Harbingers

Our crocuses have arrived! I almost missed them because my focus has been on other things, but yesterday was unseasonably warm and sunny - perfect for checking in on going's on in the garden. The daffodils have been shooting up for a few weeks now, and today they obliged us with their first blooms.

These are at the side of the barn, in view of Molly and Ambrose. I wonder if they appreciate the sight as much as we do? Not likely, but that's okay.

While the flowers are a welcome harbinger of Spring, we've also had some unwelcome activity from the local groundhogs and at least one... skunk. The skunk problem started a few weeks ago. At first we thought that maybe a skunk had been hit by a car on the road in front of our house. But the smell kept going away, then returning on different nights. Then we thought that perhaps a skunk had tried to help itself to our cat's food, and there had been a tussle followed by a spraying outside our kitchen door. But the smell outside went away fairly quickly, while inside the house, and especially in the cellar, the smell remained fairly strong. Then, one night around 3 am, we got hit with a renewed blast of skunk that was so strong, it woke me - gagging - from a sound sleep.

What to do?

Keith did a little research and discovered that skunks move from one den to another fairly often. They like to use burrows created by groundhogs, and we definitely have more than one entrance, and maybe even more than one burrow under the 90 feet of porch that wraps around two sides of the house. The Humane Society suggests persuading the tenants of these burrows to vacate by tossing ammonia-soaked rags into the holes, then semi-blockading the entrances so that we can tell if there is any new traffic. If the hole remains unused for a few days, it is safe to close it up without worrying about trapping anything inside.

Keith went looking for burrow entrances this morning, so we could plan our campaign. At the far end of the porch, near the outside entrance to the cellar, is a retaining wall. Last year, a new burrow entrance was dug into the top of the hill on the other side of the retaining wall. This morning, when Keith peeked inside the hole - a groundhog peered back up at him!

"It was cute." Keith said to me later, as he described the incident.

Cute?! The groundhogs are our sworn enemies. Their extensive digging can ruin buildings, create a misstep that can break a donkey's (or a person's) leg, and do untold damage to a garden. We're supposed to be vanquishing the vermin!

Later this afternoon, I went out to snap a quick photo of the groundhog hole for this post. If I stand on tip-toe and lean over the edge of the retaining wall, I can just see inside the hole. I stood. I leaned over. A groundhog - the groundhog - peered back at me, about 18 inches from my face.

Gahhh! What in the world was it still doing there? Shouldn't it have hightailed it the heck out of there this morning? I quickly held the camera above my head, pointed it at the hole and snapped, hoping for a decent shot.

It's not easy to see, but there it is.

Our first thought was to put a Hav-a-Heart trap near the opening, baited with something yummy, but we don't want to risk trapping a skunk instead of the groundhog. After all, how would you go about releasing a skunk? I keep imagining something to do with Marlin Perkins and tranquilizer guns.

And now I can't shake the thought that, if the groundhog had held its...er, ground since this morning, maybe it couldn't readily retreat or move to another burrow. Maybe it was protecting something. Maybe that something was a new batch of baby groundhogs.

Cute.

Comments

[liz]

This is going to sound totally crazy, and I didn't believe it myself until I saw it in action, but a skunk won't spray if it's in a Havahart trap. It needs to be able to turn its backside around, and there's not enough room. We've caught two skunks that way, and were able to dispose of them safely. (We also threw a tarp over the trap to plunge the bugger into relative darkness... I guess it keeps them calm).

It can be done!

[kathleen]

I wish there was a harbinger of spring around here...we're still under the snow and below zero at night. The skunks, however, have been making midnight raids all winter. Their fine perfume has been noticed regularly around my neighborhood.

[Birdsong]

What great animal tales, although I love the crocuses best of all. I will have to plant more of them this fall.

[Janis]

Liz, I believe you about the skunk-spinning, really I do, but our trap is the big raccoon-sized number. We've trapped a raccoon, a groundhog, and a cat (shhh, don't tell anyone!) in it - not all at once - and there's plenty of spinning around room in there. Love that tarp idea, though!

[Maggie]

Wanna know what skunks don't like? Mothballs ! Seriously. I had a skunk getting into the crawl space of my house. We'd wake up in the morning and the house would stink REAL bad! We could never see the skunk but saw 'droppings' of some kind of critter. Suspected it was a skunk. Bought a box of cheap box of mothballs from the local dollar store. Surprise ! Only cost $1 for a box of 24. Spread a few around in the crawl space, some outside the perimeter of the house. The skunk NEVER came back. Possibly if you place them in and around your property the skunks might leave.

[Janis]

Sold! Maggie, I'm going to give it a try. It kinda makes me cringe to think what's in the mothballs, but someone at work also mentioned them, and she suggested putting them in a bottle with cheesecloth over the opening so that the smell would do its thing, but the mothballs themselves would stay intact in the bottle...

[liz]

That's the same one we have (or rather, had. It burned up in Jacob & Michelle's fire). They can change direction, but somehow they can't have their front and rear ends pointing in the same direction at the same time, which is what they need to do in order to spray.

[kathleen]

I didn't realize that a skunk had to have both ends pointing the same direction in order to let fly with the odor. I guess it makes sense, though...a guy's gotta take aim somehow, I suppose.

[Janis]

Ah! Right, they do that U-turn thing so they can take aim. I wonder if the tarp helps in that regard, too. They won't shoot if they can't aim?

Also, Rachel makes a good point about skunks being nocturnal, while groundhogs are not.

[Carla]

Hello, I stumbled into your blog while I was looking for pictures of donkeys..I live in an apartment so have no chance of ever having one but I think they are wonderful creatures. I do share my apt with an 11 year old Siamese, or should I say she gives me the privilege of living there ;) I love how you write and the pictures...what a nice farmette!! warm wishes..Carla

[patty-anne]

Hi!
I also learned that skunks HATE the smell of blood....not having any handy, I used a box of BLOODMEAL....worked like a charm!