We have large window wells outside our house that have once in a while trapped wildlife over the years. Today I found this guy when I walked out my front door.
I stuck a ladder down into the well, and after about an hour he moved right under the ladder.
Skunks are generally not good climbers, but Striped Skunks are, so he should make his way out.
I don't want to get sprayed, so I'll call the wildlife center if he's not gone in a few hours.
We have an update: our next door neighbor, who is affectionately known as the crazy racoon lady, came over with a big net and got him out. The critter was kind enough not to spray. That's the good news. The bad news is he is lurking around our garage and appears to want to hang around for a while.
awesome.
we get them under the house sometimes, I got a couple live animal traps from hardware store.
gotta take them very far away is you don't want them to return
Apparently there is a large colony that has taken hold in our neighborhood, so we will need to learn to live with them. We deal with racoons, rats, voles, groundhogs, opossum, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, etc. Wait! I almost forgot the flying squirrels. Those are really cute but difficult to get rid of if they get in the house.
There were some skunks living under my neighbors back deck. they do eat a lot of bugs (down here in Texas we get prawn sized grubs), but man oh man, when they spray, it is bad.
If you happen to get sprayed, you’d better be prepared – it’s quite a strong smell that can take days to fade.
We had an Irish Setter when I was a kid. She would always get sprayed. My job was to clean her with tomato juice. It was a mess getting the stink out of her long coat.
Neighbors had a dog growing up that got sprayed. Dog panicked and ran into the house jumped on the bed and started rolling around.
They had to wind up throwing out the bed, the sheets, etc. It seemed like it took months for the smell to fade.
A friend of mine got sprayed by a skunk the night before her prom. She had to soak in tomato juice all night.
Our dog would get so upset. You would think she would have stayed away from those critters after the first time, but NO!
I can only imagine how intense the smell must be to a dog given their nose. Its one thing to smell a skunk outside (when it may be blocks away), up close its eye-wateringly bad even to humans....
Best way is to take a towel or old blanket that you're prepared to lose, approach with it as a shield and throw it over them then wrap them up... put in a sturdy box or tote, and relocate.
Wear some work gloves and eye protection just in case.
Looks like juvenile, either can't spray yet or can't control spray... almost no inbetween.
Good advice. I can't find him right now, but that's what I'll do if I see him again.
That’s a predicament. You don’t want to help him out and get hit with friendly fire.