Skunk residing in yard!! Questions...

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I've always been afraid the day would come when I'd go to take either Oscar or Lucy out to their nightly potty spot along the side of our house and run into a SKUNK. Well, the day has come! It happened the other night. I was with Oscar and he started sniffing the ground, like he'd really gotten a whiff of something new and unusual, while I kept telling him, "Hurry-hurry, go potty". All of a sudden he made a 180 turn and ran like a bat out of hell past me. I shone my flash light at the end of the side yard and, sure enough, a skunk hunkered at the end. We made haste back into the house! Earlier in the week I'd noticed cone shaped indentions in the flower beds near the potty spot, and all this week both dogs have been sniffing the ground a LOT. I have a feeling the skunk has been a nightly visitor the entire week. What I'm afraid of is that its made it's den somewhere on our property. We'll be inspecting all the crawlspace vent holes around the house's foundation this weekend, but other than that I can't imagine where else it would be denning. We have no wood piles or open porches, but we do have an elevated area in the back of our property with a retaining wall with lots of Arborvitae and other evergreen shrubs. I wonder if that might be attractive to a skunk. Also, its interesting to note that the entire backyard is fenced, and I've read that skunks do not climb fences. I guess its possible there might be a spot it was able to crawl under the fence.

I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem, and if so, how did you get rid of the skunk? I've seen youtube videos showing the best way to trap a skunk and relocate it to another area without getting sprayed, and we do have a trap we used a few years ago for a family of feral cats/kittens. So there is that possibility. My husband DOES NOT want to go that route, however. He seems to think we'd get sprayed, but after watching so many different videos I feel confident we could do it. I checked with a local pest control company and they charge $350 to do the job. They also 'euthanize' the animal afterwards, which seems extreme and unnecessary.

Anyone here successfully trap and relocate a skunk?

[Diane and Alma]

Our friends (with dogs) had a skunk in their yard.  They put out a trap and caught it and then called animal control who came and picked it up.  They returned the trap.  Not sure what happened to the skunk.  You can ask your animal control if they offer this service and what the outcome would be.  Good luck!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Thanks, Diane. I'll look into that. So far all I've found in the information on the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Dept.'s site is that skunks in Oregon are not a protected species and therefore can be trapped and/or killed. However, raccoons, another nuisance animal, are, and permits are needed to trap and euthanize a nuisance raccoon.  I doubt the OFWD would come relocate a trapped skunk, but I'll definitely call and look into the possibility if it comes to that. I haven't seen evidence of the skunk since Wednesday, although the doodles are still sniffing the ground outside a lot, like they've been doing all week. My husband will be checking the foundation's vent screens today or tomorrow. If one is open he'll put an exit-only door over it (a piece of oversize wire mesh tacked over the hole so the skunk can get out but not back in).

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Washing the dog in feminine hygiene cleaner - like Summer's Eve - really works if the dog gets skunked.  IF you have a place that is totally secure - like crawlspace under a shed that  dogs could not get to, you can use moth balls.  Since they are toxic you need to be very careful, but they will repel rodents. Before we knew that they were toxic, our school custodians used to toss mothballs under the portable classrooms because skunks loved to made dens there and have their babies.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Good to know!