Paul most of the time your not very funny but ocasionally you could be the last comic standing. I think I'm gonna go make myself a little toddy and go to bed.

I don't know if this thread has run its course, but here goes. I heard about chloroform when i interviewed paul Winkelmann years ago for WCT. I called Wedor corp. (414-329-9041, and yes, the number still works) and ordered some. A quart was almost as much as a gallon so I got a gallon, and split the price and gallon with my brother dave, who also does some skunk work. If I remember we paid about $130 for the gallon, hazardous material delivery fee included.

Before I tried it I had injected my share of skunks in cages, covered cages and moved them, etc. I was amazed at how easy the chloroform made handling them, esp. those pain in the butt agitated young of the year who spray apparently for the heck of it. Chloroform makes most of them so calm they seem to lose interest in spraying (although not completely - still have to move slow). The stuff got them buzzed out and slowed down enough to inject them easily, and eventually i started putting them in a pipe to finish them off, as described in my book. I remember getting two agitated juveniles in a 10x10x30 cage set for coon, they were running all over the place, wouldn't let me near them, no way I could get a needle in them as they wouldn't hold still, and when i got within 10 feet with a cloth cover all I saw was raised tails and flared pink bungholes pointed at me, with them looking at me over their shoulders and twitching and jumping like they were gonna go off any second. You know exactly what I mean. It was one of the first time I used chloroform, and after i sprayed them each about a dozen times they were pretty sluggish and I was able to inject them easily. Have loved chloroform ever since.

The method is fast. I once had 5 skunks trapped on one job. I sprayed the first skunk and got him drunk, covered him with a blanket, then sprayed and covered the second skunk. I ran the first one into my pipe and overdosed him, then cleaned up and reset that trap. Removed and injected by hand the passed out first skunk, ran the second skunk into the now empty pipe, overdosed him, and moved onto the third one. And so forth. I did all 5 in about an hour, and was able to leave all 5 traps reset on the job, and left with 5 dead skunks all bagged up. Good money!

It doesn't always go this smooth, sometimes you get one that's resistant and takes some time, but only about 1 in 50.

At $130 a gallon, and a gallon being 128 oz., and it taking an ounce or two to daze a skunk enough to handle it - that's $2 a skunk maybe. Well worth it. I store the stuff in 16 oz glass urine bottles with metal caps (it eats plastic) and it keeps forever, doesn't freeze either.

How safe is it? Before I wrote about it I spent hours on the phone with two industry chemists who assured me that a couple of ounces were harmless. The very few deaths were industrial accidents involving spillage of hundereds of gallons. One chemist actually laughed at me when i asked him if it was safe. he told me gasoline was far more dangerous. Chloroform won't burn and was actually used as a coolant in fire extinguishers.It has been implicated in cancer in lab animals that were exposed to large quantities. Also, it was once used as an asthetic on humans for operations, but was discontinued because it sometimes caused organ damage if exposure lasted an hour or more. It's a matter of both amount and duration of exposure. The liquid turns quickly to a gas that is heavier thjan air and sinks to the ground, so spraying 2 oz. on a skunk at the level of your feet is harmless. Esp, since it also dissipates and thins out sideways along the ground, and the slightest air movement also dissipates it.

Every year I get 2-3 calls about live skunks in houses. Pretty neat to find them hiding behind sheetrock leaning against a wall, or behind the extrol water pump, or behind furniture in a basement, and spray them until they're seriously buzzed, then slip a needle into the rib cage and put them away. Nice to get paid $100 for a 1-hour job and be considered a hero too.

Chloroform is not a registered substance and there are no laws regulating its use in almost all states - at least right now, may be if HSUS hears about how effective and humane it is.

Another use - I do some live trapping of chipmunks, red squirrels, and gray squirrels. I put the trap with the animal in it in a plastic bag, pour half an oz of chloroform on a piece of folded up paper towel, drop it in the bag on top of the cage, and close the bag, squeezing the air out and twisting the neck shut a few times so air can't get in. The animal is peacefully dead in 15-20 minutes.

Yes, you can remove skunks odorlessly without chloroform. I've done hundreds that way. Not any more!

Thanks Paul for introducing me to the stuff. - Bob

Thanks Bob. And thanks for all the advice from everyone on this thread. I ended up ordering a liter from Rocky Mt. Reagents. We don't have a lot of skunks here , but I do have an appt. next week to price a job with skunks in a barn. Also , I know that eventually I will find one in a trap set for a coon or groundhog. I am currently gathering all the items to use Bob's method. I just started doing commercial ADC work this year after retiring from my regular job , and am having a great time doing new stuff that I haven't faced before in 50 years of fur trapping.

Bob:

It is regulated in all states in a variety of ways. 49 CFR aka Transportation of hazardous materials is one example.

From the standpoint if safety, it is regulated under hazcom. 29 CFR.1910

Dave

Disposing of waste chloroform is considered a hazardous waste. It is considered hazardous if it exhibits the characteristic (D022
Chloroform if over 6.0 mg/Liter). Test rags contaminated with it before disposing in trash...just so you have a record that the waste stream is in fact non-haz.

Chloroform is listed as an extremely hazardous substance by EPCRA (Emergency planning and community right to know act).
http://www.epa.gov/osweroe1/docs/er/355table01.pdf

If over 10 pounds is spilled, there are reporting requirements...which could be an issue for some. There is planning requirements if you store over 10,000 pounds (which obviously would not impact ADC operators).

Again, this is Federal laws....applies to every state.

for Paul;
just wondering if in your travels you had met Mr. Daniels (Jack for short) or if his No7 bottles would work?

Hey Dave, as long as you're reading up on chloroform, how about doing a bunch of us a favor and find out WHAT IT'S ACTUALLY USED FOR!

I'm pretty sure it's a cleaning product but for cleaning what exactly? It's strong enough to take the paint off of a car. So how is

it used in industry?

P.S. You could spill a 100 pounds of it and as fast as it evaporates, it would be completely gone before the EPA arrived. And if

anybody has waste chloroform, please send it to me.

Good informative thread.

Paul:

I know how it is used to spray on a skunk's nose to make them dizzy.

I definitely see the benefits. Despite the benefits, I have personally chosen not to utilize it in my business. First, since I have employees, there are many more considerations because of the additional training. Also, I don't want the extra regulatory burden. The thought of spraying in/around a customer's home sounds like a liability to me.

If you want to use it....go for it. Just don't figure that you can transport it like a bottle of Jack. Train employees on the DOT regs, hazcom, spills, haz waste.....that apply! Maybe you already do that - Great!

My reason for posting was to educate. I am sorry if it come off snippy....I was trying to balance comical responses with a serious discussion. I should have taken the time to better explain...but this reminds me of my old job working for Auto/Chemical companies in EHS.

The best advice for those considering the use - contact the manufacturer. Chemical companies have a regulatory department and can provide free info to help meet the regulations. Relying on a message board for advice...silly.

Evaporation rate does not impact the reportability of the spills....

I am not saying it make sense....just communicating the laws. Spills to the air....rather than ground and water are still spills. Don't like them? Change them...

I appreciate your post Dave, but unlike most of the other guys on here, I already knew most of your feelings about chloroform. I have

never encouraged anyone to use chloroform; that's entirely up to the individual. I will, however, defend my use of chloroform because

of so many, many reasons. First and foremost is liability. That is the main consideration. I have used it in clients homes on many

occasions and to be perfectly honest, instead of lawsuits, I got applause. I can find no lawsuits for the use of chloroform, but

then, I'm not a lawyer. This whole post is kind of academic. We are not using an illegal substance, we have no investment in it, and

to be perfectly honest, we kinda hope that none of our competitors ever use it!

Call an environmental consultant and see if you are using it right. If you are...great. If not, at least you can learn how. If you do nothing with all the info I provided, it proves you are just being stubborn. Can't bury head in the sand....

Dave, if that last post was for me, I would suggest that you have all the environmental consultants call me. I have been using it for

at least twenty years and I would certainly be happy to show them how to use it. Especially in light of the fact that the majority of

them won't even know what you are talking about.

Paul:

I was talking about your training programs...PPE...transportation on highway...etc. The same regulatory requirements you need for some pesticides...

Here are some DOT related fines from 2013. You will see fines related to improper packaging...lack of training...improper labeling...etc.
http://phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj...nt%20Notice.pdf

Here is a good one just to demonstrate that chloroform is regulated by DOT:
SIGMA-ALDRICH LABORCHEMIKALIEN
GMBH, Seelze, Germany
(Shipper)

Offered toxic liquid, organic, n.o.s. (containing ethylene chlorohydrin and chloroform), 6.1, inhalation hazard, hazard zone B, when it did not package the material in a packaging meeting the requirements for transporting a toxic by inhalation, hazard zone B material; offered this material by aircraft, when it was forbidden for transportation aboard an aircraft; offered this material without properly describing it on the shipping paper and without properly marking and labeling the packaging.

[173.22(a)(2), 173.226(c), 173.227(a), 171.11(d)(9), 172.101(a), ICAO Technical Instructions — Table 3-1 and Special Provision A4, 172.203(m), 172.213(a), 172.400(a)(1), 172.402(c)]

Case No. 04-067-FSB-EA
$15,915

Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not one of those darn Germans. Vait von minute; Vinkelmann, I chust might be von!

Responding with jokes throughout this thread...shows the weakness in your argument. But hey...at least you read the thread.

Is there a video of this ? I'd like to see how some of you do this.