Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/02/man-tests-no-spray-skunk-t.html
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Dude must have a tiny memory card on his camera. Just remove the grate and walk away for 10 minutes. The critter will vamoose once you’re no longer in the area.
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I know there’s only so much you can do in that situation, but hopping in your truck afterwards seems like a subpar plan. I didn’t watch the whole video though. Maybe the skunk had some wolverine buddies drop by and he had no choice.
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Duh, you just slowly toss a furniture pad/moving blanket over the trap before you pick it up, you can do that with a regular havaheart trap. Removing the blanket is a little trickier.
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Watching the video, it’s no wonder he got sprayed - he basically released it in the most awkward way possible and it looks like got the skunk’s tail caught in the door in the process. So it came out pissed and he was right there (which was a bad idea anyways).
Lately the skunk population has been exploding locally - there didn’t used to be any at all previous to a few years ago, now I see them (and evidence of them) and smell them in the yard nightly, and it’s a constant battle to keep them from spraying the dog (I already won’t let the dog outside after dark without being on a leash, but now sometimes they decide to try to find shelter in the yard, so they’re around during the day, too). I’d be reluctant to try to trap them, though - even being able to avoid being sprayed, relocating them is problematic as it’s illegal in California (because animals tend to die when you do that).
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I caught a skunk before in the mesh type. I was trying to catch a groundhog but forgot to close the trap overnight.
I have a picture somewhere of my daughter up close petting it through the bars. We must’ve had a nice tame one compared to the jerk this guy caught. I almost had let my dogs out which definitely would have caused a whole lot more drama, no doubt.
I wound up releasing it right there as I didn’t want to mess with getting sprayed either, and it wasn’t causing trouble in my yard.
I proceeded to open the hatch and it lazily, eventually walked out. Right towards me, of course. I stepped back and stumbled a little which mildly spooked it enough to make it give a little spit of spray right on my shorts. On the pocket my cell phone was in, of course.
I didn’t stink much at all, except for my phone, which musked up the place for a couple weeks. Taught me quite the lesson. 
I originally wasn’t too concerned because my mom had a pet skunk that still had its glands when she was growing up. It never sprayed anyone but it sure scared the hell out of the mailman though 
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Jeez guy, skunk gave you the stomp-stomp warning, what the heck were you doing? You hear that and run!
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Yes, you do not want your dog sprayed by a skunk.
When I was young, our Cocker Spanial “Duke” chased and almost caught a skunk. He must have been very close; he lost site for a few days. We wrapped him in blankets to keep the spray off the fabric. Bathed him in tomato juice, vinegar solutions, shaved him, more tomato baths. Managed to get most of the smell out, but any time he got wet, you could smell skunk.
I don’t fear bears, moose, porkypines, et al. But I fear running into a skunk and getting perma-skunked.
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The dog has still managed to get (slightly) sprayed a few times - I took the dog out on a leash but didn’t see the skunk until it was too close, the skunk decided to bunk down under some wood (or in the neighbor’s property just on the other side of the fence) and the dog disturbed it mid-day, etc.
I remember as a kid, trying to de-skunk a dog with shampoo, tomato juice, etc. and it not doing a darn thing. Luckily these days there are some enzyme-based skunk spray neutralizers that seem to work moderately well, at least when the dog hasn’t received a full, direct hit. (Though the dog doesn’t like getting wet, so even the modest amount of washing necessary to apply it is getting harder and harder to do.) Also, I suspect with the skunk leaving its smell in the yard, I’ve just become accustomed to a fairly strong skunk smell.
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First song I ever learned to play on guitar
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Neighbor to our north woods cabin was a butcher by trade, and a woodsman through and through. He showed me how to wrap a Havahart trap with a tarp, then baited it with bacon. The bacon worked because the skunk found it right at dusk.
But then he took the trap to the lake, and that’s not something I could do.
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