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How can you keep skunks out of your garden? As importantly, why should we even try?

Skunks can actually be helpful animals, to gardeners and farmers, since they eat many other pests. However, they can also be troublesome and smelly, especially if they seem to delight in walking beneath your bedroom window many nights in a row.

Many agricultural extension offices will recommend either trapping them and disposing of them, or drowning them. Not only is this rather inhumane, but also anyone trapping a skunk who then tries to dispose of them in any manner, is likely to be very sorry that they tried it.

An angry or injured skunk is not to be trifled with. They are carnivores and can bite viciously, have very sharp teeth, and their main defense, the spray, can be ejected accurately to around 20 feet. Anyone being sprayed by a skunk will know how difficult it is to get rid of the stink. Getting it in the eyes will temporarily blind a person or pet. In any event, it is not a pleasant experience to go through.

Skunks have an extremely acute sense of smell, as surprising as this may be to many people. In the wild, they use this sense to find prey and food. They sometimes move about during the day, but are primarily nocturnal or night animals. The great sense of smell is what helps them locate food even in total darkness.

They are also quite intelligent, and these two things combine to make them difficult to get rid of. If they've raided your garbage can and found food there, they will remember it and return repeatedly. If they find shelter under your house, they will often remain, realizing that it is better shelter than they could find in the wilds.

However, having such an acute sense of smell can be their downfall, and a way to chase them away. There is a remarkably simple way of getting rid of them and discouraging them, using this knowledge, even if they take up residence under your house or porch. Purchase a bag of mothballs, sold in many stores, and put them liberally anywhere that skunks are a problem, including under the house. Since skunks have a very good sense of smell, and they absolutely do not like the smell of mothballs (Most people don't either, for that matter, but prefer it to the smell of skunk) they will avoid the area.

Periodically put down fresh mothballs, perhaps once every few weeks for areas with lots of skunks. This will repel the animals without harming them, and without you getting bitten or sprayed for your trouble. Of course, it is also a good idea not to leave anything out that can be a ready food source, or smelly one, for skunks. They are drawn to a stench especially of rotting meat, just not to mothballs.

Additional note: Skunks are wild animals. They can harbor fleas that can cause severe illness, and their bite can inflict rabies to you or your pets. It is best to discourage them from being on your property rather than to kill and ultimately have to handle them anyway.

Most of the damage done by skunks in a garden is accidental, as they go after prey. However, the lingering odor is usually enough reason to want to rid the garden of skunks. Killing them isn't the best way to handle the problem. Still, it isn't hard to get rid of them if you use the same method they employ; an aroma. For most people, an occasional bag of mothballs is a small price to pay for getting rid of the skunks.

Learn more about this author, Rex Trulove.
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