Skunks

MountainMan22 · 10-07-2011, 09:22 PM

What do you do when you see a skunk if you're out camping? I've seen several and have even been sprayed one time. It wasn't really anyone's fault, I was just walking down a dark path at night and it was there and it startled me and I jumped and it just acted in defense. It got my hand and pepsi bottle I was holding. I'm not afraid of them at all since they are harmless, but it seems when the family our my friends are camping together there is always a scream and everyone trying to take cover and hide. If it didn't spray, I think it's a cute little animal.

isabelle · 10-08-2011, 01:56 AM

I hold wery, wery still, as Elmer Fudd would say. When I camp with the girls I always keep a couple of bottles of tomato juice in the back of the van just in case.

**CozInCowtown** · 10-08-2011, 08:12 AM

Sneak up behind him, poke him in the butt with a sharp stick and scream "BOO!!"
Give it a try, it is real funny how they react.
DC

ps.
Yes, this also works with bears.
dc

campclose · 10-08-2011, 08:50 AM

Love it Coz.... Poke him! Better have the tomato juice handy! I have never seen a skunk when camping and I've been camping for 15+ years. I have seen all kinds of dead skunks on our roads but never when camping.

oldsarge · 10-08-2011, 02:00 PM

Back in 1983, a buddy and I deployed from Panama to camp Blanding Florida to train some National Guard. One night during our off time, we were walking across this large field on our way to the camp snack bar. As we were walking we noticed this small fury creature walking out way. We just ignored it because in Panama there are these little animals called Coatimundi and are no threat. Forgetting we were now in Florida, we took a second look as it approached and it was a large skunk. Too late to really do anything, we simply parted as the skunk passed right between us as if were an every day occurrence. At the time it was pretty comical.

Mary Beth · 10-08-2011, 02:16 PM

I have not come across any skunks, while camping, but I could definately tell some skunks were near. I think if I saw a skunk, I would stay still, and let the skunk pass by me.

Geezer · 10-08-2011, 07:45 PM

I have never encountered a skunk while camping. I had to evict more than a few from under my porch over the years though. My neighborhood is overrun with skunks.

Qweetzy · 10-08-2011, 08:08 PM

Oh man! My neighbor is having trouble with a skunk getting into his garbage on his back porch for the last two weeks. Even after he sealed up the garbage in large wooden, covered boxes, it keeps coming back. I told him he's going to have to get the garbage to the stand by the road and keep putting his garbage there instead of on the back porch.

Pathfinder1 · 10-12-2011, 12:10 PM

I usually don't trek very far,
when all around me striped skunks are.

As a young teenager, I was twice sprayed by skunks. Horrible stuff when it's up close. Didn't mind the days I was kicked out of school, though.

One waddled up my blacktop driveway just the other night. My driveway is a pathway for wildlife big and small.

CAUTION: stay away from any skunks you might encounter, especially in the daytime. They are notorious as rabies carriers...!!

Grandpa · 10-12-2011, 06:00 PM

This thread stinks !!

Years ago, when we milked a couple of family cows in the old log barn, Dad noticed something was getting in the grain barrel. Suspecting a rat or a coon, he dug out an old iron trap and set it on a nearby shelf with the loop on the chain hung on a nail. Baited with a chicken liver, the culprit would get caught and swing off the shelf and be suspended in the air until he arrived the next morning.

Next morning, he walked into the barn and....awwww, ya already knew it would be a skunk, didn't you? He just turned around, went out back of the barn a couple hundred yards and dug a three foot hole with a tapered side. Then he went and got the .22 and propped it by the hole.

The barn still smelled fresh and clean like cow manure so he gently lifted the ring of the nail and set the skunk down. The skunk was only caught by one front paw so Dad led the skunk out of the barn, to the hole and down the ramp into the hole, then (with heavy gloves on) gently opened the trap and freed the skunk, quickly grabbed the gun, shot the skunk and shoveled like crazy to fill the hole. Problem solved with minimal atmospheric contamination.