Coyote urine and scent darts (golf tees with cotton balls glued to them). You can buy it at Agway. It’s more expensive than you would think, and smells far, far worse than you would ever imagine. But your skunks will be gone the next day.
Warning: you will also have coyotes in your yard that same day. Take your pick.
Chesterfield said:In reply to Snowdoggie :
While I regularly see or hear coyotes in the neighbors pasture, I do not think they will be that cooperative or tame, but is an interesting solution to the problem. However, most my neighbors tend to take a shoot first ask questions later when they see coyotes. They are considered varmints around here. I know several people who have lost chickens and pets to them.
The tame ones like this one are usually rescued as pups raised around a family and some domestic dogs. I have had a lot of huskies in rescue that came from more rural areas. They will kill chickens too. I have also rescued a couple of pit bulls from my neighborhood because somebody needed to. I don't have a problem with them as they usually just play with the Huskies and the Malamute. Pit bull tails do have a tendency to send things flying though. The local Pit Bull Rescue here has a competition to see how many empty one litre coke bottles a dog can scatter with his tail. Watch out for those tails. 
In reply to Woody :
I am aware how bad the coyote urine can smell, and I am pretty sure it would cause the other wildlife to avoid the property. I already see coyotes on neighboring properties, they probably already travel the game trail in the woods on my property.
I guess we will see if the move on after the lowlands dry out. We did not start seeing them until after the heavy rains that caused flash flooding in the county. My property is on high ground, but still had standing water on it.
In reply to Chesterfield :
We had a giant skunk living under our deck one summer. Basically that's what we did - made sure we left the back door carefully gave it plenty of warning we were coming out. Never even smelled it.
I think I accidentally made it go away by feeding it some chocolate cake. I chased it away before it ate too much, but after a little research it seems that chocolate gives them an upset stomach but won't really hurt them.
In reply to Duke :
Yeah, we are planning to just be cautious going in and out the back door, and hoping the move on like they arrived quietly and odor-free. I am not sure that my wife would let me "waste" chocolate cake on the skunks.
preach said:jharry3 said:
Live trapping is a non starter because you WILL be sprayed.
Well...not so true.
My MiL is funny she was the first woman to retire from the Boston building wreckers union and is now a mid-Maiine self stylized farmer. She had it in her head that her older friend who is like a pioneer woman told her to just grab the skunk by the scruff of the neck at the same time as scooping the skunk's tail under it's butt and pick it up. Well her friend never told her that, but she has successfully done it about 4 times. My wife has seen her do it once. Tad bit touched haha.
I think they need to extend their hind legs in order to pump out the stink.
I am not sure I am feeling that adventurous, and how do avoid being sprayed when you try to put it in a container to move it.
We caught a skunk in a live trap. We tossed a towel over it and got it opened back up without it spraying us. Of course we werent trying to relocate it.
I really appreciate everyone's input. My main objective was trying to find ideas to humanely encourage them to relocate somewhere not in my yard. I do not mind if they just moved back into woods if that is where they moved in from, I just did not want to have an accidental altercation with a skunk. I try to live in peace with most of animals around me, except mice they will have short life if I see them. Your input have provided several ideas and plenty humor. So thanks.
I have had a family of skunks in my back yard for the last three springs. They are harmless... except with a shared-custody dog, I have to be very cautious because she will totally try to eat them and get sprayed. When I don't have the dog, I appreciate that they eat grubs and bugs.
Buy a gallon of tabasco sauce. Pour a mostly-continuous line of it around the perimeter of your yard. They don't like the smell and if they get it on their feet it will hurt. Harmless and temporary, but it stings for a while. The nice thing is that you're dealing with a pretty intelligent but not stubborn animal. They are the Aquarius of the animal world. A Raccoon is a Scorpio and will drag a leg trap on it's mostly-severed foot to tip your trash can just to spite you. Skunks are pretty chill. If they encounter something they don't like, they just move on.
Mr_Asa said:For what its worth, normally relocating a nuisance animal to some other property is illegal. Dealt with that at my grandparent's house with the damned peacocks that ignorant neighbors brought in as yard birds.
May need to get written permssion
As someone who lives just into the rural area beyond the suburbs, i hate shiny happy people who relocate animals because they always become my nuisance
My wife is more afraid of being sprayed than I am, and one of her concerns is we have seen the skunks out in the middle of the day. This when we normally run errands. We both thought skunks were more nocturnal. Is it normal to see skunks in the middle of the day?
Not normal to be out in the day, but not necessarily any danger. They are considered nocturnal but mostly as a defense from predators. If they feel un-hunted they will come out any time, especially in the spring when they're nursing young. Gotta eat more.
If they're out in the day and have a limp, act drunk, or do weird things like walk in circles, they may be rabid.
One night last year I was sitting on the back porch enjoying a beer. One of the young ones walked right over to me (despite my movement and making noise to make it change its mind), put one paw on my shoe, looked up at me, and curled up for a nap under the patio table. Needless to say I got up very slowly when I was done with that beer. He might have been young enough to not have developed glands yet, but I wasn't taking the chance.
Cute, though.
They do not seem to walk funny or act weird, they just seem to be foraging in the yard. I do not mind them getting rid of the bugs. The young ones are pretty cute.
Dump some tomato juice around?
Not sure how to keep them off your property, but if they're living on your property run an extension cord out and plug in a drop light and a radio. I've found Bible talk works best. I've chased mom and babies out of my barn, out from under dead cars, and out of the trunk of a dead car.
Skunks don't have to spray to stink. If you're sleeping with the windows open and one walks through the yard you will wake up and not be able to fall back asleep for quite a while.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
Plenty of my family locally live on acreage or farms, and they have received their share of mostly unwanted cats or kittens from town folk who like to drive about 10 miles out of town to dump their unwanted pets. My sister does not mind so much because she loves animals and all her cats are outside/barn cats. The new blood replaces those taken by predators or hit on the road. However, it can be headache if you do not want extra animals, or if they are nuisance animals.
So far, we have not smelled them, and they have not really bothered us. We will probably wait to see if the move along on their own, before we decide to do anything. They were no incidents today when the lawn was mowed, but I have not seen them since then.
I hear they like to dig for grubs. Put some GrubX (I think) on the lawn. Nothing to eat and the skunks will forage elsewhere.
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
I believe I bought some of that or something similar last year, but my spreader decided to break. I might have given it to my parents, so I guess I will have to check.
I have at least one skunk that passes through my yard a couple of times per week in the dark hours. The odor wakes me, I sleep with the windows open. Be careful with them, they can be rabid and always stinky. On a side note I got a Turkey this past may that probably had been feuding with a skunk from the overpowering odor.
Maybe turkeys will run them off
As far as dumping them elsewhere, don't. animals are completely bewildered and terrified. The locals don't accept them and the usually fight to the death. This was my grandfather's observation from his farm. For both domestic and wild creatures
humane society has some research on their site about relocating, IIRC. they say only do it if you're otherwise going to kill because it's like 3/4 chance to end up with the animal dead anyway.
I am viewing this with interest because I walked out to my mower beside the shed to mow and there's one with its butt pointed right at me, ready to fire. I backed off slowly. It then crept back under a crack and into my shed. Oh buddy. I was able to get the mower going and pull away without being sprayed but it was like 5 feet away, kept poking its head out.
I don't mind humane methods, but I just don't want to get sprayed. plain and simple. I hear headshots often result in spray. if you're shaky, old prof of mine suggested baiting them with peanut butter on the underside of a cracker on the pressure plate in a live trap. Once it's trapped it's easy for the kill shot.
current plan of mine is to bomb the shed with ammonia, give it some time, then try to close the gaps. If that doesn't work I'm going with a thick contractor trash bag opened up, trap inside with the preferred bait, then remotely closing the bag with a long pole (out of sight of the skunk) and taking the next step.
I have groundhogs in the yard too. so far my wife's flower garden and veggies are safe, but I'm prepared to bait with cantelope should the time come. Oh yeah then the moles, opossums, rabbits, whatever else, even some stray duckling that wandered through one day. We were just talking last night that we hated having a neighbor's "outdoor" cat around-- an invasive species killing all the native wildlife-- and I guess it was keeping all the little things at bay. I prefer nuisance native species any day, however.
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