Best bait for attracting a skunk

I have a family of the little stinkers living under our shed. I've tried baiting my havaheart traps with cat food (dry and moist) and peanut butter. No interest on the skunks part. Trailcam pictures show the skunk walking right on by the trap. Only thing I've caught so far is a magpie. Anyone have better luck with other baits?

Did you put pieces of cat food/peanut butter a few feet outside the opening of the trap, and are the skunks eating those bits of lure as they walk by?

Usually any canned cat food or canned fish will attract skunks, if he's walking around your trap just put a log or 2x6 up to funnel him into the opening, skunks are fairly easy to guide into a trap. When using live traps set your trap so that appears to be an open tunnel not butted up against anything,(not 90 deg. to a building or fence). The main thing is for your trap to appear like a tunnel, not a dead end hole.

The magpies raid any bait left outside of the trap. I like the tunnel idea. I had some garage door panels laying around so I knocked this together.



Notice the trailcam positioned to capture the tunnel and building where the skunks are hiding out.

I'll keep y'all posted.

edit: hmmm, can't seem to share the dropbox image

I think this is it...

Burra, thanks! How did you fix the image?

I used my superpowers to check the link you posted, found the image, right clicked on in to get the url, and used the Img button to paste it in when I made a reply.

Only when I came to test it again so I could tell you, it wouldn't work like that any more and it wouldn't give me the url again. It's a bit like inserting youtube videos, sometimes it works, sometimes it likes to play games with you...

I can see the image if I go directly to it.

http://www.dropbox.com/s/cfk8s91kdnb7se2/IMG_20150403_111235236.jpg

One question, if you are using less than lethal traps, how do you plan on getting them out of the trap without getting sprayed? Also how far are you going to take them away to keep them from returning?

Around here skunks are the only roadkill left alone by the buzzards....

The sides of the tunnel are attached by cross 2x4s. The top is not attached. So the plan is to remove the top and drop an old blanket over the cage before lifting it out. Failing that, there's a rope attached to the cage so the cage can be dragged out. Once the cage is out, it and it's contents will be dunked in a barrel of water. Anyway, that's the plan.

Some people around here simply open the cage, wait for the skunk to exit and shoot them. There's even a guy around here who harvests the scent gland. Supposedly it's used in the perfume industry.

Place your trap parallel to the ditch, then block the skunks path between the shed and your trap, that should get you results. Always try to place cage traps in way that looks like an easy path, open end facing downwind, you need the wind to carry the scent of bait to the animal. If the skunk doesn't want to go into the box take the cage out and reset. Skunks aren't overly bright but that big white box may even scare one off. If your ever after anything besides a skunk or opossum, be sure to lose the box, if you need cover to keep birds from getting your bait, just cover from each side using plant material from the immediate area the trap is sey.

Addendum; when placing trap parallel to ditch, put so close the skunk can't get by, force him to either bail off into the ditch or go through your trap, if he chooses the ditch, that will tell you to loose the outer box. As slow as I am my brain still out thinks my typing fingers, which in my case leads to incomplete thoughts on paper.😊

Update: Caught the neighbor's cat. Catch and release.

Rebaiting and trying again.

Update: Caught one of the skunks using the tunnel method. Used shrimp tails as bait.

Setting up again as there are more. Using sardines in mustard sauce as bait (my personal favorite

We had a skunk problem at work and the pest control people recommended using slim jims (what they used themselves). They placed the trap the believed path of the skunk (like a tunnel suggested above) and put a few sticks of slim jims on the other side of the trap. Sure enough after a night or two we had a little skunk in the trap. For best results place the slim jim in one of those cardboard glue traps so they can't reach through the bars and get it. You could probably use a toilet paper roll if the cardboard glue traps were not ideal for your situation.

The problem is that it is illegal (here at least) to transport a wild animal somewhere even if it is just to relocate it away from your yard. I understand that it causes problems doing so, but surely those problems aren't as bad as simply killing the creature.

Any problem skunks are usually caught using canned sardines or, if available, a rotten egg for the little egg thieves over here.

Update: Caught another cat. Tally to date: 2 cats, 2 magpies, 1 skunk. And yes the canned sardines are very popular

What if you tried melons or strawberries or something cats wouldn't be interested in? Maybe even something like a cupcake? Wouldn't help with the Magpies I suppose but the neighborhood cats would be less interested at least.

Update: Just caught skunk number four in the same location. I was airing the trap, set but not baited. #4 just strolled right in.

set my skunk trap , checked it out in the morning , bait gone trap set off . door down , no skunk nothing . what's the problem ?

peter caviness wrote:set my skunk trap , checked it out in the morning , bait gone trap set off . door down , no skunk nothing . what's the problem ?

Ninja Skunk?

peter caviness wrote:set my skunk trap , checked it out in the morning , bait gone trap set off . door down , no skunk nothing . what's the problem ?

A picture would help. I do find that very small rats or mice are prone to stealing the bait in my rat traps, but are small enough to get out through the cracks of the live traps, or not heavy enough to trigger the kill traps.

I'm on the Pacific Wet Coast - I've had big slugs take the bait and leave me nothing but a slime trail! The odd one's actually triggered the trap and been killed.

Our animal shelter has had a skunk problem. They eat the cat food that we leave out for the feral cats that live outside our buildings. We bait the traps with the food they’ve been stealing and catching them is no problem. Nor is relocating them. I guess that a no transport rule for wild animals just wouldn’t fly in our wooded mountains.

If the water bowls are dirty we know that we are dealing with raccoons instead, or maybe something larger. A bear or two have been sighted by volunteers walking dogs. Maybe we just need a bigger trap?

OK. So what do you do when you trap the skunk? Doesn't it retaliate on transport?

Skunks have poor eyesight and will not spray something they do not perceive as a threat.  After you have the skunk in your trap, get an old light-colored blanket, hold it out in front of you with your arms stretched out and walk slowly towards the trap. Slowly, slowly, slowly drape the blanket over the trap, then keep the whole trap covered up as you transport the critter. I have done this several times  with no smelly accidents.

We have opossums, raccoons, and skunks that occasionally bother our poultry. I use a live trap to catch them and then I release them in a park located about 5 miles east of our farm. For bait I use the rind from melons, be it watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew I've found that the predators will go after it but our cats tend to ignore it. To move the skunks I cover the live trap with a dark cloth and slowly place it in the back of a pickup truck. The skunks haven't sprayed me yet. When I release them they just wander out and go their own way ignoring me. BTW, groundhogs also like the melon rind so it is sort of an all-purpose bait for me. Jeff

C Brown wrote:OK. So what do you do when you trap the skunk? Doesn't it retaliate on transport?

It takes energy and resources to build defences and offenses and time to "recharge" when the animal is vulnerable. Animals generally will try to conserve that resource, so long as you don't give them good reason not to. Thus the move slowly, carrying a large blanket or tarp in front of you approach being mentioned.

I've read that skunks in particular need to raise their tail to spray, so if the live trap is too short, they can't actually do it. I have no desire to personally check the accuracy of that article...

My father caught a skunk in a live trap once. He was able to use an old fishing rod and hook to open the trap, and as others have written, it wandered out of the trap and left without concern.

I presume folks are aiming to be more humane by relocating rather than killing wild animals that are problems to them, but there are many, many, many articles on why it is inhumane to relocate wild animals. The main point is that they have territory they know how to thrive in but will likely be quickly killed in, or run out of, new territory if that territory is fit for their species to begin with.

There is another reason to try to leave wilds alone: nature does a pretty good job of balancing itself. If we take out a few too many prey, then the predators die out. Then watch out: the prey proliferate in frightening numbers.

I get not wanting them under your house for fear of them skunking it up so I am not unsympathetic to getting them out from under there. I get frustrated reading about leaving out food for pets or feral cats and then wanting to get rid of the naturally attracted local wildlife.