# skunks and pallets



## ApricotApiaries (Sep 21, 2014)

Most of our summer locations are along a river bottom and skunks can really be an issue. Before we palletized, we put everything up on stands. What are some solutions/deterrents to skunks that you have found to work. 
Last year I tried a couple of spike strips on either side of the pallet. Basically a 5 inch wide strip with 1.5 inch staples every couple inches or so. These were fastened to the ground with 8 inch spike nails. It worked OK, except sometimes the skunks just went to the side of the hive. I also tried carpet tack strips on the landing board. Likewise the skunks worked from the side, or sometimes the tack strips got covered with mud. 
At home I have trapped and shot skunks, sometimes week after week but it seems like every time you remove one, another moves in a week or two later. 
A friend of mine uses poison, but I always fear neighbors dogs getting into it.
I have also put our pallets on top of a couple of grocery pallets, which mostly works. 
What are some skunk deterrents you have tried and what has worked or not worked?
What about large numbers of mating nucs?
Thanks


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## mgstei1 (Jan 11, 2014)

Ive used whole oranges mashed up to repel the polecats out of a barn or cattle shed. It works fairly well until the oranges dry up. Possums like them but dont like the bees.
Used cotton soaked in ammonia in ziplocks also same as oranges. May have to place them away from the hives perimeter.

May try a pepper spray and cinnamon or cat urine. A trappers supply may have coyote urine concentrated which may work also.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

RO and another poster on the Bee-L list commented that a 1/2 tsp of lye crystals sprinkled on the soil in front of each hive worked well. The skunks don't like the taste when they roll the bees in it. I haven't had a chance to try it. Most of my yards have bear fences and the low hot wire keeps them out - its not hard to tell from the smell that one has tried out the fence.


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Trap them in a live trap. I use a raw egg (shell intact) and some on those small marshmallows (some inside the trap and a few outside to get them interested). You can tie a length of rope to the trap and then slowly pull it into the river for dispatch or you can pull it to a tarp to cover the skunk and trap. Covering a skunk also calms them and makes them less prone to spray. It also helps calm them to talk softly when you're close. Then put trap and all in the water for dispatch. Talk softly and move slowly and the skunk won't spray. You will eventually get their numbers reduced though it may seem like you're fighting a loosing battle. Skunks are highly susceptible to getting rabies so be careful if you get one that walks up to you. I had a rabid one a few years ago that chased my son into the truck; I killed him with a large rock and he didn't spray. That's pretty typical behavior for a rabid skunk. I know a professional trapper in ND who often gets contracts to collect skunks for rabies surveys and he told me the other day that some years, as many as 90% of the skunks he traps come back from the lab as positive for rabies.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I've shot them, trapped them, but there were always more skunks... top entrances were the easiest solution.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

All of my cherry, apple, and pear growers set out pallets or totes. No skunk problems.

The other big thing:
STOP SHOOTING COYOTES!!!! If you hate skunks (I do!) then you love coyotes (I do!)
At our home place we have exactly zero skunks. MILLIONS of coyotes.


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

I have millions of skunks and coyotes Harry.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I grew up along the canadian line in ND and in the fall large numbers of skunks congrgate in old fox dens which they stuff with grass. If one goes in rabid, they all come out infected. I used to poison small cubes of velveeta and scatter them around my bee yards. The skunks disappeared.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

Chip Euliss said:


> I have millions of skunks and coyotes Harry.


Sorry to hear that, Chip.
I'm guessing that if you did not have coyotes you would REALLY be buried in skunks.
We have lived on our property South of Salem, Oregon for 26 years.
Only once have I smelled a skunk.
I kept smelling skunk in the air and finally followed my nose into our front hay field.
Lo and behold, there was a skunk ripped to shreds limb from limb, deader than a door nail.
That was about 24 years ago.
We have coyotes, bobcats, cougars, owls, hawks, buzzards; we love them all.
All of these predators eat critters that are annoying such as mice, rats, SKUNKS, etc...
Yet, several visitors to our property over the years have spotted a coyote and asked all wild-eyed; "do you shoot 'em?"
Of course I don't.
I shoot California ground squirrels, pocket gophers, rats and an occasional crow.
But to shoot our awesome choir of predators would be akin to shooting myself in the foot.


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## ApricotApiaries (Sep 21, 2014)

Harry, i pretty much agree with you. But good luck keeping ranchers (which is pretty much my neighborhood) from shooting predators (and then complaining about gophers in their hay fields). 
Trapping is not really practicle in outyards and I am surprised how often it is suggested. 
Our hives are up on bins while in the orchards. I think I will have to collect a whole bunch of grocery pallets and go that route. 2-3 pallets down then the bees. I think most of my landowners will let me keep a stack of pallets in the beeyard during winter when I am not there.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

How do you shoot pocket gophers Harry?


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

I suspect you have fewer coyotes and skunks than we have in the Dakota's Harry. I lived just down the road from you back in the mid-1980's and don't remember many of either species and I was outside most of my free time. Maybe you have more now when I was there? From what I understand, coyotes (and a few other carnivores) will kill and eat skunks but it isn't common due to skunk spray. I did hear from a fellow wildlife researcher that young skunks were most often killed and eaten because they have poorly developed scent glands. By and large, Great Horned Owls and large hawks are the most important predator of skunks; they also lack the sense of smell (only a few bird species have a sense of smell) so odor has zero effect. Be careful with the coyotes too. I have a friend who studied them and she tells me that certain coyotes make good neighbors and others make very bad neighbors. The ones I have on my place used to follow me home from my evening bow hunts in the fall and they get as close as 20 yards sometimes; I think they are too aggressive. I carry a gun with me, just in case. I shoot very few coyotes but I do trap a lot of them each fall/winter. Coyotes will also kill house pets that we all take outside at times and there have been confirmed cases of humans being attacked and killed by coyotes, here and in Canada; my recollection is that a 3-year-old child and a 19-year-old adult were documented to have been attacked and killed. If you google human deaths and coyotes, you can find the articles. Many in the scientific community feel that rural expansion and lack of control by humans have contributed to coyotes loosing their fear of humans. There seem to be an increasing number of attacks on pets (usually doesn't end well) and humans. I remember reading of one non-fatal attack in an urban expansion area where somebody was feeding them. I respect you for not shooting them but I try to send every one I see to the promised land. They are extremely adaptable and are in no danger of humans eradicating them. I want to keep mine wild and run when they see or scent me.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

Chip Euliss said:


> I suspect you have fewer coyotes and skunks than we have in the Dakota's Harry.


We have zero skunks and we are thick with coyotes.
There are no house cats in our community. Every once in a while someone will dump one and we have a cat for a short period and then it gets eaten.
Funny that you mention the great horned owl. We have a huge one that can be seen now and then in a tree outside our bedroom window.
Last time Liz and I were looking at it she commented about how big and fat it is. I replied, "It didn't get that way by twiddling it's thumbs....


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

jim lyon said:


> How do you shoot pocket gophers Harry?


Jack a bullet into the rifle chamber.
Raise the rifle and press the pad against your shoulder.
Align the front sight with the rear sight additionally aligned with the gopher's head.
Pull the trigger.


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

The Great Horned Owls on our place are pretty fat too Harry. They do work the skunks over pretty hard but they also eat a lot of rabbits, etc. They have a pretty high energy demand and start nesting and laying eggs in February here in North Dakota so they usually have a white background to better see those stinky skunks at night. February is also the time that male skunks are on the prowl for females in North Dakota. I don't remember seeing much for coyotes in the mid-80's near Corvallis but they have expanded throughout their range so it doesn't surprise me to hear you're seeing lots of them.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

After 26 years of living here, we saw our first bobcat a few months back, walking through our yard in the early am.
We have cougar but I have never seen one.
I wonder if the big cats eat skunks?


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

ApricotApiaries said:


> I think I will have to collect a whole bunch of grocery pallets and go that route. 2-3 pallets down then the bees. I think most of my landowners will let me keep a stack of pallets in the beeyard during winter when I am not there.


That is what I do.
When I pull bees out to take to winter yards I stack the pallets neatly out of the way.
I think that helps.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

HarryVanderpool said:


> Jack a bullet into the rifle chamber.
> Raise the rifle and press the pad against your shoulder.
> Align the front sight with the rear sight additionally aligned with the gopher's head.
> Pull the trigger.


Ha, ha. I guess I walked into that one. Those things are a real scourge but poisons or traps are the only control I know of. Heck Bill Murray even tried dynamite on Caddyshack to no avail.


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Don't know about lions but bobcats eating young skunks has been documented. We have a pair of bobcats on the place and we had a lion 2 years ago that was likely passing through. Put out a trail camera and you'll get pics if you set them in the right place. For bobcats, we toss a bushel of bad apples out in front of the camera. Rabbits like apples and bobcats like rabbits. We got some cool pictures this past year.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

jim lyon said:


> How do you shoot pocket gophers Harry?


Jim, I answered your question in the Coffee Clatch forum.

t:


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Harry, when I was in school in Corvallis, I lived near the foot of Mary's Peak on Shot Pouch Road (near Burnt Woods), about halfway to Newport. I saw quite a few bobcats driving from there to Corvallis most every day. Probably say 4-5 per year.


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## Ted (Feb 20, 2000)

I use 15/15/15 fertilizer in front of the hive, then when the smelly devil comes to visit through the wet grass and lays in front of the hive on the triple 15 it burns his belly


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## rbees (Jun 25, 2012)

HarryVanderpool said:


> t:


Ban this guy 

Back to topic..I just dropped off some bees in my yard in the valley...and yup...I can smell a skunk. I guess I'm in the club now


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