I don’t have the option of picking them off)
I get the trap set, and one night, as I am sleeping with my windows open, I am having dreams of skunks. I woke to my wife whispering “Wake up! I think there’s a skunk in the trap!”
Sure enough, in my groggy state, I peered out the window at the trap and could see black and white in it. It was about 5 AM and just barely light, and I thought if I could release it quickly, I might be able to sleep another hour before I had to get up for work. So I grabbed a pair of pants, pulled them on commando-style if you get my drift, put on a t-shirt and shoes, and still completely befuddled by sleep, shuffled out to the backyard to release the skunk.
Now, this was a first for me. Never had to release a skunk, but I had talked with my boss about it and he said it was safe as long as you held a sheet or beach towel in front of you as you walked calmly and slowly towards the skunk, then you could gently cover the cage with it and let the skunk out of the trap.
This all sounded reasonable when you were in an office with fluorescent lights discussing it before lunch, but at 5 AM with a real, smelly skunk in your trap...well, I was a little nervous. But he had sounded confident, so I thought it should be just as he said. I walked slowly towards the skunk, which stopped moving as I approached. I knew this, because the tinkling sound of rustling inside the cage trap suddenly stopped, and the silence seemed...well...ominous to me! But on I went.
I reached the trap, and bending over, very gently laid the towel over the top. So far so good.
Unfortunately, as I bent and opened the other end of the trap to allow the skunk to run out, my pants started to slip down. I had grabbed a baggy pair of pants that really didn’t fit, and didn’t take the time to put on a belt. So just as the skunk exited the trap, my pants started to go, and it was a full moon starting to rise. I desperately cinched my elbow to my side, and looked up to see my wife’s grinning face in the window looking out at me.
I suddenly had this instantaneous vision of me, getting my fifteen minutes of Internet Fame from a viral YouTube video posting by my wife from her phone.
In this video, here I am with my pants falling completely to the ground as the skunk exits the trap. It stops, and gives me a spray right in my face before waddling off. Me, with my naked chalk-white butt completely exposed, blinded by skunk spray, groping around and gasping before tripping over the empty trap and falling to the ground.
All this went through my mind in a flash, and to my relief, my pants didn’t go down, the skunk didn’t pause, and my wife didn’t have a phone recording the whole thing! But she was grinning as she saw me struggling to keep my pants up!
Put up a big own box for horned owls, you won’t have skunks again.
SKUNKS CARRY A MYRIAD OF DISEASES—_THE LEAST OF WHICH IS RABIES