[Hidden-tech] low tech or high tech?

[Don Lesser]

It sounds harsh, but if you can't get them to leave, you will have to trap
them and kill them. If they like it there, they will not leave willingly.
You cannot legally transport them to Quabbin or anyplace else. I believe the
statute is "visiting a nuisance on one's neighbor." Plus, I don't have a
truck I'd care to sacrifice to the transport. They're feral and even with
the removal of the scent gland, they wouldn't make good pets. Believe me, we
exhausted everything we could think of in the hopes of convincing our skunks
to live elsewhere, but to no avail. Of course, living elsewhere could easily
mean your neighbor's shed since it is close and keeps access to your food
source. 

 

For 10 years, we had skunks living under our barn on and off. I felt that if
I left them alone, they had "permission" to be there. Then, during one
Thanksgiving, one of them sprayed under the barn, which is attached to our
TV room. Despite open windows in 30 degree weather and enough incense to
stock a headshop, the room was unusable for a week. Then, every time I went
into the barn, one of them would saunter away, making me feel that at some
point, I or a guest or worse, a small child, would startle the beast with
the usual results. We hired Tom Olander, in Greenfield, Olander's Wildlife
Control, to first put exclusion fencing around the house and barn. This is
an L-shaped rabbit wire that is set deep enough to prevent them from digging
under it from the outside in. We tried many herbal and natural suggestions.
The skunks got in again and dug under the exclusion fencing from inside the
house. We found where they got in and fenced that. They found another way
in. In the evening, I could hear them under the floor, which is not a
comfortable sound.

 

So, in the end, we hired Tom to trap and euthanize the skunks. There was a
family of 11 skunks living under our barn. There were several generations
there and Tom said that they would continue to come back to their family
nest to have additional generations. He uses a Have a Heart trap and a
lethal injection which is as humane as killing an animal gets. He seems to
take no joy in the killing, which I appreciate. There is no use for the fur.
In the 19th century, they renamed the fur and used it for muffs and other
similar things, but not today. The Joy of Cooking used to give recipes for
skinning and cooking the meat, but in the last 20 years it has been revised
and no longer talks much about game.

 

In the course of trapping skunks, we caught a possum, which we let go. The
goal was not to kill everything that moved on the property, but to get rid
of the skunks who had become serious pests. Yes, it is due in a large part
to human encroachment on the areas in which wild animals live that is
causing the problem. The ready availability of food around human habitations
also contributes to it. I am sorry about that and, as I said, for years, we
attempted to share the property with them, largely successfully. But at a
certain point, they became pests and we could no longer do it. 

 

Sorry to be so blunt, but that's been my experience. 

 

 

Don Lesser

Pioneer Training, Inc.

14 Bobala Road

Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 536-1030 (phone)

(413) 552-0472 (fax)

dlesser at ptraining.com

www.ptraining.com

From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of
MargotZalkind at aol.com
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 5:59 PM
To: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Cc: hidden-tech at hidden-tech.net
Subject: [Hidden-tech] low tech or high tech?

 

OK here is a challenge. 

we have a family of skunks living in a shed near our house. 

they casually saunter into our yard in the evening, 

looking for tasty snacks of grubs and worms. 

 

know of any easy way to scare them off? 

I heard about a sound device..

anyone have any experience with this, 

other than paying hundreds to hire someone to trap them and cart them off? 

Thanks all. 

MZ

 

 

Margot Zalkind
Margot at RowingEducation.org
413 585 9445
The Foundation for Rowing Education, Inc. 
www.rowingeducation.org <http://www.rowingeducation.org/> 

USRowing Safety Committee CoChair
Member USRowing Masters Committee 

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