How to Keep Skunks Away from Your Yard

Homeowners often contend with wild animals such as raccoons, but a skunk problem is the worst. Encountering one of these skittish creatures often leads to no good, leaving you covered in a musky smell. Discover how to keep skunks away from your yard using various home remedies without having to call animal control.

There are several species of skunk, and these nocturnal critters are very opportunistic and adaptable. These omnivores have a vast diet, munching on whatever they can find, but prefer eating insects, larvae, and grubs. A startled skunk spits, growls, and stamps the ground before releasing its infamous skunk smell.

Skunks hardly ever travel more than two miles from their home, so it’s vital to discourage them from making a den near your house. Fortunately, there are several things skunks hate, and incorporating them around your home is a great form of wildlife control.

How to Get Rid of Skunks around Your Home

While they look pretty cute, skunks are not an animal to contend with, considering they release a very unpleasant musk odor when frightened.

We’ll show you how to use several DIY skunk deterrents to keep skunks away from your house and out of your yard and prevent a skunk problem from developing. Find out how to get rid of skunks with few materials and little effort.

Keeping Skunks Away from Your Yard with Odors

It’s ironic how skunks hate certain smells, considering they create one of the most obnoxious scents of all. However, keeping skunks away from your yard using scents they detest is the simplest deterrent method.

To repel skunks from your yard, try citrus fruit. Skunks cannot stand the smell of citrus, so rather than tossing orange, grapefruit, lime, or lemon peels, keep them in a bucket and spread them around the perimeter of your yard. This is also effective for keeping squirrels out.

Mothballs are also useful for keeping skunks away and placing them in areas where you see skunk activity keeps the pests at bay.

Remedies to Keep Skunks Away from Your Backyard

No one wants to walk through the yard in the evening and bump into a startled skunk. A great way to keep a skunk out of your yard is to install a few things around your property that not only deter them from the area but are useful for your home.

Since skunks are nocturnal, they stay away from areas with bright lights. Consider installing a motion sensor light source to get rid of skunks in your yard. The yard lights up as soon as skunks head onto your lawn, scaring them away.

Water is also an effective tool for deterring skunks, as well as being something to keep cats away. A motion sensor sprinkler system shoots a harmless spray of water every time it senses movement from skunks and other yard pests.

How to Keep Skunks Away from Your Yard with Ammonia

One of our favorite remedies to keep skunks away from your backyard is ammonia. This liquid repels them away with its strong odor, causing them to look elsewhere for food sources. Ammonia can also work as a homemade skunk poison. It’s strong enough to pack a punch and deter skunks from the area completely.

Soak cotton balls or rags in a bowl of ammonia, and then place the wet cotton around the outside of your garden, outdoor trash can, and along any entry points to your yard.

Keeping Skunks out of the Yard with Predator Urine

Most animals have a predator that they fear, and skunks are no exception. Tricking them into thinking their enemies guard your yard is a great way to send skunks in the other direction.

Urine Skunk Deterrent

Skunks have many natural enemies, and foxes are high on the list. Many hardware stores sell fox urine, and applying this liquid around the perimeter of your yard fools skunks into thinking predators guard your home.

Dog urine is also useful, so letting your pet take care of their business around the lawn works to keep skunks away.

Making a Homemade Skunk Repellent to Get Rid of Skunks

We often consider pepper spray a safe method for deterring a burglar, but it’s also the perfect solution for keeping skunks and other critters out of your yard. Making a homemade batch of this spray is both easy and effective, and it’s also an ideal DIY racoon repellent spray.

Combine the water, onion, jalapeno, and cayenne pepper in a large pot and boil it for 20 minutes.

Pour the liquid through a strainer and fill a large spray bottle with the repellent. Spray the solution on vegetation around your yard every five days to clear away skunks.

Keeping Skunks out of Your Garden with Plants

If you’d rather not use sprays, consider using plants. Many plants repel skunks with their odor and are natural ways to keep skunks away from your backyard and out of your garden.

There are many plants that skunks stay away from, and the reason varies. Squash plants have leaves with tiny hairs that irritate the bottom of a skunk’s feet.

Fritillaria imperialis produces flowers with an unpleasant odor that is repulsive to skunks and rodents. Finally, stinging nettle has sharp and pointy hairs, and disturbing these plants produces a liquid that causes burning and stinging.

Keeping a Clean Yard to Deter Skunks

A yard is inviting to skunks in more ways than one, especially if you have fruit trees and vegetable gardens. Keeping a clean yard is a simple way to make the area uninteresting to curious critters.

If you have fruit trees or shrubs, make sure to pick up fallen fruits from the ground as soon as you notice them and discard them in the trash if they are spoiled.

Old fruits and vegetables attract insects, which in turn attract skunks. Clean your vegetable garden at the end of the season by removing old veggies and raking up debris.

What to Do if You Have a Smelly Skunk Mishap

While keeping skunks away from your yard is ideal, there are times when an encounter is unavoidable. Fortunately, there are some simple remedies to remove the musky smell.

We often think of tomato juice for removing the nasty scent of skunks; however, this is a myth. While the juice washes off some of the odor-causing chemical components, it doesn’t remove them completely.

To get rid of the skunk smell on your clothing, wash them separately from other clothes and mix a half cup of baking soda with your regular laundry detergent. Clean them with the hottest wash cycle and dry them as usual.

For removing skunk odor from skin and hair, or your pet, combine a quarter cup of baking soda, one quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide, and a teaspoon of laundry detergent in a large bucket.

Mix the ingredients well and add the skunk spray recipe to a spray bottle or leave in the bucket, and then use the solution to wash the affected areas thoroughly. Rinse the area completely with clean water and dump any remaining liquid down the drain.

Ways to Prevent Skunks from Entering Your Yard

While using bright lights, sprinklers, and odors are excellent ways to deter skunks from your yard, preventing them from wanting to enter your backyard in the first place is just as important.

Skunk Prevention

The most crucial step in keeping skunks out of your yard is to eliminate their food sources. This includes everything from an infestation of insects to pet food, birdseed, and garbage.

Use a sturdy garbage can that is not easy to tip over and ensure it is always secured with a lid. Never leave garbage sitting outside the trash cans since this is an open invitation to all types of wildlife, including skunks and raccoons.

Skunks love all kinds of food, and that includes cat food and dog food. If you feed your pets outside, clean up their food as soon as they finish eating. Otherwise, feed your pets indoors.

Skunks consider birdseed a tasty snack between meals, so it’s essential to secure your bird feeders in a way that makes it impossible for skunks to tip over. Make sure to store large bags of bird food in your garage or home rather than outside. This also helps in making a chipmunk proof garden.

Even if you remove these food sources, skunks still have plenty to eat if you have a bug problem.

Use a homemade or commercial insecticide to eliminate insect infestations in your garden and yard and treat your lawn with pesticides to eradicate grubs and larvae.

Skunks are deceivingly cute, but coming into direct contact with these furry critters is not a good idea.

While an infestation means calling in skunk removal services, there are many ways to deter these animals from taking over your backyard and prevent them from returning,

Now that you know how to keep skunks away from your yard to prevent an accidental encounter, why not share our skunk deterrent methods with your circle of friends and family on Pinterest and Facebook?