Skunk Den Under My House

[BSmith]

HElP!
We have some skunks who have moved in under my pier & beam home! They have been here now a week, and everything that we have been told to do does NOT work.
We are getting sick of the smell--they react with loud sounds in the house or if we try to close up the hole at night.

We welcome good effective ideas!

Thanks for any help that you might offer us--Hurry!!! It stinks!!!!!

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Get a Have-a-heart trap and cover it with black plastic. Apparently if the skunk can't see you, it won't spray. Then take them away one by one.

[GasMan]

Shoot 'em. Just do it organically.

[Tony M]

Wait till the skunks have gone out foraging for the night. If you don't know when they leave, try putting some flour down in front of the hole in the early evening. Check for tracks later that evening to see if they have crossed the flour.
Get the hottest pepper you can find and spray or sprinkle it as far under the house as you can and all around the entrances holes. Their noses are very sensitive so this might be an easy low cost solution.
Tony M

[CCC/mmgowen]

But how do you get rid of the smell!!!! Either skunks live under our church or they sprayed under the building! Help!

[Kenyadenola]

My family had skunks under our house last year, and we we were actually "skunked out" about 5 times. We used the Have a heart and we did have to shoot them, even if you cover the cage with black plastic, they get startled and still spray, and very sadly, they spray when they are shot. Shooting was a very last resort, but there was nothing else we could do. I had to send my two children, one of which was just born, to my parents house for a couple of days because the smell was so bad. There really wasn't much we could do about the smell, just open windows, burn inscence, or oils, anything and give it some time.

[qmj]

I realize this particular case was long enough ago to be resolved by now (I hope). However skunks are an on-going problem for many people like us in the country. We have removed the odor from dogs with diluted vinegar sprayed on them, which they did not enjoy. It also worked to spray on our porch. Inside, open dishes of vinegar absorb odors, including skunk, tobacco, and other pungent smells. The vinegar odor disperses pretty quickly, but I think white vinegar smells less than cider. "Oust" does a really good job on stinky aromas, including skunk. I try to tell myself they catch mice, but it still doesn't make me love skunks.The flour idea on the ground is a really good one. We had a family of them living under our house years ago, and caught them out from under there by luck one night and covered the hole where they were coming and going. End of problem. The real problem was our neighbor who was feeding them cat food because they were "cute". I take in our dog food at night to hopefully not entice them to visit.

QMJ