Skunks are primarily nocturnal creatures who love to do their scrounging during nighttime hours. You will find them venturing into your neighbourhood in order to find food sources and will often create dens underneath patios or porches. Once you have a skunk living in or around your home, you want to have the creature removed. Skunks can cause damage to your property including urine and faeces messes, digging up your yard and eating garden veggies.
Skunks are defensive and stinky, which makes it more challenging to deal with their infestation. Although their diet is mostly consisting of insects and animals, they also feed on plants. For this reason, they are also a common nuisance in the garden. Although they are not a common problem in plants, it is still important to be familiar with how to get rid of skunks, making sure that they won’t be a disturbance in any way.
Skunks are nocturnal and non-aggressive animals, which makes them less of a problem in the garden compared to many others. There are different species of skunks, but two of the most popular are spotted skunks and striped skunks. They belong to the Mustelidae or weasel family. They are omnivorous and can also be beneficial in the garden. They will be an excellent choice for the biological control of some of the common garden pests, such as cutworms, hornworms, and Japanese beetles.
They are popular from the foul odour that they emit. They have two pouches on the tail. When you do not disturb them, there should be no problem. On the other hand, once you disturb the skunks, they will emit golden-yellow liquid, which produces a foul odour. The good thing is that they will only produce such if you disturb them.
How to identify a skunk problem
Most of the damage by skunks can be cosmetic. As they are powerful diggers, they can create holes with a diameter of three to four inches. Because of burrowing, they will make the lawn unattractive. It won’t take a long time before they can bring serious damage. There are no serious economic losses or reductions in crop yield since they seldom affect plants.
- Garbage cans are tipped over in the morning with a mess in your yard
- You can also pay attention to the smell in the surroundings, especially of your pet. If they have a foul smell, this is probably because of skunk spray.
- Seeing the vegetables in the garden showing signs of being eaten. For corn, pay attention to the signs of gnawing on the lower portion of the ear. Skunks cannot reach high, which is why evidence of their feeding is only on the bottom part of their host plant.
- Among others, the most common sign is holes in the lawn or flower bed. The skunks are the ones that dig these holes.
- Pay attention as well to the marks on the tracks or pathways. Their footprints will be similar to raccoons. Their marks will have five toes and visible claws.
Prevent skunks from coming back
To eliminate and prevent skunks in a manner that does not resort to hazardous methods, the following are some of the solutions that can prove to be promising:
- Habitat modification: Learn about what they eat and where they live. With this, you can alter the external environment, making sure that they will not find it attractive. Get rid of anything that they can eat on the ground or their possible denning site. See to it that trash bins are always covered.
- Trapping: this is a solution that is commonly used (you need to be familiar with the regulations where you live as there are some laws that prohibit a number of trapping methods. Live traps are some of the most common, which are available in many commercial sellers). We would recommend recommends baiting the trap with canned or fresh fish, fish-flavoured cat food, sardines, chicken entrails, or peanut butter, then covering the trap with a heavy canvas prior to setting it to help decrease the chances of the skunk spraying when it realizes it is caught.
- Fencing: is another method that might work. However, because of the size of the skunks, see to it that the fence is strong enough so that skunks won’t be able to knock them down. Also, be sure to bury the fence deep in the ground. As much as possible, the depth of the fence should be about ten inches. This is because skunks have the reputation of being heavy diggers.
- Predator urine: this is a good choice for the elimination of skunks. To be specific, coyotes and dog urine will help to deter their presence. Many commercial sellers are selling these products.
- Perfumed bar of soap: placing this in the garden patch is another simple solution that can be effective. The strong smell of the soap will be helpful in keeping the skunk away. Lemon and orange peels will also work as skunks dislike the smell of citrus.
- Animal repellents that utilize all-natural ingredients
What can you do to prevent your garden/backyard from being invaded by skunks?
- Close in areas beneath decks and porches with latticework or heavy landscaping
- Pick up all pet food and water bowls and scraps each night
- Remove all logs, rocks, lumber, and junk or trash piles under which skunks can find shelter or insects on which to feed.
- Seal off any openings in foundations or crawl space with 1/4- to 1/2-inch hardware cloth or other sturdy mesh. Bury the mesh as directed for fencing (below).
- Erect a One-Way Door to allow skunks to leave and not reenter shelter beneath a structure: we recommend attaching a piece of 1/2-inch hardware cloth to the top of the opening. It should be larger than the entire entrance, hinged at the top, and loose on the other three sides. Once the skunks are gone, the entrance can be sealed to keep other wildlife from getting in.
If you need further information in regards to skunks, please read our following articles: Information about Skunks and How to get rid of Skunks.
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