Monday, February 25, 2013

PEE-YEW! What's that smell???

Spring must be getting close. I woke this morning to the wonderful smell of skunks. NOT! Did you know that the biggest predator of skunks is cars?  By the number of skunk road kill I saw this weekend, they must be coming out of hibernation. Good sign of spring coming, but not a good sign for us. Living out here in the country is great. Wide open spaces, wonderful fresh air. That is till the skunks show up. My hubby has a live trap behind our storage shed. He usually catches 3-5 skunks a year. He takes them for a ride to see the country side and then lets them go .Friends think he is re-trapping the same skunk again and again. I don't think so. I have read skunks do not have a homing instinct. I know they are good at keeping rodents and snakes down. But I don’t like them in my yard. Did you know a lot of people keep skunks as pets? Can’t image that. And did you know that there are four different types of skunks in North America? We have the common type in our area, the striped skunk.





You can read more about skunks here. Very interesting reading.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2307/


Have a good Monday,
Rose

9 comments:

  1. When my son hit a skunk in Dec., Nookworm sent me a link for a PBS video about a man who takes wounded skunks or abandoned skunks...and he is immune to the odor. They also put tracking devices on skunks somewhere on the east coast, I think, and tracked them to see if they traveled far. I wish I could find the link, but I can't. I just looked. It seems like they said they traveled 5 miles in a night....and they had several dens along the way, I think.

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  2. we have a skunk friend who comes to our bird feeders. I think he may be hibernating under our deck....I dont mind the smell if they are just passing through but not too happy if someone scares it. They are cute and I bet would make a good pet if deskunked. My neighbour is not so happy with our friend but he doesn't seem to like any wildlife around his garden.
    Oh well I do...............so I feed them
    Janice

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  3. uh oh, not good!!!!! Cute but stinky!

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  4. Tee hee. We have skunks here too. Your husband is brave -- is it a truck that he moves the skunks in???

    Kay

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  5. Right. Spring isn't just hyacinths and daffodils, it's SKUNKS on the road and in the backyard! Yikes. Did you ever check to see if those skunks have a GPS and are hitting your place every time? ;-)

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  6. My hubby borrows a friend's trailer to move the skunks. He sets the skunk, trap and all, on the trailer and off they go. Oh, did you know, if you cover the trap with a blanket, a skunk won't spray. We have had some funny and close calls when he went to throw the blanket on the trap and missed. Usually because of wind. lol. Touchy time retrieving it and trying again.

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  7. We have skunks by the dozen here- way too many!!!

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  8. Those stinking skunks! My sis has a funny (not so funny then) story about her dog and a skunk. Not funny at all at the time, but quite funny 10 or so years later.

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  9. our dog got skunked...and when he came inside so did our whole house!!!!!

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