I have a skunk trapped in a live trap in a recessed area of my house crawl space entrance. How do I deal with it without it spraying A. Me, B. The crawl space of my house. My tools are a .22 rifle with all manner of ammo, a large plastic tarp, a livestock watering trough (not sure if it is deep enough) a plastic garbage can. I would like to keep the carcass for a taxidermy project.

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Originally posted by Oscar Zulu:
I have a skunk trapped in a live trap in a recessed area of my house crawl space entrance. How do I deal with it without it spraying A. Me, B. The crawl space of my house. My tools are a .22 rifle with all manner of ammo, a large plastic tarp, a livestock watering trough (not sure if it is deep enough) a plastic garbage can. I would like to keep the carcass for a taxidermy project.

Hold a sheet between you & the cage as you approach, so the skunk can't see you coming towards it. Once you drape the sheet over the cage, you can pick it up & take it wherever you want to, and he won't spray you.

Whatever you do, don't shoot him under your house unless you want to smell skunk for the next year.

Your options, once you get him out, will be to throw the cage in a lake to drown him, shoot him inside the cage, open the door and shoot him outside the cage, or open the door & let it go. If you have a problem with skunks around your house, letting him go may not be an option unless you want him to come right back.

I have encountered skunk problems around here several times & have probably trapped between 15 & 20 of them. In the beginning, I let them go about 30 mi. away from the house, but then started taking them back in the pasture and shooting them after letting them out of the cage. Head shots seems to keep them from spraying. If you shoot them inside the cage, they will most likely spray, and it will take a while for the smell to get off of the cage. Drowning them will also often cause them to spray. If they do spray inside the cage, you will have to eventually remove them, and that can get rough.

If you do decide to let them out of the cage, make sure they can't see you while you're manipulating the door, and don't make any sudden moves once he starts waddling out.

Good luck.

Let it starve to death???

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If they do spray inside the cage, you will have to eventually remove them, and that can get rough.

Unless it's the last cage on the planet, the hell you do!

Oh wow, I just realized you wanted to use it for a taxidermy project. You may be able to drown it without it spraying if you keep the sheet on the cage. My wife's uncle used to throw the cages in the lake & they would sometimes spray, but he never covered the cage. He would use a long pole to throw the cage from the truck into the lake, so the skunk may have sprayed in the process of seeing what was coming.

Yes, approach holding a sheet or better, an old blanket for more light barrier and don't make noise. Gently place the blanket over the trap, let the skunk calm down, and carry it very slowly to a safe place to shoot the bugger.

So if I am gentle with the blanket it probably won't spray? The trap is about 1\3 of the way under the house...... I suppose I can keep it covered as I gently tug the cage out.

Being in your crawlspace complicates things. I solved my skunk problem with a piece of plastic visqueen roughly 6X6 feet, draped over the trap. I used the visqueen as a shield so the skunk could not see me as I placed it over the trap. A hose was run from tailpipe on my pick up and under the plastic. You will need a metal pipe with a hose fitting on one end and put the pipe in the tailpipe or the hose will melt. I run the truck 15 to 17 minutes and the skunk is out cold, still alive with no release. What you do with the skunk after it's out cold is up to you. I had a convenient release spot 6-8 minutes away and the skunks were still out cold or too groggy to put up a fight when I let them go. Open the windows in your house for ventilation and keep the kids outside.

DONT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY GO TO WASTE!!!

Im sure you have someone you don't like, someone who has wronged you in some egregious manner...
Toss that smelly lil bastard in their car.

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Originally posted by Oscar Zulu:
So if I am gentle with the blanket it probably won't spray? The trap is about 1\3 of the way under the house...... I suppose I can keep it covered as I gently tug the cage out.

Once I got a skunk covered, I could be as rough with the cage as I wanted to, and they would never spray. They can't see any danger, and they are reluctant to spray in a confined space. I used to flop the cage in the back of the truck and drive over a half mile back in the pasture and wasn't all that careful about the bumpy ride. Never had any problems. The key is to keep him from seeing you.

next time buy a no spray trap Drowning it will probably be the easiest. Not sure how humane that is though, sounds like a terrible way to go.

Buy two cases of beer then invite some buddies over. One of them will eventually volunteer to deal with it.

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Originally posted by CPD SIG:
DONT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY GO TO WASTE!!!

Im sure you have someone you don't like, someone who has wronged you in some egregious manner...
Toss that smelly lil bastard in their car.

UPS to the DNC

Will someone explain why, when sending a pet as cargo, for example by air, the cage must have a placard that says:

LIVE ANIMAL.

Do people send dead animals in cages as air cargo?

As for the skunk, please shoot it in the head. Drowning is fucking terrible way to die, according to someone I know who was revived after a fresh water drowning.

When I was in the USAF, the pest control guys picked up a caged skunk from my squadron armed with a plastic tarp & gas mask & chem suit. Put the tarp over the cage, put it in the back of the USAF issued pickup. They had a stock tank filled w/water to drown them. The gas mask & chem suit provided a little extra protection in case things went south.

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Originally posted by Oscar Zulu:
...a livestock watering trough...

I wouldn't want anything dead in my drinking water, I imagine your livestock feels the same way. Although it sounds good at first, I'll suggest you find someplace else.

As to method of execution, I think drowning may be the best, as it would keep the spray out of the air, in addition to leaving a usable carcass for your taxidermy project. A bullet may be quicker, but a skunk has a tiny brain, a nearly impossible target.

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Whatever you do, don't shoot him under your house unless you want to smell skunk for the next year

And every time is rains for the rest of your life!!!

I had a buddy that decided he wanted to make a skunk skin hat. Yup, he hit the sack while skinning it in the garage. It smelled for years whenever a heavy rain came.

My daughter worked in pest control. She was popular when it came to skunks as she thought they smelled like garlic. She was also very good at avoiding spraying. She'd cover the trap with a tarp, wrap it and place cage, skunk, and tarp in her truck.
On day she stopped to gas up, and eat. The cashier called to her when she saw someone rooting in the truck. Turned out to be a tree hugger that was going to free the poor forest creatures. As she pointed out the laws he was breaking and the danger he faced, he kept unwrapping the tarp. Got sprayed right in the face.

I had a problem with skunks at my old house. Shooting one in the head with a .22 caused it to spray all over the place, a full on eruption. It was near the house when it happened and it smelled like skunk for a long time.

Shooting them in the lungs with a .22 did not cause them to spray. However they obviously did not die instantly with a lung shot, so if not in a cage there was a risk of them running a short distance and dying under the deck.

It's a bit late for it now, but I would also tie a long rope to the cage before I set it. That way I could gently pull it away from the house to wherever I needed to finish the job without getting within spray range.

I had something rooting in my yard about 10 years ago and thought it was an Armadillo and set a live trap...went out in the morning and there was a skunk in it. I got maybe 15 feet away and it shot a little stink so I retreated and grabbed a .22 and shot it in the cage...that focker must have emptied all his stink because it was really, really bad. After an hour or so I hooked a rope on the trap and drug it out to the woods and as far as I know it is still there.