Skunks. . .

I've got a lady who called and said she thinks she has a skunk in her attic. I didn't think skunks would climb up in attics but I didn't know. I figured I'd see what you guys thought so I had a better idea of what I was about to get myself into.

Never count out anything an animal can or cannot do.

The next skunk I find in the attic will be the first one. More than likely a raccoon who decided a skunk would make a good meal or be fun to play with. Also bear in mind that to a woman, all wildlife smells like skunk.

Can't say "always" or "never" in this business. Other than that, I've not yet dealt with an actual skunk in an actual attic.

I had a customer tell me they had a skunk in the attic above the garage. It was not. They are diggers not climbers.

Wish I could get a skunk call. 28 below Thursday, 9 degrees right now and snowing with almost a foot on the ground. I don't think there's a horny skunk moving right now. And I doubt I get my usual end of February snake call.

Okay, I'm going to break the rule: If skunks can't climb out of a 2 foot window well, they will never, ever, get into a second story attic or crawl space! ( Okay, one exception: a skunk with a cape and an S on his chest )

Seriously, I have had customers actually put a board in a window well that an self-respecting mammal could easy walk up and all the skunks were still down there. They may have some serious odor but you are never going to find a skunk competing in the gymnastic Olympics.

Paul I look at those claws and don't discount any possibility.

Stranger things have happened.

Y'all think you have problems?
Got a call three days ago for a skunk in a house.
Turns out to be a spotted skunk.
I know he is there, I saw him. The owner saw him/her last night and possibly a smaller one.
Can't get him/her in a trap.
We have been over this house with a fine tooth comb and can't find an entrance location.
Have searched in, around, and through every single room, crack, hole, boot, shoe, basket, vase, you name it, and can't find it.
Any hole big enough to let a mouse through has been examined with a fiber optic scope with no sign at all. Ww have turned over couches and other furniture to check the bottoms.
If it wasn't so frustrating it would be funny.
Oh, forgot to mention the snow all around the house, no tracks at all indicating it comes and goes.
He had three removed about five years ago. Starting to wonder if this was a leftover that has lived off of cat food and water.
There are two cat liter boxes in the house that could account for very limited feces.
Going to check them tomorrow and examine, by hand, everything in them.

mtncat that sounds like a nightmare haha.
Well I went there too the house and there was nothing in the attic. We had a fresh snow on outside so it was easy to track down the skunk(s). I think there was 3 but I couldn't tell. Either way it was easy to find where they were going under her house and I went in the crawl space and set some live traps. Hopefully I've got them today. Also there was some sort of track that appeared to be stalking or following the skunks. It looked like cat prints only with like a 16" stride. Most cats I seen don't have over a 12" stride so that kind of puzzled me a little..

I have had one in the attic, and a couple in the insulation up on shelves at the ceiling in garages. also have has a skunk or two up on boxes. The one in the attic, I thought the lady was nuts till I got there and yep, there it was. that skunk climbed the inside of the insulation against the wall and went in the attic by way of a hole letting wires through into Garage. the ones on the shelves did the same thing. I guess. if they can get against the wall and under the insulation they can climb as long as the insulation does not tear loose from the staples holding it in the studs. that's only a few since the early 80's, not many, and I would not believe it if I did not see it, that is for sure. I had a ground hog sitting in a bath room, to still cant figure out how that got there LOL

Although the odds are against it, don't count it out. I had one in the attic last year. It got in the garage one night and after the homeowner shut the overhead door the skunk tried like [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot] to get out. There was an opening at the bottom of the chimney chase and the skunk climbed 2 floors up and got into the attic. Put a trap in the attic and 2 days later the homeowner call and we had the skunk caught in the attic.

I was agreeing with Paul until the rest of you told your stories. Then I remembered a call in a trailer court years ago. The fella smelled a strong odor of skunk in his mobile home. He had dumped a crap load of moth balls under the trailer and I believe there was rat poison also. I set a couple traps and had a skunk the next day. So he calls me back a couple days later and say's," you need to get back here I'am still smelling skunk."
The funny thing was, it was in the winter and it always smelled stronger when the furnace kicked on. I had my kid with me, a teenager, so he's outside and say's, dad it smells real strong over here," and it did. I wasn't real keen on peeling open his trailer like a tuna can to investigate it. So I had the owner do it, He jumped like a son of a gun when he saw that mummified skunk in the wall.
You would have to be a trapper on another level to get that one to walk into a trap....
I told the guy something to that effect.

Well I made the mistake of running out of ADC skunk bait. I set 3 live traps and during normal trapping season I can't keep skunks out of my dp's and I use dog food and salmon oil so I tried that in my live traps along with one with a tainted bait I use for foxes and the skunks tracks went right up to my live traps but then turned around. What did I do wrong? Is it the bait or were they just not hungry?

I caught a skunk in an attic last summer. The thing walked in the garage door and right up the pull down ladder (I assume).

She was the happiest customer on earth when I came down with that skunk. All I heard the whole time was "I told you so". On that note sometimes its best to not tell the customer "there is no way a skunk is in your attic" before you actually come and investigate.

Friend called and said he had some under his house several years ago. He had several out buildings. We caught 16.

Friends son had them under his house and got a trap yesterday. Stopped by his house and showed him how to set. He said he checked last night at 9:20 and had one. Reset trap and had another this morning.

Where he is and the way the house has a crawl space he should catch quite a few.

Kirk De are you using bait or what?

Just set the trap where they were going in and out and blocked it with concrete blocks. Simple set. I will try and show picture. It was an old house.

As I said, simple set. Just put pine straw on bottom of trap.

Awesome looks simple enough for me haha. Thanks a bunch

An operator in Central Ohio (I know and trust) caught a skunk in an attic.

I caught a skunk on the second floor of an apartment, so I know they can climb stairs.

We removed a skunk from the peak of a roof one time too. If we had not done work for this client before I would have thought it a prank call, but sure enough, when we went out, there was a skunk on the peak of her roof. We have pics if I can find them. I have to assume a bird of prey took it up there!!!!

By the way, the skunk was deceased.

Never say never!

That's pretty crazy that it was on the roof haha

The western spotted skunk climbs very well, seen many of them up in trees eating on baits at night running traps. They get into attics here regularly.

I recently had them in an attic. They fell through the lights in the ceiling into the kitchen. I didn't believe the customer till I saw it happen. They can climb, just not the norm

Okay, I give up! Our striped skunks can't get out of a 18 inch window well but everybody else's can pole vault to the top of roofs. You guys can keep your athletic skunks and I'll just have to satisfied with my uncoordinated ones.

Hahaha I was thinking the same thing!

Hey I was making some of those sets today and was wondering. How do you remove the skunk without spraying? I always used the enclosed cage traps so the skunk can't see out of and don't spray.

Same way you spank a porcupine! Very carefully!

Dylan, make sure you cover your traps when making the sets. Some guys use trash bags and duck tape. Some use canvas or an old blanket. Quarter inch plywood, cut to size works good. Ridged plastic, cut to size works well.

Leave the front and back open of course for the see thru effect.

If you have a skunk in an uncovered trap use a dark colored sheet or blanket and very slowly approach the trap and cover it. If the skunk gets upset, stop and wait a minute. Then continue.

Be slow and gentle with skunks and they will be the same with you.

We ended up with a litter of 6 orphaned skunks just this last summer. Built a large kennel which was wired off with smaller chicken wire (yes very grippy surface).

Point of my .02 is that we'd look out the window at the kennel in the back yard and 2-3 out of six would be heading for the top of the pen (which was over 6ft. tall) and they only stopped when their heads touched the ceiling and they realized they couldn't exit.

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While skunks based on the comments can climb, the better question would be behaviorally motivated or biologically motivated. A skunks nature versus a raccoons nature for example. Ma coon feels good up in a tree, so why not up in an attic or chimney, while skunks being the earthmover they are, most folks commonly see them at or near ground level.

Cool examples though of what they can do, versus what they are likely to do given by all who have had them above ground level.

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Skunks obviously also carry that great "ars" enal to protect themselves at ground level or anywhere they choose to hang out. That added chemical warfare can be at play along with that biology/behavior as well, versus critters that must seek height and refuge due to lacking the ability to target their enemy from a distance when spooked.

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Paul, to your window well issue, I'd say that is a good point, but makes me think of a colony of bats I dealt with out here that fell down into some smooth wall voids. Some local folks advised the fire dept. that the bats would eventually climb out and not to worry, however the walls were so smooth that there wasn't enough texture even for bats (who need precious little to grasp). The result much like with skunks in metal window wells is a critter that could or can climb who somehow can't due to the mechanics and physics involved.

Also makes me think about the potential mind set of said skunk in the window well, is it expecting to dig out or find a ground level solution as it normally would and climbing doesn't enter its mind?

Just went to a coopers hawk in a warehouse a few days back, had been in there 5 days even with 6 large massive bay doors wide open, it would not leave (no staff or activity even in there to bother it).

This hawk can of course make nice tiny little technical moves through rafters, sprinkler systems (past your net! lol), so why doesn't it simply fly out?

I think we sometimes underestimate or leave out the mind set of these various species which is a wild card in the various issues we are called for as an industry.

Makes it interesting!



Justin

Your point is well taken Justin. The only way to get that hawk to fly out is to get above it and then they'll shoot through those open windows like the devil was after them. ( At least that's the only way I've been able to do it )

Now back to striped skunks. I've seen way too many skunk bodies in the bottom of window wells that most other mammals would have escaped from. Striped skunks never cease to amaze me, especially the large males. I wrote a story a while back in WCT about a very large male skunk that had a clear plastic cup stuck on its head.

He happened to be leaning against the door of the dormitory that my son stayed in at Concordia University. Because the cup was clear, he saw me and tried to get away. I had a seven gallon bucket and I used the cover to sweep him into the bucket. No smell. He was large enough to put his front feet on the rim of the bucket and look right at me. So I popped the cup off of his head. No smell. I then noticed that he had two plastic necklaces around his neck and I had nothing with me to remove them so I had to take him home.

When I got home, I grabbed a sheet metal clippers and opened up the bucket. Again he stood on his hind legs as I proceeded to clip the plastic rings off of his neck. He moved very little during this whole process and I was amazed. He never tried to bite and it almost seemed like he knew what I was doing. After the rings were off I took him about a mile from home, tipped over the bucket, and got a very close shot of his huge rear end as he calmly walked into the woods.

I know of no other animal that would have allowed me to do this without causing a ruckus. Large male skunks probably only spray (at each other) during mating season. Everything else gives them a wide berth. Now little skunks are an entirely different animal. I have had them spray me right between the eyes just because they could. They're not mean but they're like kids with a new toy and they just want to use it.

That is because the temps are so low up by you Paul, the skunks have frozen muscles. Like when I have been sitting in a tree for hours in the cold with my bow when the deer comes I can't pull it back.lol

By the way I did catch the two skunks and mtncat you are right. You just have to be very careful. Its not as easy to cover them up when you're already underneath the house and crawling on your belly but if you are slow enough and careful enough you can just slip that burlap sack right over. Paul that's a really cool story about the friendly skunk. I wish they would just let me take the trap off their foot during normally trapping season because I'd gladly let them go if they wouldn't spray.

Dylan, I have tried releasing skunks from footholds. I talk to them all the while and they seem very calm and no spaying. Until they try to walk on the foot that was in the trap. The blood is starting to recirculate in that foot and it hurts. And they let you know it!

Haha I've attempted to get pretty close to let one go and then that tail goes up and that's when I decide I'm already too close haha

A board in a window well with some carpet nailed on it will let the little stink bomb get a good foot hold on the ramp. With a smooth slick board he may just use it for a shade board and take a nap.

Big Skunk, Please don't tell my customers how to get skunks out of window wells. I like to refer to window wells as money pits. And the cool thing is that in our part of the country they are actually digging them bigger and deeper. Sometimes there is an entire picture window down there so the owners can watch all the animals that they have trapped.

I really like animals in chimneys, but I love animals in window wells. My record, so far, is mother skunk and 6 good sized babies.
Got them all out and relocated them to a farmers hay field.

Well I thought there was only two but I guess I was wrong.

I do love skunk work. Sadly my skunks are few and far between and I might get a couple calls for them a year. What I am seeing locally is an increased number of them on the roadsides right close to the house. Maybe the numbers are on the rise but knowing my luck it will be very local, as in my house.