The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1914-01-08
THE COMMON SKUNK OUR
FRIEND.

Friend.
! Gradually we are coming to recog'
nize in many of the birds and animals,
heretofore despised, real friends and
the following new letter sent out by
the Department of Agriculture at Wash
: ington will be of interest to farmers
and others.
The skunk, which is represented
throughout the country by number OF
varieties, general and species, is an
, animal of great economic Importance.
Its food consists very largely of in
sects, mainly of those species which
are very destructive to garden and
forage crops. Field observations and
laboratory examination demonstrate
that they destroy immense numbers 0
, white grubs, grasshoppers, crickets,
cutworms, hornets, wasps and other
noxious forms. The alarming increase
of the white grub in some localities
. is largely due to the determination OF
this valuable animal.
1t is a matter of common observa-
ton where white grubs are particular
ly abundant in cornfelds to note little
round holes burrowed in the ground
about hills of corn. These are made
by skunks in their search during the
night for these grubs. During the re-
cent outbreak of grasshoppers in Kan
sas it has been determined that in
many cases large proportion of the
food of skunks consisted of these
grasshoppers.
Some of the most destructive insects
in agriculture are such as do their
work below ground and out of reach
of any method that the farmer can
apply, and it is against many of these
that the skunk is an inveterate enemy.
Notwithstanding all of this, there is
probably not an animal that is as ruth.
lessly slaughtered as is this one, where
as it is equally entitled to protection
with. if not more so, than some of our
birds which enjoy this privilege.
In some regions, especially in the
Southwest, the bite Of the skunk is
supposed to produce hydrophobia. This
drophobiafear is unfounded since it is
proved that the bite of healthy skunk
is no more serious than similar wounds
caused by other agencies. ...
In connection with the work of the
range caterpillar Investigations in
northeastern New Mexico it has been
found that skunks destroy a great
many of the pupae (chrysalis) of this
caterpillar, and in fact, during Sep
TENDER and October, when this food is
easily available, they prefer it to all
other. About the middle of September
it was discovered that many webs were
empty, the pupae having been neatly
extracted from the web and either car
ried off or eaten. In many areas con-
tanning hundreds of acres from Is to
rs per cent of the pupae had been car
ried off, while in a few isolated
places as high as IS per cent Of the
Hemileuca mexican Range caterpil-
lar) pupae were gone. Following these
observations, piles of skunk excrement
were found which consisted in some
cases almost entirely of pupae shells.
Subsequent counts made show the
excrement found to have from 60 to
IS per cent of it's contents consisting
of these crushed shells. On the Grow
Greek Ranch there was not an area
observed but what had some of the
Hemileuca pupae destroyed by these
animals. It is thus seen that the com
mon skunk is at the present time one
of the most important factors looking
toward the control of Hemileuca out
breaks and should be protected by the
ranchers in the infested district.