RSKY
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2003
- Messages
- 2,484
- Tractor
- Kioti CK20S
A few years ago a skunk and a possum got in a fight under our house. We lost. The fight took place at 10:30 one night and we were in a motel 20 miles away by 11:30. When I went thru the house to get my keys and wallet I could TASTE the smell. It was that bad.
Luckily, for us anyway, my sister in law knew a lady who had the same thing happen the year before and she contacted us to tell us what to do. But first, some insurance companies will not cover your loss from this, we had Farm Bureau at the time and they did. So this lady told us the insurance company had been out over $17,000 on them. They had to replace the central unit and all ductwork in their house. Our insurance agent told of another couple in our county who had been on vacation for a month. Skunks had got in the A/C ductwork and sprayed more than once before removed. He said they would have been better off if the house had burned to the ground. Anyway, she told us who to contact and we got an ozone generator and put it in our house. It will kill the smell. Anything you take out will retain the smell and must be thrown away. Washing does not take out the smell. I set the generator on a step ladder with an oscillating fan in front of it and opened the closet doors and let it circulate the ozone in every closet. Dresser drawers must also be opened. If not you will open a drawer the first time a month later and the smell will hit you. I ran that thing in each room for one day. You can't stay in the house because after about 10-15 minutes the ozone will give you a splitting headache. I didn't listen and found that out the hard way. The cleaning company that we got the generator from said it would clear a 15,000 square foot warehouse of smoke smells in 24 hours and we ran it continuously for a five days after the first spraying. and several more days after the second. I set my traps and didn't catch anything until the county skunk catcher, yes we have one, came over and showed me what I was doing wrong. I then caught the skunk AND the possum and dispatched both. The world was good again.
Then on a Sunday afternoon five days after the spraying I walked around the house to where the traps were set and had another one trapped. It was twice the size of the first and spitting and growling with it's tail in the air. So it had torn the cover off the trap, more on that later, and I was afraid to use the sheet method, more on that later too, and the trap was against the central air unit, next to the house, with a neighbor's house on the other side. (Neighbor was real helpful, "Call me when you're messing with those skunks so I can watch you get sprayed. Har, har, har." Really helpful!!) Where was I? Oh yeah! Couldn't shoot in any direction except straight down. So I got up on the central unit and shot the **** thing. Now everybody and their jackass had told me to shoot them in the head and they will NOT spray. WRONG!!! VERY WRONG!!! It let loose and sprayed everything it had. So I used my gloves and fireplace poker and got the skunk and trap in a large trash bag. Put that in my truck and drove off and threw it and the trap in a creek. (Illegal I know but next time I will accept volunteers to get the bloody skunk out.) The house was about clear of the smell before I shot that f e l l o w but after disposing of the body and going back to the house it was back to square one. It smelled just as bad as when the first one sprayed. So the ozone generator stayed about another week.
I did wear a certain pair of shoes to the insurance office the first time. They had come out of the closet directly above where the skunk sprayed. The agent told me to go straight to a store and buy myself new shoes and clothes. Said if the insurance company didn't pay that he would personally.
The first skunk got under the house in the place the skunk catcher said 90% got in. A slight gap under the A/C return air. There is now 300+ pounds of quickcrete poured around our return air vents.
If you have this problem I have some advice. First figure out where the skunk is getting under your house, shop, building, etc.. They buy enough traps that you can set them side by side with no gaps around the opening. Bait them with chicken gizzards. Cover them with HEAVY DUTY TRASHBAGS. That was my mistake, I bought cheap ones. Then when you catch one you can pick it up, tie the bag shut and take it anywhere you want to take it.. I guess you could let them go but I used 12-guage, 3", #4 buckshot. That buckshot is about .22 and the shells hold 41 pellets so I imagined I was shooting each one 41 times with a 22 LR. But I'm wandering off subject again. The second large one had ripped the trashbag off the trap and was just daring me to try to move him. All I had to do was peek around the side of the house and he would start scratching and spitting which is a warning that they are about to spray. Also I think the best place to shoot them in in the hindquarters about the hip joint. I have shot three since and none sprayed. I also use #4 Buckshot which is much larger than birdshot and has more pellets than 00 Buck.
Well heck. I've wandered completely off my story line. Let me see, first skunk sprayed, we end up in an apartment. House nearly livable and I shoot the second skunk and back to square one. Still in apartment. Okay, now I remember, had to go back and read my story to see where I was at. Anyway, since the big skunk had tore the cover off I got a fifty foot nylon rope and tied onto the traps. I had read in the Internet (It must be true!) that skunks could spray thirty feet maximum so I figured I could use the rope to pull the next one into the field behind the house and shoot it.
Well a couple days later I caught the third one.
I was laughing to myself as I got the shotgun and walked out to the end of the rope. I had outsmarted that dumb animal and was gonna drag that cage out in the field and shoot it. The skunk just stared at me and I started dragging but the cage didn't move. The **** thing had chewed the rope apart. Now what do I do?
A young lady at our church, about fourteen at the time, had told me what to do. Said you hold up a sheet so the skunk can't see you and walk toward the cage. Have the sheet twisted around your hands so the skunk can't see them and walk on the sheet kicking it forward. Said if the skunk saw your hands of feet it would spray. You walk up to the cage and drape the sheet over it and then pick it up and carry it wherever you want. I asked her mother and she said she had carried a dozen or more in the back of her minivan for the girl to let loose.
It worked. I picked it up and walked out into the middle of the cornfield and threw that cage as far as I could while holding onto one edge of the sheet. Once it stopped rolling I used the shotgun on it. Since it was the middle of the winter it stayed there for a week or two and I then disposed of it in the trash.
We were in a motel for one night, stayed with daughter one night, and in an apartment ten nights. I acquired quite a following an Facebook during my 'skunk war' and had people messaging me that I had never heard of asking me how to get rid of skunks.
And yes, our county has an (un)official skunk catcher. He also runs a BBQ restaurant. They say it's good. I've never ate there!
Luckily, for us anyway, my sister in law knew a lady who had the same thing happen the year before and she contacted us to tell us what to do. But first, some insurance companies will not cover your loss from this, we had Farm Bureau at the time and they did. So this lady told us the insurance company had been out over $17,000 on them. They had to replace the central unit and all ductwork in their house. Our insurance agent told of another couple in our county who had been on vacation for a month. Skunks had got in the A/C ductwork and sprayed more than once before removed. He said they would have been better off if the house had burned to the ground. Anyway, she told us who to contact and we got an ozone generator and put it in our house. It will kill the smell. Anything you take out will retain the smell and must be thrown away. Washing does not take out the smell. I set the generator on a step ladder with an oscillating fan in front of it and opened the closet doors and let it circulate the ozone in every closet. Dresser drawers must also be opened. If not you will open a drawer the first time a month later and the smell will hit you. I ran that thing in each room for one day. You can't stay in the house because after about 10-15 minutes the ozone will give you a splitting headache. I didn't listen and found that out the hard way. The cleaning company that we got the generator from said it would clear a 15,000 square foot warehouse of smoke smells in 24 hours and we ran it continuously for a five days after the first spraying. and several more days after the second. I set my traps and didn't catch anything until the county skunk catcher, yes we have one, came over and showed me what I was doing wrong. I then caught the skunk AND the possum and dispatched both. The world was good again.
Then on a Sunday afternoon five days after the spraying I walked around the house to where the traps were set and had another one trapped. It was twice the size of the first and spitting and growling with it's tail in the air. So it had torn the cover off the trap, more on that later, and I was afraid to use the sheet method, more on that later too, and the trap was against the central air unit, next to the house, with a neighbor's house on the other side. (Neighbor was real helpful, "Call me when you're messing with those skunks so I can watch you get sprayed. Har, har, har." Really helpful!!) Where was I? Oh yeah! Couldn't shoot in any direction except straight down. So I got up on the central unit and shot the **** thing. Now everybody and their jackass had told me to shoot them in the head and they will NOT spray. WRONG!!! VERY WRONG!!! It let loose and sprayed everything it had. So I used my gloves and fireplace poker and got the skunk and trap in a large trash bag. Put that in my truck and drove off and threw it and the trap in a creek. (Illegal I know but next time I will accept volunteers to get the bloody skunk out.) The house was about clear of the smell before I shot that f e l l o w but after disposing of the body and going back to the house it was back to square one. It smelled just as bad as when the first one sprayed. So the ozone generator stayed about another week.
I did wear a certain pair of shoes to the insurance office the first time. They had come out of the closet directly above where the skunk sprayed. The agent told me to go straight to a store and buy myself new shoes and clothes. Said if the insurance company didn't pay that he would personally.
The first skunk got under the house in the place the skunk catcher said 90% got in. A slight gap under the A/C return air. There is now 300+ pounds of quickcrete poured around our return air vents.
If you have this problem I have some advice. First figure out where the skunk is getting under your house, shop, building, etc.. They buy enough traps that you can set them side by side with no gaps around the opening. Bait them with chicken gizzards. Cover them with HEAVY DUTY TRASHBAGS. That was my mistake, I bought cheap ones. Then when you catch one you can pick it up, tie the bag shut and take it anywhere you want to take it.. I guess you could let them go but I used 12-guage, 3", #4 buckshot. That buckshot is about .22 and the shells hold 41 pellets so I imagined I was shooting each one 41 times with a 22 LR. But I'm wandering off subject again. The second large one had ripped the trashbag off the trap and was just daring me to try to move him. All I had to do was peek around the side of the house and he would start scratching and spitting which is a warning that they are about to spray. Also I think the best place to shoot them in in the hindquarters about the hip joint. I have shot three since and none sprayed. I also use #4 Buckshot which is much larger than birdshot and has more pellets than 00 Buck.
Well heck. I've wandered completely off my story line. Let me see, first skunk sprayed, we end up in an apartment. House nearly livable and I shoot the second skunk and back to square one. Still in apartment. Okay, now I remember, had to go back and read my story to see where I was at. Anyway, since the big skunk had tore the cover off I got a fifty foot nylon rope and tied onto the traps. I had read in the Internet (It must be true!) that skunks could spray thirty feet maximum so I figured I could use the rope to pull the next one into the field behind the house and shoot it.
Well a couple days later I caught the third one.
I was laughing to myself as I got the shotgun and walked out to the end of the rope. I had outsmarted that dumb animal and was gonna drag that cage out in the field and shoot it. The skunk just stared at me and I started dragging but the cage didn't move. The **** thing had chewed the rope apart. Now what do I do?
A young lady at our church, about fourteen at the time, had told me what to do. Said you hold up a sheet so the skunk can't see you and walk toward the cage. Have the sheet twisted around your hands so the skunk can't see them and walk on the sheet kicking it forward. Said if the skunk saw your hands of feet it would spray. You walk up to the cage and drape the sheet over it and then pick it up and carry it wherever you want. I asked her mother and she said she had carried a dozen or more in the back of her minivan for the girl to let loose.
It worked. I picked it up and walked out into the middle of the cornfield and threw that cage as far as I could while holding onto one edge of the sheet. Once it stopped rolling I used the shotgun on it. Since it was the middle of the winter it stayed there for a week or two and I then disposed of it in the trash.
We were in a motel for one night, stayed with daughter one night, and in an apartment ten nights. I acquired quite a following an Facebook during my 'skunk war' and had people messaging me that I had never heard of asking me how to get rid of skunks.
And yes, our county has an (un)official skunk catcher. He also runs a BBQ restaurant. They say it's good. I've never ate there!
