Skunk by our back door, Help needed, please

[Blue Hen]

This morning I took our puppy outside at 5am and the skunk smell was overwhelming. Thankfully we did not have a direct encounter and I was able to take Chloe to the back corner of our 2 acre lot and far away from the skunk/skunk smell.

I shared with my oldest that I smelled skunk by the back door and to not let our 1-1/2yo dog outside. He obliged, thankfully! We had to leave the house so DS could get to his ski trip meeting place, so I opened up our garage door, which is around the corner from the backdoor, a good 30' away.

DS said that when he went out through the garage doors, he heard rustling in the bushes that are between the garage and the backdoor-side of our house.

A skunk! How does one make their area / yard not interesting to a skunk? We live in a development, but we have open fields all around the development so there's lots of wildlife around the area. I'm not adverse to wildlife but I just don't want a skunk living in the bushes right next to my house.

This is not the first time I have smelled skunk there but now with two dogs I'd rather they not have a close encounter with a skunk, let alone have one right next to my house.

Thanks!

[Lady Katherine]

Mothballs. We get skunks under the house, and they go away when I toss mothballs under there. But the mothballs do dissolve, and then you have to do it again.

You can also purchase bottled fox urine, but WHOA. It's potent.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

Make sure you're not leaving food out for them (cat, dog, chicken) and try to block up any interesting dens under your house. My parents had litters of skunks under their deck until they got it sealed.

[Gwen in TX]

Pick one that is really potent - Old Spice or lime scented. Open it up and advance some of the stick out of the package. Place it where you have smelled him (several places). If you can, provide the stick with some shelter so the rain doesn't wash it away too quickly.

Other than that, keep tomato juice on hand - large cans of it - to wash the dog with!

[Blue Hen]

Now that it is daylight I investigated the area a bit more. There is a freshly dug hole along the wall between the back door and the end of the back of the house. It isn't a dog-dug hole either but I wasn't able to find any tell-tale skunk foot prints. I laid some 8x8" blocks over the area but 'it' could always move a foot one way or the other and still have a great place to camp-out. Thankfully we don't have a space, like a deck, for the skunk to burrow under.

While our garbage is close to this spot, the can is one of those 5' tall by 3'wide plastic cans, with a lid. Not easy to get into for a skunk, and the rest of the area is 'clean'. Our dog food is in the garage, which is closed, and is in plastic containers, with lids. Good thoughts though. I think because of the shape of the back of our house, it just likes that little corner spot, which puts it out of the wind that rips across this plain.

[Blue Hen]

Pick one that is really potent - Old Spice or lime scented. Open it up and advance some of the stick out of the package. Place it where you have smelled him (several places). If you can, provide the stick with some shelter so the rain doesn't wash it away too quickly.

Other than that, keep tomato juice on hand - large cans of it - to wash the dog with!

That's what I really, really want to avoid---needing to wash these dogS, and wash the spray off my home. I had a GS get sprayed once, not close to the house at all, and oh my, the smell lingered in our yard and on him for so long.

Well, even if we don't get rid of it our yard will smell interesting, between Old Spice and moth balls....

[Blue Hen]

Mothballs. We get skunks under the house, and they go away when I toss mothballs under there. But the mothballs do dissolve, and then you have to do it again.

You can also purchase bottled fox urine, but WHOA. It's potent.

Moth balls and Old Spice our yard is going to smell great. I think I'll pass on the fox urine, but where would I buy that one?

BTW, my dogs are all excited today. They want OUT.

[Happy]

You buy fox urine at hunting/camping supply places. Usually the bigger the better. Hunters use it to disguise human smell.

[Sharon H in IL]

True story. My dad was a boy and he'd heard that a skunk can't spray you if you are holding it up by its tail. A skunk approached him, and he [clever lad that he was] decided to test the story.

According to dad, it's true. Skunks can't spray if you hold them by the tail dangling upside down. Or at least that one couldn't.

The "Now what?" question finally occurred to him. He stood a while a thought about that one. Finally, he slung it around his head in a wide arc, and flung it as far as he could, and ran in the opposite direction.

He still smelled awful, he said.:D

[RoughCollie]

Be careful with skunks. We have a lot of them around here. One was curled up in an overturned trash can at the curb. It slept there for several days and wouldn't go away. I called animal control and they said it had rabies, so the cops came out and took care of it. It was very sick with rabies, which was why it was just lying there and had not moved.