The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-11
How to Get skunks.
From Forest and Stream.


The short essay printed below is an
extract from a private letter received
by our Philadelphia correspondent,
Ocean" from a very successful anna
teur trapper in Vermont. The writer
is evidently a man of good nerve. He
says:
"You want to know how kill skunks
without getting scented. ! put on an
old suit so II / do get a little dose 1t
won't hurt anything. / have an old
duck coat with big pockets on the in
side which / have used for a trapping
coat for number of years.
THE skunk seldom goes out in the
daytime, but as soon as it gets dark
he begins to prowl. They live mostly
on crickets and grasshoppers, and in
the fall they are very fat. Often I
have found 1t an inch thick on the
back in shinning them. If pains are
taken in skinning not to touch it with
the hands this oil, when tried out like
lard, is the best thing for a cold or
Group l know of-used externally, of
course.
LAS the skunk lives in woodchuck
holes in the meadows and pastures
can tell where to find them, for they
make little holes in the dirt with the
nose which look very much as if some
one had poked the ground with a cane.
Wherever the skunk makes one of
these holes. he gets a cricket, which,
in the fall, as the ground gets cold,
burrows under the grass roots. The
fox digs for crickets, too, but as he
digs with his paws the hole is some
what different in shape.
"A moonlight night with the wind in
the south l have found the best to
hunt them. ] generally carry a Ian
tern, so that I can skin them at once
and save Juggling them around. 1 cut
stick from a sapling about the size OF
broom-handle and about six feet
long. Armed with this 1 take the
warpath through the fields, keeping a
sharp lookout for any black spots that
seem to move.
The skunk ds generally busy look
ing for grub, and as soon as / spy him,
! run right at him. You have to be
quick. not because the skunk will run,
for thew can't run very fast, but the
sudden approach scares them so they
will face you with hair bristling on
end, just as hen will when you try to
catch one of her young. This is the
time to strike. and one good blow on
the head generally does for them, but
woe to the hunter who fSozles this first
blow, as the golfer says.
When first tried trapping / used to
set my traps in woodchuck holes, and
as a skunk will explore every one of
Since then I have found a better way
When / find a likely place to set. I
dig a hole at the foot of a stump or
stone, about as big as your hand. back
under the roots about six inches
stick a piece of any kind of meat or
rotten egg-anything that smells
rank-into the hole: then set the trap
and stake 1t, covering il with a sprink-
ling of fresh dirt. The first skunk
that comes along will walk into the
trap, and he will scent the place so
that no more bait is needed to draw
them. In this way have got six or
seven in one place.
I'm killing a skunk in a trap you
must not run up to them as you do
hunting them. Go up to him care
fully, and as long as you do not make
any quick motion you are all right.
Raise the club carefully and slowly
and then strike as quick as you can.
We'll l have told all l know about
the skunk industry. Some time / win
tell you how we trap for foxes-ground
trapping. Almost any one can learn
to catch them in the ground"