Skunk Problems

This article explains how to create a natural skunk repellent.

I know simply process that worked for a family in Arizona.They had a awful skunk problem, they cured it by leaving thier own scent in the trails around thier home.

They urinated on the game trails, sounds crazy but it worked. They marked thier territory and the skunks went elswhere. It also kept the bobcats out.

The bobcats had been killing thier cats.

Easiest way I have found to get rid of them is to make sure all sources of food is gone.

garbage, is a possibility, but they like grubs better, get a good grub insecticide for your lawn and spread it to kill off all the grubs and the skunks will go away when the food is gone.

skunks like Dog Food too.

Skunk are also attached to rats and mice. I've a friend who owns an exterminator business. He finds the people with issues with skunks living under or near there home usually have a rat or mice issue. To get rid of the skunks he uses a live trap with a cover over it. Once the skunk is caught he disposes of it.

Of course you could always resort to shooting the offending "Pepe Le Pew" in the buttski with a load of rock salt before he gets you first........make sure you have a double barrel shotgun in case you miss the 'lil varmit the first time, or else you'll stink more than your puppy does!

just me 2 cents for what it's worth...

Kill the skunk. Preferably in a humane manor. Once they find a place that suits them the skunks will never leave.

Here is what not to do. Do not, i repeat, do not shoot the skunk, at least not within a quarter of a mile of your house and especially not in the driveway. Don't ask, just trust me on this one...

It can be done if you are a good enough aim to get a clean head shot. If you hit it in the lower body, move out for at least a month.

Here in eastern Pennsylvania, you can contact a Rod and Gun club and usually someone in the club is into trapping for the pelt.

It was a head shot and it died on the spot. Maybe there are different places to hit it in the head?

I also made a head shot and it let loose. I think once it is dead it looses control of all body functions.

Don't forget in PA if you want to shot it you will need a hunting license and fur bearers. You can trap them with out a license only for catch and release purposes.

Also don't forget skunks carry rabies so if you are bitten, scratched, sprayed, or get blood on you get medical attention.

PA Game Commission recommends that a profession wildlife pest remover handle it.

i understand that 'marking your territory' by urinating around your property does work, but only if you are not a vegitarian.

i've also heard (but have never had to try) that bathing in tomato juice is effective at removing the offending smell.

if you are attempting to get rid of grubs (potential skunk foodsource), a better and longer lasting remedy than insecticide is often using beneficial nematodes.

benbenben

!st follow rcapper's advice. I have a feeling there is a story there. Maybe... he could condense it down to 2 or 3 pages.

That brings up memories of a friend of mine who shot one under his house. Not smart. Of course, there is the story of a Norweigen farmer in North Dakota who put a piece of lutefisk under his house to drive the skunks out. (lutefisk is a cod fish cured in lye so that it looks somewhat clear and smells bad...well that's my opinion... but the Norweigens love it)

And more seriously, I have read that a skunk is worth thousands of dollars to a farmer for all the mice he eats in the grain field who spend their time eating the farmer's profits.

hahaha, well, what happens is they seem to "dump" their entire load of stored chemical warfare juice. I don't know how much they store, but as you watch it stream out, and continue to stream out, and continue to continue to stream out, the notion that this was a good idea quickly leaves you and the magnitude of the error in judgment you have just made will begin to dawn. If you think the smell you detect from a distance is bad, you have no idea what that much up close is like. When the entire load is discharged on your doorstep, there is no way to make it go away. You can hose it off but it just soaks into wherever it goes (maybe you could use that concoction noted elsewhere in the thread - if you had the ingredients ??). You will regret this for weeks. Your eyes will burn for days. It will give you headaches, it is so intense and so continuous. It will get inside your closed car inside your closed garage. It is difficult to imagine how something produced by an animal can be so intense. It is the most intense olfactory experience you never want to have.

Moose's link (given in #1) is a good one. If you or the dog have already been sprayed, a solution of 1 quart bottle of standard 3% hydrogen peroxide (which you can find just about anywhere), one half cup of baking soda and a couple of teaspoons of liquid dish detergent is excellent at emulsifying and oxidizing the stench components to odorless materials which wash away.

I can attest to the effectiveness of Moose's homemade skunk odor remover.

A few years ago, my oldest Border Collie "Ryan" (also my constant companion...another story) ran up against one of the B&W perfume makers after I had let him out to do his Constitutional Duties. I had also let out several of the older dogs too, but they had previously learned about skunks the hard way and stayed away from this one! Mindful, our stockade fence that surrounds our backyard is pretty tight, and I never had expected to see a skunk there, let alone some cat or a Woodchuck. Well, Ryan just went nutzzz when he encountered the critter near the swimming pool. It was getting pretty dark out, but I noticed Ryan was trying to "herd" something along the back fenceline, about 30 yards from me. Well, my curiousity got the better of me and I went out onto our back deck, which is elevated, to get a better look. It was then I saw that Ryan was trying to herd a huge skunk, so I hightailed it to inside the kitchen French doors PDQ!!! I've never seen a skunk so big before, even as roadkill. I tell ya, it was one well fed Pepe Le Pew!!!! From the door I kept yelling to the dog to back off, but in true Border Collie fashion he was fixated on the herding that skunk like it was a sheep or a horse. After about a minute of this game, the skunk must've got a tad peeved and turned right around lickity split and nailed Ryan square in the face. Boy did that dog yelp madly!!! Let's say I closed the door very quickly as he was making a beeline straight for the door as fast as his legs could take him. Well needless to say he stayed outsdie all night! The next morning my wife and I tried giving Ryan a Tomato Juice bath, but that was completely ineffective. Ditto with the stuff you an buy at the local pet store. I ended up looking on Google for a DIY skunk remover potion. I found the same exact one that Moose offered up in an earlier post. After two long long baths with this stuff we could tolerate the dog in the house again!!!

Oh forgot to mention another way to rid yourself of skunks!

A few years ago I encountered one in our basement after one of the kids had forgotten to close the garage overhead door one night.

Apparently, they do not like loud sounds. I was able to chase it out of the basement by banging repeatedly on a large steel pot with an old metal meat tenderizer mallet. Probably gave the dang thing a massive headache, or at best, a real earful!! ***LOL***

What you do is to sneak up behind the skunk, using a small bush or a large bushy weed as camouflage, grab him by the tail and pick him up by it, then carry him off to another location where he can find what he is looking for.

This really works, I swear.

Greetings.

Not sure if this will work for skunks. I had problem at work with racoons living under the shipping containers that we use for additional storage. They would boldly come out and get into our 40 cubic yard garbage dumpsters and the female would be become very agressive to anyone walking up the stairs to the dumpster platform.

A number of things had been tried without any success. I got an email about the uses of WD40 lubricant. I was reading it and thought well maybe. I lightly sprayed the metal entrance under the shipping container (40 foot). Within 10 minutes all of the racoons left and haven't been back.

Let us know what your solution is. Interesting.

Have a great day.

Oly

To get rid of the skunk order we use a product called Skunk be Gone, which can be found at any local pet shop. My first lab loved to hunt groundhogs, but one of the problems with that is the skunks like their holes also so he was good foe getting sprayed at least once or twice a year. We use one application of Skunk be gone on him and the smell was gone. Only exception of course was when he would get a mouth full of the stuff, then we would force feed him dog biscuits with mint.

Shooting them is a very bad idea as earlier mentioned, yes first hand experience in my early teens. Secondly I have caught them a couple of times in a live trap, once was in the barn. If you don't make any sudden moves you are fine, while talking softly to it I slowly picked the cage up and carried it outdoors, set it down and opened the door and walked away. It eventually waddled away. Three times in a trap and every time I could release it without incident.

Skunks like to live under our front stoop. We tried all kinds of stuff... Finally called the Animal Control people. They said pour ammonia down the hole, wait a day, then block it up. That worked - until the next year, when a really determined skunk showed up. I swear that critter was an engineer in a previous life! It moved a TON of dirt and some really BIG rocks, turned the little hole into a posh skunk resort. We did the ammonia thing again, then blocked up the entrances with metal grids. So far, so good...

for years we just use "nature's miracle". skunk odour remover. works instantly, and is cheap. from "pets ' n people", inc. 1815 Via El Prado, suite 400, Redondo beach, Ca 90277 for additiional help, phone 310 540 3727. stupid dog couldn't help himself. just wanted to play with any thing small [tennis ball sized skunks] and smelly. good luck