Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my
recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other
ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up.
It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden
walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead
(partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe
(this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's
the same animal.


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

"Cheryl Isaak" wrote in message
...


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies
aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few
weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.


I'd personally opt for "heft to the woods" and let nature continue to take
its course else where.

Val

On 7/27/08 11:48 AM, in article ,
"Jangchub" wrote:

On Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:07:41 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
wrote:

Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my
recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other
ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up.
It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden
walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead
(partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe
(this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's
the same animal.


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

Do not do it yourself. Let animal control come out. If you rupture
the stink thing you will regret it forever. It's their job to do
things like this. Especially if rabies are involved. Do not do it
yourself, Cheryl.

Ah - but I don't know if animal control will come remove a dead animal that
is not in the street.

Well, since I have to head to work and the rains are returning, I'll let it
be until tomorrow.....

Cheryl

In article ,
Cheryl Isaak wrote:

Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my
recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other
ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up.
It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden
walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead
(partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe
(this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's
the same animal.


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

I don't have specific answers to your problem but you may want to look at

http://www.t2.unh.edu/spring95/pg1.html
and
http://www.google.com/search?q=dispo...H.&ie=utf-8&oe
=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

I did read one caution about not waiting until the dead skunk starts to
swell-up to remove it. I doesn't get any better.
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related

On Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:07:41 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
wrote:

Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my
recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other
ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up.
It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden
walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead
(partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe
(this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's
the same animal.


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

If it was me... I would dig a hole close by, at least a foot
deep (critters dig up shallow graves) and big enough in
diameter that the corpse fits in easily. Carefully slip
shovel underneath corpse, slide/carry over and place in
hole. Cover with 6 inches or so and tamp down, add several
more inches and tamp. Finish covering the hole.

If you leave it as is another critter will tear into it,
dog, opossum, skunk... and it will stink again, if it
doesn't already.

One was hit in the road maybe 3/4 mile west of us late last
winter. The corpse laid in the ditch, never got buried. Just
recently some scavenger found it again and stirred it up. It
is still pretty potent smelling.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

"Val" wrote:
"Cheryl Isaak" wrote:

So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies
aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few
weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

I'd personally opt for "heft to the woods" and let nature continue to take
its course else where.

Depends on the property size and proximity of neighbors. Animals die
on my property all the time, either from natural causes or
preditors. First clue I get is usually the appearance of turkey
vultures circling, they make very swift work of cleaning up dead
flesh. But sometimes I'll come across a dead carcass in one of my
mowed or meadow areas, I usually smell it before sighting. Then I'll
find a hunk of tree limb, hold my breath, and shove it as far into the
woods as is feasible. Often in spring right after the snow melts I'll
find partially skeletonized deer, possums, hedgehogs, wild turkeys,
etc. Anyone tells me to grab a shovel and dig a grave in the woods
has never attempted to dig a hole in the woods, just not possible
unless one uses a back hoe, an excavator, or some such... there's no
way any human being is going to get a shovel into a forest floor more
than an inch or two, the tree roots, plus rocks make that kind of
ground into an impenetrable matrix, you really need a machine, a
pretty hefty machine, and even then around here there's a good chance
that just below the surface there'll be boulders the size of
volkswagons.

If someone lives on a smallish property, say a housing development
with neighbors within shouting distance, then it behooves to have the
authorities retrieve and dispose of the corpse... in a populated area
especially, unless it's obviously road kill, there's a need to know
what killed that animal. And in any event do not handle or let
domestic animals near.

"Cheryl Isaak" wrote in message
...

So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.


I these parts it is considered good manners to dispose of corpses on your land
for the sake of the amenity of neighbours. Now a decomposing skunk is not
going to generate as much perfume as a cow or a horse but I am guessing your
neighbours are much closer than mine so they may care.

The other issue is whether local scavengers (dogs mainly) are likely to visit
you or their owners having had a little necrophilliac snack. Such can be
tracked at a distance without radar and bathing them can require breathing
apparatus.

David

On 7/27/08 1:52 PM, in article ,
"Charlie" Charlie wrote:

On Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:36:37 -0700, Billy
wrote:

In article ,
Cheryl Isaak wrote:

Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my
recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other
ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up.
It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden
walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead
(partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe
(this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's
the same animal.


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

I don't have specific answers to your problem but you may want to look at

http://www.t2.unh.edu/spring95/pg1.html
and
http://www.google.com/search?q=dispo...H.&ie=utf-8&oe
=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

I did read one caution about not waiting until the dead skunk starts to
swell-up to remove it. I doesn't get any better.

Call me and my offspring weird or whatever you like, but sons and I,
uh, enjoy skunk scent (not dead skunk). Sometimes it faintly wafts
over the garden (see...actual garden reference) and we are in olfactory
heaven.

However, Stan, the resident rodent exterminator, had a minor dustup
with one last year and that was not fun. Giving a cat a bath is not an
experience I wish to repeat.

Charlie, in a skunky state of mind...

Yosemite Sam: "All right, all you skunks clear out of here!"

[Everyone leaves the saloon; the last one out is an actual skunk]

Skunk: "My, weren't there a lot of skunks in there? "


I remember my grandmother's dog loved to roll in dead skunk. I don't mind
the odd whiff; but as a long term "perfume", no thanks. We did lots of
tomato juice baths.


The video of the cat bath would have been something to see.

Cheryl

On 7/27/08 11:25 PM, in article , "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:


"Cheryl Isaak" wrote in message
...

So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.


I these parts it is considered good manners to dispose of corpses on your land
for the sake of the amenity of neighbours. Now a decomposing skunk is not
going to generate as much perfume as a cow or a horse but I am guessing your
neighbours are much closer than mine so they may care.

The other issue is whether local scavengers (dogs mainly) are likely to visit
you or their owners having had a little necrophilliac snack. Such can be
tracked at a distance without radar and bathing them can require breathing
apparatus.

David


I'm going to make a call to Animal Control in the AM. Not much a corpse left
as of Sunday AM. Rabid skunks aren't uncommon, but the way this one favored
a leg, I wondered if it had a glancing blow from car and was on borrowed
time even if it wasn't rabid. Lots of coyotes and owls about here despite
the encroaching civilization.

With all the rain, decomposition was well advanced when I found it. I could
clearly see skull and ribs.

Cheryl

On 7/27/08 4:23 PM, in article ,
"Leon Fisk" wrote:

On Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:07:41 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
wrote:

Last Tuesday I discovered a skunk in my culvert trying to feast on my
recycling. It walked funny and grumbling - no doubt rabies or other
ailment.

I backed away and called Animal Control - who may or may not have shown up.
It was raining quite hard all week.

Well, this AM (Sunday) I had a nice day and time, so I did I quick garden
walk. About 25 feet from the original sighting, there is a very dead
(partially skeletonized) skunk. Due to the oddness of the white stripe
(this one was more white than black, especially on the tail), I'm sure it's
the same animal.


So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.

Thanks

Cheryl

If it was me... I would dig a hole close by, at least a foot
deep (critters dig up shallow graves) and big enough in
diameter that the corpse fits in easily. Carefully slip
shovel underneath corpse, slide/carry over and place in
hole. Cover with 6 inches or so and tamp down, add several
more inches and tamp. Finish covering the hole.

If you leave it as is another critter will tear into it,
dog, opossum, skunk... and it will stink again, if it
doesn't already.

One was hit in the road maybe 3/4 mile west of us late last
winter. The corpse laid in the ditch, never got buried. Just
recently some scavenger found it again and stirred it up. It
is still pretty potent smelling.
Makes me wonder if I just piled 6-8 inches of mulch over it how I'd fair.

C

In article ,
Cheryl Isaak wrote:

On 7/27/08 11:25 PM, in article , "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:


"Cheryl Isaak" wrote in message
...

So, do I let nature finish it's work - there are beetles and flies
aplenty.
This is a flower garden and an area I can avoid working in for a few
weeks.
Or do I grab the shovel and heft it to the woods or compost heap.


I these parts it is considered good manners to dispose of corpses on your
land
for the sake of the amenity of neighbours. Now a decomposing skunk is not
going to generate as much perfume as a cow or a horse but I am guessing
your
neighbours are much closer than mine so they may care.

The other issue is whether local scavengers (dogs mainly) are likely to
visit
you or their owners having had a little necrophilliac snack. Such can be
tracked at a distance without radar and bathing them can require breathing
apparatus.

David


I'm going to make a call to Animal Control in the AM. Not much a corpse left
as of Sunday AM. Rabid skunks aren't uncommon, but the way this one favored
a leg, I wondered if it had a glancing blow from car and was on borrowed
time even if it wasn't rabid. Lots of coyotes and owls about here despite
the encroaching civilization.

With all the rain, decomposition was well advanced when I found it. I could
clearly see skull and ribs.

Cheryl

We have many dead skunks lying in the middle of the road along with
occasional deer. I'd cover with lime and dirt and put a rock on it if
needed.

Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

Bill wrote:

�We have many dead skunks lying in the middle of the road
along with occasional deer. I'd cover with lime and dirt and put
a rock on it if needed.

A rock on an animal in the middle of the road... a rock needed for
what?

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

Bill wrote:

=EF=BF=BDWe have many dead skunks lying in the middle of the road
along with occasional deer. I'd cover with lime and dirt and put
a rock on it if needed.

A rock on an animal in the middle of the road... a rock needed for
what?

It's a gravestone, and a location-reminder for when returning with silverware.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com
visit my film reviews website:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

On 7/28/08 2:57 PM, in article
, "paghat"
wrote:

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

Bill wrote:

=EF=BF=BDWe have many dead skunks lying in the middle of the road
along with occasional deer. I'd cover with lime and dirt and put
a rock on it if needed.

A rock on an animal in the middle of the road... a rock needed for
what?

It's a gravestone, and a location-reminder for when returning with silverware.

-paghat the ratgirl

Ouch - that hurt as the tea came streaming out of my nose....



Thank you dear

In article ,
Cheryl Isaak wrote:

On 7/28/08 2:57 PM, in article
, "paghat"
wrote:

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

Bill wrote:

=EF=BF=BDWe have many dead skunks lying in the middle of the road
along with occasional deer. I'd cover with lime and dirt and put
a rock on it if needed.

A rock on an animal in the middle of the road... a rock needed for
what?

It's a gravestone, and a location-reminder for when returning with
silverware.

-paghat the ratgirl

Ouch - that hurt as the tea came streaming out of my nose....



Thank you dear

Dead Skunk In The Middle Of The Road 2:30 Studio Group 70's Music
Rock 7/28/08 4:26 PM MPEG audio file

Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA