In New Hampshire, one of the biggest pest problems is skunks. They tend to roam around, digging up gardens and harassing people and pets. So, I have dealt with my fair share of the little buggers.
In the cities, the skunks are definitely worse. My dad lives in one of the cities of New Hampshire, and at his house, the skunks are more obvious and populous than anywhere else I’ve been. They just wander into yards, eating grubs and trash, while occasionally spraying things.
Our biggest problem is the fact that they love to live under our shed. The skunks would build a nest under it, so in order to block or trap them, we used chicken wire to block off all but one way out, and placed a Havahart Skunk Trap there. The skunk woke that night and stumbled into the trap, so the next day we just carried him off to a new home. The next year, a mother moved in but was hit by a car two days later. So, we assumed all was fine, but the yard still smelled every night. We looked around and learned she had babies under our shed. So, using the same technique we trapped all four babies, one at a time.
In the smaller town in which my mom lives, we have similar problems. Often, I can look outside at night and see a skunk sitting in the middle of our yard. They tend to burrow for grubs or, occasionally, nose around our chicken coop. One afternoon a skunk ambled into our yard. This was very odd, because skunks are nocturnal, so we thought it was rabid, and we couldn’t see it well enough to tell. The skunk went over and managed to slip into the coop. The chickens began to freak out, thinking, ‘Who are you and what do you want?!’ Fearing it would hurt them, my step-dad grabbed a .22 caliber small game hunting rifle and leveled it at the skunk but couldn’t fire because the girls were jumping in the line of fire. Fortunately, the skunk left.
Skunks will harass you, but by taking some measures, you can fend them off.
