Contents
Necessary materials
To rid yourself of the uninvited guests, you will need certain materials. These materials are:
- Bright outdoor lighting
- Rags soaked in ammonia
- Dog urine
- Lemon or orange peels
Getting rid of skunks may require taking one or more steps, depending on how persistent and adaptable the pests may be. Try one step at a time or in any combination as you deem necessary to solve the problem.
Eliminating attractions
The first step is to eliminate anything that may be attracting the skunks to your backyard. Skunks will eat any pet food, garbage, fruits, bird seeds or vegetables that they find lying around. So keep these types of items in tightly-sealed containers and remove any trash from the premises as quickly as possible. Adequately fence off any vegetable gardens or fruit trees and promptly remove fallen or rotting produce.
The skunks may also be attracted due to easy access to shelter. So eliminating this access is essential to the permanent riddance of these unwelcomed critters. You must close off any open spaces beneath your porch, house or deck. Please be sure to carefully evict the entire skunk family before sealing the access point. Once you have coaxed the skunks out into the open, you may then fill the hole with rocks or dirt. Or use some 1/8 inch hardware mesh to screen off the area.
Illuminating yard
The next step is to brightly illuminate the yard at night. Skunks tend to be nocturnal creatures and prefer residing and feeding where they can blend in with the darkness of night. Naturally, you do not want to upset your neighbors, disrupt your family’s sleep or make you electric bill unaffordable. So you may want to use solar lighting or lighting that works off of a motion sensor. Although this may seem like extra work and expense, it does serve other purposes too. Once you get rid of the skunks, your family can enjoy night-time activities in the yard if you have adequate lighting. The extra lighting also increases safety and security for the home and its residents, since it will help to deter criminal activities too.
Chemical warfare
If the first two steps aren’t enough, then start using chemical warfare. Simply soak rags in ammonia and then place them all around the yard’s perimeters. Skunks don’t like the strong ammonia odor. Be sure to reapply the ammonia to the rags once in awhile to keep the scent strong enough to be effective.
Dog urine is also an effective chemical weapon, since dogs are a skunk’s natural predators. If you can collect it, put the urine in a spray bottle and then generously spray your back yard with it. However, it might be easier to just purchase the products containing dog urine that are available on the market. As with the ammonia, the dog urine will have to be re-applied once in awhile, especially after it rains.
Citrus fruits
Allegedly, skunks also dislike the scent and taste of citrus fruits, especially lemons and oranges. Apparently, these fruits have natural insect and pest repellent attributes. So you may want to slice up a variety of oranges and/or lemons and place the peels throughout your backyard. The lemons and oranges may repel many other unwelcomed guests too, such as cats, spiders and mosquitoes. After the skunks leave your backyard, they may take up residency in your neighbors’ yards. So your neighbors will most certainly want to know how you managed to get rid of skunks in your backyard.
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