OT: anyone know anything about skunks?

I don't know if you have a natural gas meter or gas line to your home, but the utility companies put a skunk-like fragrance in the gas so you know if you have a leak. You might give the utility company a call, just in case.

In order to be for-armed, should something nasty happen, the best treatment to kill skunk-odour is a mixture of the following:

# 1 tsp. of Dawn dishwashing detergent
# 1 quart of 2 percent hydrogen peroxide
# 1/2 cup of baking soda

http://www.ehow.com/how_2282446_clean-d ... z131zAjrbC

This mixture destroys the chemical that causes the odour. Works far better than other common treatments such as tomato juice, etc.

roster wrote:

rosiefrosie wrote: When we went out to look, there was this skunk coming down the road with a honey jar stuck on it's head.

Should have called the Skunk Whisperer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw5ML-3S91A

GOOD ONE ROSTER !

Our bluetick coonhound decided to take on a skunk in our back yard when he was younger. He took a direct hit in the face, ran inside, and tried to wipe it off on the carpet in my wife's office. A bluetick coonhound covered in tomato juice is not a pretty sight. PU, did the house ever stink for a week! When we heard critters under the house earlier this year, we called the pros right away. The fix was to close all possible access points and set traps with raisons.

Well, I looked and found a large hole (with lots of excavated dirt at the far end of it about 125 feet from the house at the end of our inner yard. Unless the skunk has tunneled 125 ft into the crawl space I am still baffled as to where it might be coming from. You'd think he/she would come up in a shorter distance. This is especially baffling since the inner yard is sod grass and does not show any divot holes that a skunk would make when foraging. So if they are living in the hole and or crawl space they exit via the 125' tunnel and hole and only wander our far yard (we have almost 2 acres total).

I checked tonight again and it smells worse out there at night then during the day - another puzzle as I would expect them to be "at home" under our house during the day and therefore stink more during the day and not night. We have strong flood lights out there at night that would have revealed them over the past few weeks - but we have only the smell, and the large entry hole a great distance from the house.

I guess it's time for the pest control people to come, but I don't want them in the crawl space as they might accidentally trigger a spray down there and render our house uninhabitable.

Maybe!!!!!!!!!!!!





Jerry

Many years ago, we had a person working for us who was not from this part of the world, if you know what I mean. He had little information and no idea about the kinds of wildlife that we have. One day, he was driving (alone) in a company car down the highway and he hit a skunk. Not knowing what it was, or what to do, he stopped and decided to look at what he had hit. There was no other traffic on the highway, so he reversed and stopped with the animal on the road beside the driver's door. He then opened the door for a closer look. Just then, the skunk, which had simply been stunned by the encounter, woke up, lifted his tail, and sprayed my colleage, AND THE INSIDE OF THE CAR.

As long as we had that car, it gave us a reminder of that encounter every time you turned on the defroster.

When I was young we had a couple of skunks as pets. Except for their nocturnal habits, they actually make quite good pets. They use a litter box without having to be taught. They are cute, playful, and affectionate. They are not nearly as nasty as squirrels and make much better companions. (We had a rescued squirrel, too, for rehabilitation. I loved her, but she was filthy and not as much fun as a pet.) It always distresses me a little when people want to kill skunks, but I completely understand why people don't like them. I hope you don't mind if I like them, though.

LoQ wrote:When I was young we had a couple of skunks as pets. Except for their nocturnal habits, they actually make quite good pets. They use a litter box without having to be taught. They are cute, playful, and affectionate. They are not nearly as nasty as squirrels and make much better companions. (We had a rescued squirrel, too, for rehabilitation. I loved her, but she was filthy and not as much fun as a pet.) It always distresses me a little when people want to kill skunks, but I completely understand why people don't like them. I hope you don't mind if I like them, though.

I completely agree with you. When I was young I had 5 of them that we found, their mother had been killed by a neighbor in his hen house. Stinky, Buffy, Sweetpea, Oscar and Gladys didn't even have their eyes open. I had to bottle feed them. This was *mumbling* years ago. And you could keep the wild animals as pets then. I gave away 4 of them to friends and kept one for myself. She was amazing. Just like a cat and never sprayed. They will mark their territory sometimes though, aound her outside house/playpen, she did it a lot. I finally had her descented when she was 4 years old because although she never sprayed me it was difficult when someone came to our home. She lived for 14 years old when she went to Rainbow Bridge. I would love to have one of the "designer" ones but it is illegal here to even have one of those now. I also had a fox squirrel. He loved me to death, but was a demon to cats, dogs, or men. He HATED men. He was so fat and loved grapes and watermelon. Would run you over for a drink of decaf tea and thought he owned the house. They do tend to get mean though, sometimes. And a flying squirrel too. I agree that you should call a professional to have the skunk moved. Safer in the long run for everyone.

jonquiljo wrote:Thanks all. I am going to go out today (when they are hopefully asleep) and poke around with a long stake.

This warning might be too late if you went out last night. Watch out. Skunks are nocturnal.

Hose_Head wrote:In order to be for-armed, should something nasty happen, the best treatment to kill skunk-odour is a mixture of the following:

# 1 tsp. of Dawn dishwashing detergent
# 1 quart of 2 percent hydrogen peroxide
# 1/2 cup of baking soda

http://www.ehow.com/how_2282446_clean-d ... z131zAjrbC

This mixture destroys the chemical that causes the odour. Works far better than other common treatments such as tomato juice, etc.

I understand feminine hygiene products also neutralize a skunk odor (Note #1). I also understand skunks travel 5 miles or more a nite foraging for food.

Skunks have no fear. Their only enemies are dogs and cars. Never sneak or walk up behind a skunk. Approach a live skunk so it can see you and just talk to it, so as not to scare it and you should be alright.

It has worked for me. IF you scare it, then you can get sprayed. That's where Note #1 comes in

A hole 8 inches or larger could be for a woodchuck/groundhog - if abandoned can be home to many rodents including skunks.

IF you use natural gas, I would get that checked out PRONTO.

Something that is thoroughly dead, to the point that its tissues are undergoing a kind of 'secondary decomposition' can give off a sulfurous odor.

Speaking of harmless skunks, I have a friend in California who for a long time had s skunk that would come in through the cat door (he and his wife have a number of cats), and eat some cat food. Never harmed anyone or anything.

A lady in nearby Fallon, NV had a cougar that would come in the dog door, for some dog food. Never harmed anyone or anything!

It is too bad that they are banning unusual pets. I have heard lots of good things about skunks as pets. There is even a PBS promo that ran for several years, about a family that had a pet skunk. These bans will eventually catch up us with us, and we will then realize, maybe too late, how wrong it was to ban them.