Whats the best bait or lure for skunks?

I know its hard to keep coons out , but rather save them til this fall.Farmer wants the skunks gone in his barn!

I treat skunks like I do coons since they have simliar diets though skunks eat more insects. Use sweet baits to avoid cats.

However, I have found skunks to be far more bait specific than coons. For instance find what the skunks are eating in the barn and try to match that. If they're mousing the barn you'll need a meat or protein based bait to get their attention. No particular food activity then you have more options.

I've gotten 14 skunks in the last three days using marshmallows and crunchy Cheetos. It just seems to work.

Caught my last skunk on marshmellow in a dp. Egg is also good.

my go-to bait set-up.. with a little bacon grease in the tube for sniffin power.

Thanks Guy!!!!

So what do you guys use in plastic catch? Never had as good luck with them but our new guy could certainly use them if we found a decent lure.

I have bacon grease on hand for skunks and rats. I also really like the wcs yellow stripe. Mostly catch skunks with forced sets though.

Bob Jameson's.
Carroll Blacks
On Target probably has some stuff, I'm sure but never used it.

ON TARGET HAS EGGCITING WORKS WELL

If you're using appropriately sized traps, cats and raccoons will be much less of a problem when using fish baits (sardines, etc.), which I've found will catch every skunk in the area. Nothing I've tried catches skunks as fast and consistently as fish.

By appropriately sized I'm referring to the 7x8x24, 6x6x24, 6x24 tube traps, etc. The regular 11x12 raccoon trap will catch plenty of skunks but will invite the cats and raccoons also.

Some barns are filled with cats, some don't have any, some have just a few. Use your best judgement.

sqs, 7x8x24 and I'm guessing that the heavy smell of fish paste on those shiny white marshmallows would do the trick?

opie28, Rob sent me some eggciting. I'll have to go and find it. Thanks.

LT, thanks, I'll try running some Jameson's lure into the cage.

Baxter, yeah, forced sets and Comstocks would be my choice. The new guys need something a little easier.

Thanks to all of you. You certainly gave me a variety to work with!

I do well with marsh mellows, any cheese snack (chettos, cheezits) and wcs rosebud. Adding the rosebud keeps the raccoon catch down for me. I trail small marsh mellows into the trap, and put the bait on the large ones behind the pan. No real need for the paste bait, but looks good in front of the customers.

I expect that fish on a marshmallow would work just fine but then again, fish on a turd would probably work just as well.

If there's fish to be had, a skunk will find it.

edit: I don't want to sound like fish is the only thing that will catch a skunk. It's just the best thing I have found. Heck, I've even caught a skunk in an unbaited cage that had caught another one a few days before. They're usually very cooperative.

If you have a friend that does cut outs for honeybees or is a beekeeper use some old brood comb. They go nuts for honeybees

Fred, you're talking out of school and giving away our trade secrets. LOL
Coon as well love old brood and honey.

Skunks are the most devastating creatures to an apiary...Worse than bears...Sorry man!!!!!

I can understand bears putting up with all those stings but skunks? So you're telling me that skunks aren't really that big, just awfully swollen!

How does a skunk even get to the hive?

sgs, a skunk will come up to the boxes at night and scratch at the entrance and eat the bees as they come to investigate. Manys the hive that has been depopulated before the beek noticed the scratch marks.
If you ever see hives with carpet tack strips in front of the entrances you know the beek is exprericed with skunks.

That's interesting. Crafty critters.

The two options for dealing with skunks raiding hives is either to raise the boxes out of their reach but that puts to boxes high enough to make working them difficult or using a deterrant like carpet tack strips.
I don't have skunks here but if I did I would use nixalite bird spikes as know those will draw blood.

vewwy carefuwwy!
*Elmer Fudd 1956*

Set for coyotes, you wont miss a skunk

Hewwwy thewwe!

A few years ago, before I got into ADC. I was trapping some skunks in exchange for fur bearer permission on some of the best ground I have seen.
Caught most of them close to a set of hives. At the time I was under the impression they were eating the dead bees around the hive. But I see now
that I was incorrect.
Another Beekeeper later told me the dead Bees I was finding around the hive were related to some form of Bee Dysentery or something on that order.

Salmon cat food, dry works well too.