How can anything this cute smell so bad? They are also almost impossible to get rid of unless you trap them in a cage or kill them. Neither of these works well.
If you have them in a cage you still have to get close enough to move the cage...not me! I had one friend that put a trap cage out with a really long tow rope. He was lucky as he lived in the country. He put the cage on a sled and when he caught the skunk he towed the cage down the dirt road for miles. He then took the long rope that dragged behind which was attached to the cage door release and pulled on it and then unhooked the sled and came back the next day and the skunk was gone.
Once out on the farm we had a couple of skunks move into our culvert (pipe that goes under the road) at the end of our driveway. The mailbox was next to the driveway and also the kids bus stop and that area really smelled bad. He decided the way to get rid of them was to take the double barreled shotgun out and stick in the end of the culvert and fire both barrels off. Well it killed the skunks, it blew pieces of skunk out the other end of that culvert all over the place and I mean all over the place. That mailbox area stunk so bad you could hardly drive by it. No one would get the mail for a week, we made him get it. The kids walked down 1/2 mile to the next bus stop where they did not have to wait at the mailbox for the bus. Not a good choice.
Another friend had some move in under their porch and would eat all their cat food so they decided to take the cat food in and put a trail of cat food out to the woods and then a bowl of food and maybe they would move on. They followed the trail eating? Nope some more ate the bowl of cat food and followed the trail back to their house and moved in. He had 6 of them under the porch. They finally gave up and called in a trapper to get them out of there.
This is my favorite skunk story. I also swear this is a true story from when I worked 911.
Our high desert area of Central Oregon gets very hot in the summer but you can almost always count on an evening breeze that comes across the snow covered mountains and cools it down. A couple and their kids were watching TV with the sliding glass doors open to let the breeze in. All of a sudden the dog starting barking and here comes the dog chasing a skunk which ran into the house through the sliding glass doors spraying away. The dog yelped and stopped and the dog that was in the house took up the pursuit right through the living room. The family escaping out the front door leaving a yellow cloud in the living room, the dogs escaped out the back door and the skunk had the house to itself.
They had to call in a trapper to get him out and a cleaning crew to come clean the house. They ended up getting a new couch (old one was fabric) a new carpet an expensive cleaning bill and 3 weeks in a motel.
And now for my least favorite skunk story. It was a summer night and I had one of those double fans in my window blowing in the nice cool Central Oregon breeze sleeping away. My dogs wanted outside and I let them out. A white German Shepherd and a white poodle mix breed...I staggered into the restroom. I was so lucky I was in the restroom as all of a sudden the grosses most terrible smell in the world permeated the bathroom. It was so bad I automatically threw up instantly. A yellow haze was filling the room. I ran towards the bedroom dry heaving the whole way to see the bedroom was nothing but a yellow cloud. I unplugged the fan, ripped it out of the window and slammed the window. I ran to the window on the other side of the bedroom and stuck the fan back in the window and switched it to blowing outward and flew back into the bathroom still with the dry heaves. I am so glad I had nothing to come up. I opened the windows and turned on the exhaust fan.
At the back sliding doors at the other end of the house from my bedroom sat two sad looking white dogs with yellow all down the front of them. I grabbed the shampoo and went to the outside faucet and washed them. It did not even make them smell any better.
I went in and got all the tomatoes and tomato sauce we had in the house and poured it all over them. Nope they still stunk so bad you could not get near them without dry heaves and this was with me stinking almost as bad as them.
I got on the internet and found these recipe that called for a quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and just a little bit like 3 tablespoons of Dawn dish soap. Do not wet your dog pour this mixture over them and work it in. Let it set for 20 minutes and do not get it in your dogs eyes. Wash the dog out and then pour a mixture of "Scope mouth wash" (they said it had to be Scope) and water over the dog and leave it in there.
Of course I did not have Scope so I showered, changed my clothes from out of closet and I still stunk to high heaven and off to the little overnight store. You should have seen the look on their face when I walked in. I said "don't even say a word". I got my scope and back home I went. I scoped the dogs and went back into the house and got my uniform (911 dispatcher) and washed it three times with soap and scope. Then in Vinegar and thought I was doing pretty good, well until I showed up for work and everyone started laughing and calling me Skunky.
I again searched the good ole internet when I got home. They said to bury my clothes in the back yard for a month...yeah right. Then I found one on removing animal smells from your home. They said it was used by pet shops. Coffee...right open a can of coffee and put it in bowls in your closet and it will remove the smell from your clothes.
Off to BiMart I go and buy 6 cans of cheap coffee. I put coffee grounds from one end of my little house to the other. I sprinkled it all over the rugs. Back to BiMart for more coffee as at least now my house smelled like coffee instead of skunk. I put more coffee out. The floor is covered, the plates, the saucers,the bowls are all over the house and I am out of money for more coffee.
I got up the next morning and BINGO. The house smelled good, my clothes in the closet did not seem to smell. I put on another uniform and went to work and nobody called me skunky. I had also rubbed it into my dogs. I did not even have to wash all the clothes in the closet. It worked, it actually worked.
I still get coffee when it is on sale and put around my house once in a while as I have birds and 4 dogs and it does work when I remember to do it.
