I've never had a problem catching skunks before. My go to set up has always been a small Dixie cup with dry cat food in it and to lightly press the side of the cup in some rosebud.

This year we're being overrun with skunks and suddenly they're hard to catch. I've tried cat food, rosebud, fish oil, marshmallows, popcorn, honey gland, yellow stripe, trailing scents, plus a few more and in different combinations. I've set up silt a silt fence and had the skunks grub right at the entrance of the trap. I've also placed traps different places around the perimeter, and in the middle of the grubbing activity.

This is a large fenced back yard, with the only possible access points being under the gates. There are gates on both sides of the house, and two of the other three sides. The gates are tight fits, but no sign of a regular entry point.

My traps are the safeguard skunk traps with the plastic covers.

Can u block up entry points with double doors?

I do not do a lot of skunks but I use Jessie method and blow there mined with scent and cheese-O. May want to change traps, and put some cover on the floor of the trap. JMO I use double door traps

All of my double door are raccoon size and right now are at groundhog jobs. I may have to pick up some smaller ones and give them a shot.

Greg,

You aren't the only one having issues with grubbing skunks this year. I don't know if it is due to the cicada swam for next year or what, but I keep seeing skunks move away from "standard" and some not so "standard" methods. The skunk on this video I have on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmTXLRKRkZw was caught on marshmallows and Fireball which I've never had that happen before in 16 years. For whatever reason they are ignoring any grub, egg, fish or cheese type baits in my area preferring to eat whatever is in the yard instead. To make matters worse, it seems they aren't even hitting the yards multiple days in a row, but waiting for the larva to either get closer to the top or ripen like squirrels do with nuts. I'm picking up opossum and coon during these down times, but since the damage keeps occurring, I know they aren't the culprits.

My suggestion is to put out some trail cameras and see if you can pattern them or at least pin point how they are entering the yard so you can do positive sets in those locations.

My go to skunk bait is stuffed oatmeal cookies. They catch techs pretty quickly too.

Eric and I have nearly identical stories. I could see that most of the grubbing was skunks, but not all. I caught 6 raccoons, 2

opossum, and on the day the customer told me to pull the traps, I lucked out and got the skunk. That was my only grubbing job this

year and I'm not too upset. We have caught plenty of skunks a lot easier where we weren't competing with grubs.

Thanks Eric. I'd trapped this yard a few weeks ago and the pulled the plug because they though there was no way that there were that many animals nearby, that I was drawing them in from a distance. Then after I'd left they let their dogs out at 2am and one got nailed. Now their eager to have me back again. I'm still catching raccoons but no skunks. This is a affluent neighborhood with a lot of skunks right now. If I can catch these I can probably lock up the entire neighborhood's skunk jobs.

One of my ADC friends says, "everything works and nothing works." I used some cheese curls at times with some banana oil, while the golf course used tuna and hot dogs. Sometimes I used double door traps with both doors opened, sometimes one door closed. Seems like no cure all bait or lure as there is no cure all anything.

How does the grubbing look different per animal?

Now that was a very intelligent question. I can tell you what the difference is in our type of soil but I'm not sure it will be the

same everywhere. My very first grubbing job looked like someone came in with a Caterpillar, put the blade down and started to dig out

a garage. I seriously could not believe that all that ground was moved by animals. The customer said skunks but the tracks said

raccoons. I caught 11 raccoons in 5 days and the job was done. The difference with skunks is they can smell and sometimes hear each

individual grub. They dig straight down in what looks like a swirling in the soil. Their holes are only a couple of inches around.

The opossums come in after everybody else is done and turn over all the soil again hoping that the skunks and raccoons missed some. I

often catch an opossum or two at these grub-fests. And I do get paid for all three offenders.

Funny thing is I just picked up a skunk that someone caught by accident AND they were grubbing in their yard. They put a ear of corn outside the trap and one inside trying to catch rabbits.

I firmly believe switching baits is not the answer and usually a guessing gamd, and results vary and are coincidental.

I will do it if the job is short and I am pressed fr time but you really should just make a drift fence. Longer in the short term but gets the job done

I have had many cases that opossum's have been the primary grubbing culprit. Seen it with my own eyes many times over the years. When we were doing golf course night shooting programs we observed opossums grubbing just like a coon.

Also observed many groundhogs out foraging and grazing after 10 pm until 1:00 am at times. I presumed as a result of their burrows and preferred grazing areas being located in high daily traffic areas from the golfers play. Took me a while to figure that one out years ago.

We kept seeing these g'hogs at a distance with our night vision, then as we approached closer to make a shot thinking they were coon found out they were g'hogs. After seeing so many over the next few years in doing course work it became evident how they had adapted to nocturnal feeding.

I learned a lot about animal adaptivity over the years. Just when you think you understand most things and they are just about cast in stone you find those exceptions to all the book information, case studies and research.

That's interesting about the woodchucks Bob. I don't golf but I bet even I could sink a putt into a woodchuck hole.

Just make a bobcat set to perfection. Voila! Skunk.
I'm learning.....thanks all for posting.