How to make a skunk go away?

[milovaný]

We've had a skunk in our yard a couple of times in the last five days (he's woken me up as he rustles through the leaves on the ground right outside our bedroom window - !). Ick. Just ick. We live in a neighborhood in town.

The first night we watched him for an hour and eventually saw him go under the back gate and on his merry way. I thought that would be that. There are hundreds of other backyards to choose from, KWIM?

He was back this morning. (Ick.) Eventually he went under the *front* gate and into the neighbor's yard before I stopped watching.

Any ideas about how to keep him a w a y completely? We don't have any cat food or such things out there, the garbage is covered securely. He's just nosing around looking for grubs and bugs, I guess. It would be so awful if he sprayed in our yard.

Ick.

[VaKim]

I've heard moth balls are supposed to repel them, but haven't tried it yet. We have a whole family of them nesting under the floor of our garage. They are forever spraying something, and yes, it is ick!!

I'll be interested to see what others say. :bigear:

[Heather in the Kootenays]

I've heard the moth ball story as well. We've had to board up nesting areas to discourage skunks. And I've heard of people putting out motion detecting sprinklers (but wouldn't that make them spray).

You can trap them if it continues but in my experience, they wander through for awhile and then chose a new path. I'm very careful to use a flashlight to go out after dark in skunk season.

[Book Crazy]

How is this for ick.

One night we here the rustle of the skunk going about his night time walk. We live in the woods here in FL, not far from a national forest, so animals in the yard is nothing new. The skunk actual had a name, thanks to ds, we called him Fred.

Well, as I was saying, Fred was on his night time walk, and something must have spooked him, cause he sprayed. Bad enough smelling that in the house, but when he sprayed he was right next to the a/c. Oh, yes, right next to the a/c. I have never wanted to throw up so much in my life.

For some reason Fred never did come back after that night.

http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Animals/3d-skunk-flower.gif