I have an ongoing battle with chipmunks. They’re generally cute, but boy can they wreak havoc. They’ve caused the sinking of my front walkway by tunneling underneath, and last year they took a big bite out of every ripe tomato in my garden. We had the walkway raised, and then added rodent proof fencing down about 2 feet. So far so good at that location, but they’ve reappeared the last couple of years and are tunneling under new areas of the walkway.
What to do? I got out my trusty small Havahart animal trap to try and catch a few. After a few days of nothing, I was hoping they had moved on to greener pastures. But around dusk the other night, there was something in the live trap. We thought we had accidentally caught a big fat rabbit, but as we got closer we realized it was a SKUNK. Yikes! We were not expecting that!
I know we occasionally smell skunk in the area, and we’ve had a couple of skunk vs dog incidents over the years, but hadn’t smelled anything recently.
Getting a slightly closer look, my son noticed that there are not one, but 2 skunks in the cage! That’s a slightly bigger problem for sure! They looked like juveniles and that was confirmed when the mom showed up to make matters worse.
I know from my mom’s experience a few years back with a brood of skunks in her yard that when they are very young they can’t spray yet. But when that exactly ends is anyone’s guess as her neighbor found out when he tried to capture his little skunk family. The next option is to throw a towel over the cage, block their view so they won’t spray, and get it opened to let them out to be on their merry way. But I had to deal with the mom too.
I needed a different plan. Luckily the only garden tool not in the shed guarded by the skunks was my 3-prong cultivator, aka “cage grabber”.
We made noise and the mom retreated under the shed long enough to grab the cage and drag it away from her. Since the trap was a newer “Easy Set Havahart Trap” I could grab the handle to open the trap without getting very close to it.
Then we waited to see what would happen….
Mom was right behind us! 
Got the babies out and off they ran!
Happy Reunion! 
Off they went as a happy reunited family of skunks. In the meantime, Daisy is on short leash when she goes out in the evening!
Oh, we know the smell of skunk all too well. We had an extended family of them living under our back porch for a while. We eventually hired someone to trap and carry them off. We also have chipmunks, which is one reason I’m not growing tomatoes anymore.
I hope the skunks moved on after this episode. Definitely need a professional if they have to be removed, which living under the porch qualifies! Last year was the first time the chipmunks got to the tomatoes. Hopefully they don’t repeat this year. Rabbits you can defend against, but I don’t think chipmunks.
Great, informative story
Thanks!