How To Set Up A Skunk Trap

Living on a little homestead, we have all kinds of adventures. My least favorite take chances is having to deal with the skunks that love our craven eggs. Chickens are highly valuable to us and worth protecting.

What is the best mode to capture a skunk? Nosotros similar to use a live trap that has been baited with foods that skunks tin can't resist. Ideal skunk bait includes eggs, crispy bacon, cat nutrient, chicken or turkey, canned tuna or sardines, peanut butter on bread, marshmallows, or whatsoever meat-based, oily foods with a strong odor.

Nosotros like to bait a live trap with chicken eggs because that is what initially attracted them to our home. The concluding skunk we captured dug upwardly a expressionless chicken and some dead baby bunnies that were a few weeks quondam from our little critter graveyard. Stinky works.

In this post, nosotros will hash out how nosotros keep our chickens and eggs safe from predators, and how nosotros captured and safely disposed of a skunk using a alive trap.

Fortify Homestead to Reduce Predator Temptation and Access

One of the best means that you tin protect your chickens and eggs from skunks and other predators is to fortify their coop. Have the time and resource to make sure it is impenetrable from any chicken predator that may be in your expanse including skunks, raccoons, dogs, weasels, rats, foxes, coyotes, mink, snakes, and birds of prey.

These are steps that we take taken to aid ensure the safety of our birds.

Critter-Proof Nesting Box

We have congenital several different nesting boxes over the years, but my accented favorite is the All-time Nest Box. The eggs gyre out from under the chicken and expect to be collected in a predator-proof tray. The eggs are always make clean. All-time of all, we never have problems with chickens developing the bad habit of eating their ain eggs.

The Best Nest Box can be set upwards to collect eggs from the front or the back. Nosotros designed our coop then that we collect the eggs from a cupboard area on the exterior so that nosotros practise non have to go in the coop to collect the eggs. I dear this setup!

You can purchase these fantastic nesting boxes on Amazon. They are worth the investment.

Best Nest Rollaway Community Nesting Box – Pocket-size (upwards to 20 hens)
Best Nest Rollaway Customs Nesting Box – Big (40-65 hens)

High Roosting Bars

No matter how many roosting bars your chickens have access to they will fight for the highest position. They naturally do this because it is the safest place to exist. You can assistance your chickens be a little safer by giving them an pick for a high roost.

Keep Coop Closed Tight at Night

Closing the coop at night is a bit of a pain simply information technology can assistance you sleep better knowing that your birds are safe until morning. You lot can purchase automated coop doors that will automatically let your chickens out in the forenoon and tuck them in at dark. This is another layer of protection for your birds.

Know Your Enemy

Okay, and so honestly skunks are non my enemy. They are uninvited guests that are non welcome on my homestead. Understanding the skunk better will brand it possible to safely grab and relocate the creature without getting hurt or sprayed.

We have friends that have a pet skunk that they keep in their dwelling house. It has been fun for us to get to know skunks from the fourth dimension they are picayune babies until they are adults. They are non equally docile as a household cat, merely can be quite interesting pets.

Pet skunks have their mercaptan-emitting olfactory property glands surgically removed. One time a pet skunk, e'er a pet skunk. They do not have the power to survive in the wild without their stinky weapon.

Hunting Habits of Skunks

Skunks are nocturnal but tend to be active and hunt in the morning time and evening hours. Generally, that ways that your chickens can safely free range during the 24-hour interval. Wintertime might be an exception because skunks practise not hibernate and can be more than active during the twenty-four hours.

Skunks have very abrupt claws and are quite effective at digging. Virtually of the time, skunks chase alone.

Foods that Skunks Like to Eat

Skunks are omnivorous. That means that their diet is comprised of both meat and plants. Skunks are known to consume birds, moles, snakes, frogs, rodents, insects, beetles, grasshoppers, lizards, and grubs. They besides enjoy vegetation such as berries, fruits and basics, and tin can be subversive to a vegetable garden. Skunks dear chicken eggs.

All-time Allurement Options for Baiting a Live Trap to Catch a Skunk

The best allurement options for capturing a skunk include but aren't limited to the post-obit:

Eggs
Crispy bacon
Cat food
Chicken
Turkey
Canned tuna or sardines
Peanut butter on bread
Marshmallows
Any meat-based, oily foods with a strong olfactory property

Skunk'southward Super Evil-smelling Weapon

Skunks are rarely preyed upon due to their power to emit an incredibly pungent odor. Very few skunks are killed by predators. A skunk volition not impairment you if you leave information technology alone.

A skunk tin spray several anxiety with incredible accuracy. They will not usually spray if they cannot visualize their target. When a skunk feels threatened, it will warn yous before spraying past stomping and hissing. Information technology too will plow its hind end toward you before spraying. In one case the skunk sprays information technology is also late. Annihilation or anyone in the path of that liquid is doomed to odor horrid for some fourth dimension to come.

Skunk Spray Remedy

It has happened at our firm. The kids went out to collect eggs, and one of the girls terminal words were, "Oh look! What a cute fluffy tail!" At that place was no sympathy to be constitute when they came running into my kitchen. They were sent back exterior to stripped downward to their underwear, then sent to the showers.

Subsequently the direct striking, the apparel and shoes were a total loss. After a lot of scrubbing and some fourth dimension, the kids were bearable again. It took a lot longer for the chicken coop to smell normal.

If yous or someone y'all love, get sprayed past a skunk you may want to try these ideas to neutralize the skunk odor.

Scrub with a mixture of ane quart 3% hydrogen peroxide, ½ cup baking soda, and 1 teaspoon dish soap. Let sit for 5 minutes, then rinse well.
Soak in a warm bath with ii-4 cups of blistering soda.
Rinse in a strong vinegar solution for persistent odors.
Launder clothes in laundry soap and baking soda, then air dry exterior.
Nature'due south Miracle Skunk Odor Remover breaks down the oils and claims to permanently remove all traces of the smell from people, pets, and surfaces. It might not exist a bad idea to go along on mitt.
Mold Monster Stink Slayer is an all-natural skunk odor remover that works well on carpets and surfaces.

Tomato juice, oatmeal, and beer baths do not assist to neutralize the skunk odour.

How to Catch a Skunk in a Alive Trap

Select a medium sized live trap. Ideally use a 17" trap that has a 7" 10 7" opening. They make live skunk traps with solid sides to help reduce the gamble of being sprayed.

Either of these live traps should exist effective for trapping a skunk. It'south a really proficient idea to have one earlier y'all recollect you need it.

Live Animal Cage Trap with Humane Release for Rabbits, Stray Cats, Squirrels, Raccoons, Moles, Gophers, Chickens, Opossums, Skunks, Chipmunks, and Groundhogs
SKUNK-Due north-MORE No Spray Alive Skunk Trap

Got the Skunk – Now What?

When Jonathan announced that we had a skunk in the trap early 1 morn, I tried to pull the "girl" carte." In our business firm, there are no jobs that are gender specific. Everyone works and they are all just jobs that need to go washed. Even so, the thought of relocating a skunk had me scrambling for excuses to permit "the boys" have care of this i.

I squared my shoulders and went exterior to encounter our naughty little predator. It was an adorable creature and looked quite healthy. It did not seem bothered by our presence, which ways he had probably been hanging around our identify for a while.

Stay Calm and Go on the Skunk Calm

We spoke in soft reassuring voices and avoided doing anything to frighten our little convict. It can be calming for the skunk to exist covered with a dark tarp. We did not want to do anything to upset him. He may have been the one in the cage, but he was also the one with the ability.

Dauntless, Cautious Skunk Relocation

At present we had to decide if we were going to dispatch the beast, or brave relocating him to the nearby mountains. One look at those large eyes and we knew that we had to risk relocation.

Nosotros drove the petty pickup equally close to the location of the cage every bit possible. We placed a large tarp in the back to wrap effectually the cage one time it was successfully in the dorsum.

Sam was elected to exercise the dirty work. He covered the cage with a plastic tarp and grabbed the top handle, carefully placing it on top of the plastic in the dorsum of the truck. We covered the cage with the tarp and used 2x4s to keep the tarp in place.

Sam and Ben very slowly took the backroads into the foothills to find the right place to release the skunk. Jonathan and I followed behind.

Sam placed the covered trap in an open area, facing away from united states of america. He tied a fishing line to the latch of the trap and opened it from a distance. Information technology took the skunk a minute to figure out that it was gratis, just soon took off to brand its a new home.

Celebration and incredible relief. No one was sprayed and the skunk got to live.

Nosotros Have Not Ever Been So Lucky

There take been some skunks that have non had the opportunity to leave our identify alive. Several years agone, there was one that got into the chicken coop and mutilated a craven to get the eggs out from inside of the live bird. It was huge and not at all friendly. It was able to squeeze its huge body in through a tiny opening in the nesting box.

I much prefer to catch and release any unwanted critters. We originally purchased this trap to catch squirrels that were killing my fruit trees. We captured 13 squirrels before we were done.

Sometimes the predators pose too bully of a adventure and relocation is non wise. Unfortunately, some critters must be eliminated. Wild animals tin can be unpredictable and dangerous, despite how adorable they are. Hope for the best, but ever be prepared for the worst.

Thanks for beingness office of the solution!
Jonathan and Kylene Jones