said:


Just this morning my wife and I were doing some work in the garden
when a skunk emerged in our vicinity and proceeded rather slowly to
disappear through the fence. We've seen the same fellow before for the
first time this year around early spring and two things seem strange
about it.... 1) It appears in broad daylight and 2) It's white with a
black stripe along its back. Aren't skunks supposed to be nocturnal
and aren't they supposed to be mainly black with a white stripe?

I've seen them in the mornings, occasionally. The only skunk I
ever saw out in the mid-day was one that was seriously wounded.
Which later died, thankfully, not under the neighbor's deck, which
is where it went when it saw me, but after leaving there to continue
in the same direction it was going when it saw me.

Our Havahart trap has done well catching 'possums and groundhogs
but
don't want to chance it with skunks even though there are several
instructions on how to proceed after catching a skunk with this type
of trap. Instead, we're looking at something like this;

http://sprayproofskunktrap.com/

Anyone with skunk trapping experience with this type of trap? Any bait
recommendations? Thanks!

How easy is it to see that you have a skunk in the trap? I'd think
that any skunk that would spray in a regular trap (most of them
don't) would spray in that trap, too.

I've trapped several skunks while trying to trap rabbits and groundhogs.
The rabbit cage is easy to open, so for that one I walked up gently
with a large towel, dropped it over the trap, opened it and left. No
harm, no foul oder; the skunk walked away.

The groundhog trap is harder to open, so the couple of times I've
caught skunks in it, I've called in professionals to remove the skunk.
Dropped a blanket over the trap, carried it up to a shady spot to
wait for the pro, no spray, trap brought back, no problem (just out
some bucks).

Oh, and they asked me what I used as bait (apparently skunks are
not especially easy to bait for) and seemed dissapointed when I said
apples.

In only one case did the skunk ever spray in the trap, and that skunk
was seriously deranged. The critter-control guy said that normally
skunks don't spray when confined. This one was pacing and snapping.
Not acting anythink like any of the other skunks I (or my neighbor)
had ever trapped before.

We had some cases of confirmed rabies in foxes elsewhere in last
year in the township...this skunk I caught two years ago, and I'm
guessing it might have been rabid.

Had to wash the trap with bleach to cut the stench. Very comical
enterprise as the only tub large enought to use outdoors was our
big yellow wheelbarrow.


--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

After enlightenment, the laundry.