Skunk living in barn

[Margaret]

Yes, this is our second resident skunk, (the first one died for some reason, and was removed) and for some reason they just love to camp out in our barn.. Now mind you all of my grain is kept up and high out of varmits range, and other than escaping our 115 degree weather, I dont know why a skunk would like to live so close to people activity. He is living under a spred of pallets with plastic covered on it and my hay stacked on top of that.. Every day and night,- I have to step onto the pallets and get hay for my hay eaters. So far I have not seen this one, but from the strong odor I can tell he is a resident.

: I just cannot think of a good way to rid myself of this uninvited guest. Has anyone had this problem before? Any advise is appreciated.

:

 

[misfitminis]

We have this problem but mostly in the winter. My husband traps the skunk in a have a heart trap and then takes it down to the woods about 2 miles back and releases it. He drapes a blanket over the trap very slowly and then picks the trap up to avoid getting sprayed. I'm not sure what happens to the skunk once he releases it but we don't see it again. I have a friend that is a game warden and he said skunks like to take up residence for a while if they like it in a place. My minis are aggressive and they will try to stomp and kick little animals so we have to make sure that we move anything that takes up residence in our barns. Once they chased a woodchuck and almost killed it I watched them. Not pretty. They chase cats and dogs. They even kill field rats. I thought horses are suppose to run away but not mine. I have a fence that dosen't allow little animals to walk under it but of course they can still climb. Good Luck with your skunk sorry I was a little long:saludando:

 

[liltnt]

I was onve told to use moth balls under your pallets and it will keep them away. Now I dont know tht it works for sure but would be worth a try

 

[Margaret]

Thanks for the replies! I will get some moth balls and find out if it gets rid of him.. It is certainly worth a try.. I am not brave enough to try the trap idea, although we did ponder it once

: .. If the moth-balls dont work, can I borrow your husband misfitminis? :lol: Thanks again. all.

: Mary

 

[Bluebell]

I just went through that same thing a couple weeks ago only moma skunk had 4 little babies under my hay in the barn. What a problem that was! We got them out of there and then they moved into our machine shed....hope they are gone now. I was told about the moth balls too, didn't try it though.

 

[Irish Hills Farm]

Moth balls do work to get rid of skunks. My grandmother had two skunks living under her deck a couple of summers ago. I poured a box of moth balls under the deck and the skunks left and didn't come back.

 

[Nickermaker]

Also laying around human hair will keep wild critters from coming in. Had problems with skunks and fox - trapped them - then started putting hair off our brushes around - they have not dug into the barn or our chickens since and it's been 3 years since we trapped a skunk and a fox. We see the fox all the time running around here and also have smelt the skunks near - but none have gone back to digging in - as we keep hair out there all the time.

Am going to try this in the pasture also where the deer have tore down our fence and see if it works as well with keep them out of our pasture. Went and got a bag of hair from the beauty shop for this task!!

This trick will keep rabbits out of the garden also - learned this trick from an elderly Japanese lady that always had a wonderful looking garden!

 

[dangerranger]

just about anything that will keep cats away will work on skunks.[ lion or bobcat pee. you get these from hunting suply stores] but once there established there hard to evict. I once lived near a lady who would open a 15 lb bag of cat food on her front porch every monday. soon she was feeding 50 stray cats. since cats rarely poop where they eat they all came to my yard. I tryed everything to get rid of them , smells , sprays , etc. the one thing that worked was hooking up my sprinkler system to a motion sensor so that anything that moved onto the lawn got wet. PS keeps the neibor kids off the lawn too. DR.

 

[SkipsMom]

I suspect it is not a "he" skunk but rather a "she" skunk who is about to bless you w/ skunkettes. :bgrin That happened to us when a mom rooted in under our tackroom floor. We let our Jack Russell terriers try to dig her out, that didn't work but we have great photos of the two terriers doing "go to ground". Turned the garden hose on full power to float/flood her out, that just cooled her off. Used a shot gun to blast her out, she had ear plugs. During each of these attempts she "skunked" us and we could hear the babies. Eventually she left....knock on wood we've not had another skunk board w/ use since then.

Good luck, I don't care for skunks at all.