I don't usually do any ADC work but a golf course I trap in the fall is getting tore up by what I think is skunks eating grubs. They are pulling up the fairways and eating grubs. I put a few live traps out at the sides of the fairways, but can't get anything to hit them. I had suggested today that at the end of the day they put the traps in the middle of the areas they are digging up and I would check them in the morning.
I don't know if I can pull them to the sides of the fairway from all those grubs for my offering of sardines.

Any suggestions for bait or anything else would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

jst - I'd talk to Rob Ericson - or get his book, whole section on golf course skunks and grubbing season and tactics....

Much appreciated. I will try find a copy to buy.

Scott

jst, I may not be the expert that some are, but I couldn't help but read that you said "pull up the fairways". Take a good look and if you are right, there will be raccoon tracks, not skunk tracks, in the dirt. Skunks don't need to pull up anything. They will have a little swirl of grass above each grub. They can smell and hear each individual grub and hone right in on them.
Raccoons, on the other hand, will do their absolute best to give you the impression of a bulldozer.

If legal drive thru at night with a cart and a spotlight and shoot them

22 with CB rounds should do the trick, nobody be the wiser.

I did see coon droppings this morning. One fairway took one of his guys 3 hours yesterday. Want to keep him happy, letting me shoot the geese off the course right now as well.

I have Rob Erickson book, its a great reference on skunks and trapping them. In the section on golf courses he states that trapping on grubbing skunks in fairways did not work. His system involved two people a golf cart, spot lighting and firearms. As he pointed out there are major safety concerns that you need to address, and have procedures to cover them. Low fps ammo was used, and pellet guns were used where rifles of .22 cal were not allowed. All his work was done at night, and they were picked up and gone before daylight.

I wonder if you used plastic fencing to create a funnel to your trap if it would help. Set the trap in the area they are grubbing then make scent trail from funnel opening to your trap, the scent would need to be strong to get there attention away from the grubs. I have read on the forum where the guys here have use the fences before.
Kurt Temple

Got to agree with Paul coons pull or roll it up skunks make cones or dig small holes .
One doesn't use sardines in ADC work that's what home owners use and my guess when it does work most likely the shiny can pulling them in that was your first mistake .
Second mistake you set right on the damage area on this gaint golf course in puplic eye mind you and most likely didn't even cover or camo the trap .
Back track the raccoons to there denning area and make your sets along there travil route Say you can't back track well good time learn just use the force it's inside you .
Next make your sets and feed them into the trap and keep in mind this animal is lacking protein because he's eating worms but I would use a sweet bait as well .
Next use a trailing lure because remember your on a gaint golf course animal might wonder all over the place . Your target animal is bore raccoon or raccoons and most like have worms really bad reason for going protein rather then sweets like they should be this time of year .
Key to success and not looking stupid here is find where there coming from could be a tree / brush pile/dry culvert/building /old ground hog den ect and chances are there hitting along the ponds catching frogs as well and look for wild cherry trees the coons are on them right now to or grapes little early for grapes yet .
This is how I would work it I would surely take a walk about in this case grab a golf cart I have learned better then just walking up to the damaged area a setting cages the greens keeper could do that that's brainless .
You want the customer to wonder what the heck you doing its called inspection it's your job . Could be bonus critters to trap out like ground hogs up on the driving range or squirrel digging up greens burying there nuts muskrats in the ponds causing bank damage bats in the club house mole along the side walks don't limit your self and give detailed report even if they don't want to deal with the other problems guess who gets the call back . If they do wish to control the other damage then your not just after one animal . You could also post pictures of this damage so Paul can confirm what he knows all ready

Listen to Peskycritter he is giving you some good tactics and points.

Reminds me of a golf course job I did years ago. I knew the owner, his wife, and their daughter who ran the place, personally. I did not know the youngest son, who was supposed to be a little bit slow, if you know what I mean.

Well one day I meet the "slow" son and he asks me how I'm doing. I tell him I'm trying to catch all the culprits that are tearing up his newest 18 holes, but trying to keep the cost down. His reply, "Your bill, compared to our several million dollar golf course, is nothing."

He was right, of course. Now it was me that felt like the "slow" one.

We have damage as described on the golf course that I trap three days a week for moles, squirrels and gophers etc. I have been trapping this course for about 18 months. Big debate. What was doing the damage? We put up trail cameras on fairways where the most damage was and who did we find rolling back the sod. No coons, just families of skunks rolling up the sod in some areas as big as 2 feet wide and 10 feet long. Four wire cage traps and friskies canned cat food and I got 17 skunks in just 11 days and not one problem more this year. We don't want our members to be concerned with the traps so all trapping was done off the fairways on access routes the skunks might take and hidden from the members. Also traps were placed mainly away from water source near where denning areas might be. This seem to cause the skunks to travel past the traps more. Traps were only checked on the regular route days and since they were off the fairways and not disturbed there was'nt any smell problems. Oh yes they seem to prefer canned cat food with gravy. Last year after posting this same question on this forum because my trapping experience did not include manicured lawns or golf courses I got the same information as posted above probably from the same people. I took your information into the staff meeting and argued for coon. video trail cameras were placed on the course at night and removed each morning. These showed skunks doing the damage so I had to eat crow. It might be that either animal would do damage like this while searching for food. Just be careful what you repeat from this or you will be searching for crow recipes like me. Nothing is absolute in nature.

The skunks or coons could be a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself. The golf course may want to look more into what it is they are digging up.

Thanks for all the advice so far. It is definately grubs that they are digging up, they have been spraying for them. They have a large burn pile of brush so I moved the traps over there today and added some cupcakes leftover from last night's banquet. I did get a skunk today. Also shot 3 geese off the course this morning to go with the four I got yesterday.

Sounds like a real nice job.

I'm glad you posted about the trail cams. They settle a lot of disputes. We all know that skunk make nice little holes and raccoons have a tendency to roll the sod over, except when they don't. The prevailing paradigm is never 100%.

Seeing that you're already out there shooting geese, it would be hard for me to resist riding around popping skunks/raccoons for a few hours after sunset and a few before sunrise.

As Pesky said, set the brush, woods and under buildings. That's where they're living.

Use the bait that works for you. A lot of pros use cat food and sardines. Why? Because it works. Many other baits work well too so don't get in the rut of using just one or two. Keep an open mind.

Don't get discouraged. Enjoying the challenge will make the job go quicker.

Skunk damage top pic Raccoon bottom pic

What I like about the raccoon damage is they leave enough of their footprints all over that loose soil so that there isn't any question as to who is the culprit.