Hi Folks
How are you all dealing with lactating female skunks, do you defer trapping until the young are out of the den or do you trap any way? Hard to determine what the gender is until euthinized and then if the den site is in a tight spot i.e under a concrete slab or other structure and then having to try locate the young ones. Appreciate any input or ideas.
Thanks

Gary

Hard question to answer. Way too general. Skunks are ambulatory very quickly, so when you catch mom, they are usually close behind. I've relocated entire families in 15 minutes and I've caught entire litters before I caught mom. Kind of a "play by ear" thing.

In my area, skunks give birth around the middle of May. I don't see the young outside of the den until mid June or later. I don't see many females out of the den during this time either. Most of the skunks I catch at this time are males. They are out and about and these are the ones people see and complain about.

That's not to say I haven't had to deal with the maternal dens.

Positive set the den, catch the mother and dig out the den. It costs a lot more and a fair percentage of folks are willing to wait a month to avoid the extra cost. But when they're not, it's trap and dig.

Interesting post, sqs. I've done some den digging in my life, but never for baby skunks. ( They nearly always come out on their own ) It must be interesting though.

Very early in my skunk catching career a customer (who frankly knew more about skunks than I did) caught me on this. Low and behold there were seven little skunks in the den. Barely had their eyes open. They certainly weren't coming out of the den on their own.

Several things I've read put the young at four weeks of age before opening their eyes. That seems about right in my experience. Two more weeks and they're sticking their heads out of the den.

It's a lot more fun to wait until they're ready to come out on their own. I use 7x7x24 colony traps to catch the litter.

sgs - Good post thanks for sharing! I do think this is one of the toughest, or should be one of the tougher calls of the reproductive season. Makes it tougher that skunks and raccoons and other critters don't all drop young at the same exact time though the bulk may be during a certain period.

I've had three calls on skunks in the last week (I don't advertise for skunks) due to referrals and upon looking at them, no way I could say female or otherwise, but all were as was mentioned under slabs or under inaccessible spaces where confirmation would be nearly impossible unless you could hear audibly the young, or you checked mom's belly.

After having that litter washed out last week by a homeowner and seeing them eyes closed, ear flaps glued to their heads, I don't relish the idea of dealing with those daily calls the way most do in this industry.

I have been lucky, most of the calls I get for this, are more the "I saw a skunk and it seems to be going under there" versus "my dog just got sprayed", or "my house smells like skunk type."

Anyway, while some would consider it an animal welfare situation (possibility of young dying if mother skunk is removed) it is also a potential odor issue in any of these cases for the client whether they do it themselves and have the result or they hire someone who can't know or doesn't know.

I had a raccoon call the first year we opened.

Caller - "I trapped the raccoon myself, wasn't any hard thing to do, didn't need to hire anyone for it."

Myself - "So why are you calling me now?"

Caller - "There is a bad odor in my house, so bad I can't sleep inside the house even with windows open and doors open."

Myself - "So you caught a female raccoon and took her away and didn't realize they had young or might have had young the way someone you would have hired would have?"

Caller - "Well.....Yes I guess that is pretty much what happened, and now I'm tearing down drywall but don't want to gut the whole house."

The rest of the story is too long for anywhere but a conference over beers, but needless to say this guy who felt nobody needs any special wildlife damage management skills or knowledge really got himself sideways and suffered due to this odor issue, so I always think of him when uncertain about an exclusion or live trapping situation.

Justin

I don't know what other guys do but that customer (and another) taught me a good lesson.

During the birthing season, I need to euthanize the skunk and see if it's a nursing female. If it is I need to take the steps necessary to humanely deal with the pups. If for no other reason than my own standards.

The other customer I referred to was not interested in having me dig them out and dealt with the situation on his own.

Everyone has their preference.

Thanks for sharing that too!

Good points!

I just had a article in the trappers post on this subject . Try to figure what phase she is in thsn you can see how much prsssurs you can put on her. In my area this time of year if the skunk is there every day it most likly is a female with young. If the skunk is a male or barren female it aill be a here today and gone from 5 to 10 days depending on the the sex and size of home territory. Males seem to be 7 to 10 days for a complete circuit. Also this time of year if more than one adult skunk is in the den then chances are no young. My customers are my eyes and hears so I ask them what they are seeing at night

Thank you, Jonesie, so much for that final sentence. So many in our business give no credence at all to what the customer says. ( Okay, I admit that some customers seem like they recently landed from outer space, but not most of them )