I have a family of skunks living under my house and they keep gasing the sh*t out of me,its nauseating. I smelled up the ED yesterday,couldn't help it, wasn't my fault.

So I set a have a heart trap(although it was really gonna be a have a bullet trap). I placed a piece of toast and peanut butter towards the back of the trap and set it where I knew they were coming and going from. Got up this morning and the trap was gone? What the heck.

I walk further around the barn and there it is upside down with a huge and pissed off racoon in it. I placed the trap in the back of the truck and on the way to work my plan was to pull over by a wet land I knew off and release the beast.

I get down the road,pull the trap out and there is a major flaw in the design. The racoon is so big that he is sitting on the release plate so I cannot set the trp for open. And he wasn't coming out with me near the exit. So I put on my leather gloves,held the trap open and shook it upside down until the critter fell out. I forgot to think if it had rabies as he would attack me when he came out. It was to late. Luckily when he hit the ground he hit the ground running.

Hopefully now that mr racoon is gone the skunks will settle down. In the mean time I will wash and reset the trap again. If I get a skunk he does not get the option of freedom as I cannot take the chance of getting gassed while shaking him out the trap.

Country living...............

Eh, sometimes the dangers we face are simply a matter of where we choose to live.

I am now faced with living about one mile away from Section 8 housing on the edge of a Target store, where a new Copps and St. Mary's ER exist. Yikes, you might as well put up a neon sign that says, "Gang Bangers Welcome." They already had a shotgun battle in Target's parking lot.

Given the choice I would pick your situation--and the skunks. I live in my current home because I move farther out each time. I lived in my last apartment because it was near the highway out of Madison. Then I moved out of my first home because they developed that area. Now I'm thinking about moving again because this area is getting built up, and in a bad way.

I used to ridicule hermits and guys who live on the fringes of society and owned bomb shelters. Now I think they're the smart ones.

BTW, one of my best clients just used a 629-5 I sold him and dusted a rabid skunk, and he also lives in an urban area. We have deer and red foxes in my subdivision. We now have black bear sightings routinely. Animals either appear now because we encroach on their territory or for the cheap food provided by suburbanites. Just like gang bangers, who smell about the same as your skunks...

I'm pretty sure they haven't built a "have a heart" trap for gang bangers yet.

...good...

That leaves me to my own devices and no excuses will be necessary.

To get rid on any pests...
1) send a smoke bomb under the building
2) close up the entrances after they evacuate.
Problem solved. Hope it helps.

Oh, I was going to ask you, is the style of the trap you're using based upon a moral decision not to take life? If so, I can understand the steps you're going through.

But as I have found with many pet owners, they project the pain and suffering their beloved pets might feel upon all animals, even dangerous varmints. I hope this is not the case.

If you are far enough out into the country, I'd bait an area far from the house, go to a flea market and buy a used Ruger 10/22 rifle, find a brand of .22LR ammo that functions and groups to your individual rifle (they are all different) and humanely dispatch them.

Getting serum for hydrophobia (rabies) is not the ordeal we knew as children, but I'd rather not risk it. As an old rifle nut who owned several varmint rifles, I can vouch for the fact that animals will be taken cleanly and quickly at distance.

Might be so but my luck something would catch on fire and burn my house down. Its old and wouldn't take much to torch the old girl.

Have a heart seemed a lazy mans option as oposed to sitting up in the apple tree into the wee hours of the morning wating to get a shot. Figure I'll trap them then shoot them. Up here its a gainst the law to relocate skunks anyways.

That's a good, safe idea.

That's the reason our neighborhood cannot leave pets out unsupervised. We have redtail hawks and red foxes. Some places in California have reported a resurgence of coyotes. While coyotes are a constant presence here, we don't usually see them this close to population.

Heck, people are getting predatory and worthless, why not wildlife, too? Next year, killer house-plants and sniper dust bunnies.

Check this out:

https://content.usatoday.com/communities ... h-dakota/1