I've got a tough one. I've been trapping skunks for 20 years and have always had great success with fresh sardines in oil. This year I caught three of them right off the bat but this last one that's out there is a smart sucker. Either that or he just doesn't like seafood. I changed it up and tried cat food. No dice. Then tried a mixture of peanut butter, jelly and a little bacon grease. Still nothing.
Wondering if anyone has an old family recipe that might help me to finally catch this sucker.

Thanks,
Jeff in Vermont

Cheese

Nilla wafers are good suspended in a container so the bugs don't eat them... bbq sauce, cat food, etc if you got the trap near them should work.

Had one like that. Got it with Wilson's Green beaver lure. Yep sure did

asafoetida tincture in some scratched up dirt

Thanks everyone!!!

That's a good one. Fish oil, a little essence?

Tainted hotdogs are great on skunks.

I use cherry pie filling

I've been using grubstake, marshmallows, and cheap knock off Oreos.
With either a fish oil/shellfish oil mix, or a peach preservative/vanilla mix as a trailing scent.

Caught the two transients on a job in within 2 days of one another.

They love cookies

Can of pork and beans was one of my old mainstay skunk baits in cages, seriously. And I have no idea why or when I started using them except I remember it worked awesomely around old barns and farmyards. The barn cats wouldnt touch traps baited with beans, but skunks loved them.
I tried it on a a couple problem skunk jobs and did really well on just pork and beans. Even in DPs I caught skunks with them.
Jim

DP's ???

I just baited the trap with sardines in a different kind of oil. If that doesn't work I'm trying your pork and beans suggestion next!! Thanks Jim!

Hey Jim, No luck with the sardines last night. I'm going to try your pork and beans suggestions. Question......which type do you use? The tomato based or the pulled pork and beans in brown sugar?

Thanks again,
Jeff

No dice with the tomato based pork and beans last night either. Guess I'll try the Wilson's Green Beaver Lure stuff next.

Have you actually seen or smelled the skunk lately? It's really odd for skunk to not respond to bait. They usually travel a circuit and be gone for a week or sometimes more before they return.

I would suspect there's nothing out there to catch and that's what responsible for your empty traps.

Well I thought that too at first because I hadn't smelled him as much but the last couple of days the smell was back and there were fresh dig marks close by.

Try cookies and fish oil.

So here the latest update. The pork and beans were a total failure so I've now moved on to Oreo cookies. "One for the skunk, one for me, one for the skunk, one for me". I'm now convinced that this an old veteran because when I went out to check the traps this am, two of them were flipped upside down and the cookies were gone. In the 20 plus years that I've been catching skunks I've never had one of them flip a trap over on me. Just to add insult to injury this guy then proceeded to come right up to the backside of the house and tear up the grass pretty good. I think it's getting personal now!

Hey I'm looking at the bright side. At least I know he's got a hankering for Oreos! Can't wait to finally catch this sucker. I'm wagering that he's gonna be a big one!

Funny thing is that there was no skunk smell whatsoever this am or last night so now I'm starting to wonder if I'm dealing with a raccoon but they tend to rip large chunks of turf up rather than leave small holes everywhere.

Whatever it is it's very smart, knows not to go into a trap and is relentless in digging for grubs!!