[Futo Inu]

No, not Chuck Schumer et al in Congress - I'm talking about Pepe Le Pew - the black and white critters.

My brother has them around his new semi-rural house, and 2 toddlers in the house. We know they can carry rabies, but:

1. Aside from the smell, are they a threat/menace/pest to the toddlers if they come right up to the house? Would they potentially bite a kid unprovoked or otherwise spread disease?

2. If they ARE a more of an menace than a healthy part of the ecology, is .22lr enough to dispense them, or should I step up to a .17 HMR? The quieter the better, ya know...

[Matt G]

Skunks observed during the night are no problem. That's what skunks do. Don't worry about them.

Skunks viewed during the day should be shot on sight. They are nocturnal creatures, and if they are moving around in the day, they are presumed sick.

Many many skunks die to .22 LR's. I prefer LR HP's to the head out of long-barreled rifle. This keeps the noise down, but puts down the skunk well with a shot to the back of the head. With anything other than a shotgun, the shot MUST be a headshot.

Please note: even with a headshot, about 50% of the time, the stench will emit. Without a headshot, your percentage of likelyhood of stench is running in the high 90's.

[Topgun]

that has holed up in a short concrete drainage pipe with a SHOTGUN!

SPA-DOINNNNGGG.....SPLATTHPH.....OH LORDY......WHEW.

.............................................................................
edited to explain that it wasn't the SKUNK who had the shotgun.

..................................................................................
edited yet AGAIN to explain that the skunk was the SPECIES, not the shooter.

[Telperion]

http://www.skunkabilly.com/images/tactical/tactical_poser.jpg

Looks harmless to me.

[Chipperman]

Always go for a head shot with Skunk...
he's usually wearing Body Armor, you know. :neener:

When skunks are behaving oddly (raccoons too) it's usually Distemper, but Rabies is always a worry. Better safe than sorry. They're gonna die anyway, so dispatch them post-haste. :(

[Doc]

Skunks viewed during the day should be shot on sight. They are nocturnal creatures, and if they are moving around in the day, they are presumed sick.



true for all rodents (opposums, racoons) and any other varmits not actively
high tailing it for cover upon being seen in the light of day

[Joe Demko]

Having a healthy, nocturnal skunk in the area isn't a bad thing at all when you have little kids, or even if you don't. Skunks like to eat bees and similar insects, you see. Bad if you are a beekeeper. Good if you like to be outside and not be plagued by yellowjackets, sweat bees, ground bees, hornets, and all the other flying stingers. I've seen a skunk dig up and eat a whole nest of ground bees. Especially with little kids, a minimum of stinging insects can only be a good thing.

[4v50 Gary]

Yep, generally they're noturnal and if they don't run, something is wrong. I'd shoot. Be sure to put some sort of screens (unmortared bricks perhaps) to keep them from habitating beneath your house.

[10-Ring]

Yeah, the night time ones are just doing their thang. The day time ones require other tactics ( :D )

Beware the ones w/ carbon fiber banjos!!!!

[Double Maduro]

LMBFAO @ Topgun

If you or your toddlers or your dog come upon a skunk in the night and startle it, it will spray. If it feels cornered or trapped it will spray. Even if it misses, unlikely, you will probably be spending the night with friends. If it hits you will spend what seems like eternity smelling skunk, you will have no friends, and so will anyone around you.

If you can get the county animal control out there they can set traps for them and either dispatch them or relocate them to your neighbors place. They don't usually spray in the traps because they can't get their tale over their back, a requirement, safety?, to the spraying process.

If they are around the house someone will walk out side to take out the garbage or go to the store and startle one of them. It will happen, it is only a matter of time.

Good luck,
DM

[M. Jager]

First let me agree that if you see skunks in the daytime they most certainly should be shot. Most skunks shot with a .22 lr will spay. They the likelyhood of a sprayer is greatly decreased by placing a .22 short through the lungs. This of course requires accurate shot placement but works very well.
A better method of removing skunks is trapping. Skunks are very easy to box trap. Once caught, place blanket over trap. Skunks won't spray if blanket covers trap. Take skunk to place oder is not an issue. Remove blanket and roll trap slowly on its back so the door falls open (doesn't work with all box traps). Let skunk get safe distance from trap before dispatching with .22 or whatever you are comfortable whacking a moving critter with. Use a pole to roll trap. The most important thing to remember is to do it slowly. If you use no sudden movements you have little fear of getting sprayed. I've caught every skunks in box traps and snares and while all shot with a .22 lr sprayed, the spray was away from me and my trap.

[Art Eatman]

A buddy of mine was visiting out at Terlingua. Beautiful night, so he went out and sat in the armchair on my porch, staring at the stars. He casually dropped his hand down, just sorta changing position, and felt fur.

He looked down. Saw a white streak in the black. Raised his hand v-e-r-y carefully, and sat r-e-a-l-l-y still.

Mr. Mephisto wandered off, continuing his little skunky explorations...

:D, Art

[Skunkabilly]

Bait it with carbon fiber and Korean barbecue. Works every time :o

Headshots, as some skunks may have Level IV plates and can withstand multiple .308 hits. Electronic ears are handy because they're oh-so silent with their Danners.

[Bobarino]

PLEASE take my advice and DO NOT SHOOT A SKUNK in your yard. if you do shoot a skunk, prepare to have your house be unlivalbe for a week or two. when you shoot a skunk, it releases ALL of its skunkiness when its muscles relax as it dies. when you normaly smell a skunk, it just gives a little quirt of stinky-stuff to scare off a threat. when it dies, ALL of that nastiness comes out and it will make your property very, ummm, "aromatic" for quite some time. to the point that you will want to puke your brains out of your nostrils. trust me, i know from experience. skunks will not attack kids unless the kids chase it something. be sure to teach the kids to run the other way if they see one. they usually don't attack anything bigger than them. thats what they have their "cologne" for. they will usually depart hastily when confronted with a flashlight and a little noise. just don't run after it. if you see it stop, turn around, and stamp its rear feet in a pitter-patter fashion, take cover. its going to spray at you. they can spray up to 30 feet too.

if you do get sprayed or its sprays in your yard, you can eliminate some of the smell be dousing everything is sight with tomato juice. its good to keep a couple of those big generic brand 64 oz cans of the stuff on hand if you have skunks in your neck of the woods. unforunately, i know this stuff from experience. 'tis better to let skunky pass by and leave him alone.

to keep them from coming into your yard in the first place, bring in the cat food and dog food at night. they love that stuff. seal the garbage can good or keep it in the garage or whatever. leave a light on outside at night or better yet a motion light. that helps a little anyway.

Bobby

[Keith]

Did you guys know that a skunk can't squirt while it's running?

I learned this when I was about 16 back in Michigan. In the first warm days of spring, big northern pike come in off the great lakes to spawn in little creeks. They come in at night and leave before dawn. Knowing this; a person who didn't care much about fishing regulations (me and my buddy, at the age of 16) could wander around at night with flashlights and armed with a bow and fish arrows, bring home about as many huge pike as we could carry.
And if those same persons chose to "enhance" the experience with certain herbaceous smoking materials, well, odd things can happen..
What happened one night is that while creeping through the woods in an "enhanced state" on our way to a favored creek, we jumped a skunk. And being judgmentally impaired by the aforementioned herbaceous materials, we immediately gave chase in an attempt to perforate said vermin with our arrows.
Surprisingly, a skunk can really make time in thick woods. They are just fast enough to stay ahead of a sixteen year old if the woods are thick and you catch a low branch in the face every few yards... Despite that, we chased this thing for perhaps a hundred yards before I suddenly realized that sooner or later it was going to retaliate in unpleasant fashion. And as this dawned on me, I halted and grabbed my buddies collar and jerked him to a halt. And the skunk halted as soon as we did, and before we could even think about shooting, it doused us with the nasty stuff from a few yards away!
It's a mistake to chase skunks - I know that now! And if you ever find yourself chasing one, I'd suggest that when you realize you've made a mistake, just change directions unexpectedly and keep running!

Keith

[Big_R]

I seem to post this every time someone talks about dispatching a skunk. If you have a skunk spray for whatever reason, here's what you do:

Mix in a spray bottle:

2 quarts hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 shot liquid soap (any kind)

Mix well and spray on whatever was sprayed. Removes the smell instantly. I learned about this a long time ago and it came in handy after I ran over a skunk with my motorcycle :eek: . Worked on the bike and the leathers.

BTW: I've never shot a skunk that didn't spray. Head shots, body shots, shotgun shots, etc.

Ryan

[kudu]

As a child my grandpa used to relate tales of catching skunks alive to sell to people as pets. He said as long as they are not able to get their hind legs braced that they cannot spray. He would catch baby skunks by quickly grabbing the young skunks by the nap of the neck and getting them off the ground so they wouldn't have traction. He would then have a local vet degland them so they could no longer spray and sell them as pets. He only got sprayed once when he scooped one up it's toe snagged a twig, just enough to give a little squirt. You got to realize this was in the twentys and early thirtys of the depression, so every cent helped out. From what I have heard skunks are excellant pets, very mild mannered.

I have been able to kill them when I have caught them in trapswithout them spraying only once out of 8-10 times. Got to hit them in the back of the head at the base of the spine.

[V-fib]

In discussion of how to remove skunk odor from pets and yourself if you get sprayed. First forget the Tomato juice it makes you smell like a skunky tomato and is a mess. To elaborate on Big R’s response, you need to mix the solution apply to the victim and let it work about 15 minutes then rinse. Avoid getting it in the eyes. The solution must be freshly made and not sitting around for hours or it won’t work.

Two springs ago our dog headed out for her morning ritual and was blasted in the face and neck by a skunk. I had enough of the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and soap to make one dose for her. After three treatments she was 80-90% odor free but still strong enough that when she came in the house it was not pleasant. That night I searched the net till the wee hours of the morning looking for deskunk recipes. There were the previous mentioned concoction and the tomato juice plus others that sounded downright dangerous to be putting on your skin or an animals skin. I was just about to give up when I came across an article about two hunters that were hunting with their dog and the dog got into a skunk just before they were to leave for home. They had a SUV and couldn’t stomach the idea of driving home with the dog stinking so badly. What was their solution? Something many of you and I have right now. Scent-A-Way Soap! You know the soap you wash up with to remove human smell when you hunt. You can get it about anywhere that sells hunting supplies. Anyway that morning I got mine out of the bathroom closet and soaped our pup up with it and YES!!!!, skunk smell completely gone. If she ever gets into a skunk again I’ll douse her with the hydrogen peroxide solution and top it off with a shampoo of Scent-A-Way.

Scent-A-Way Soap is made by Hunter Specialties.



:cool:

[Preacherman]

As discussed in this thread (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?threadid=26008&highlight=skunk), Febreze seems to work pretty well on skunk odor. It's available in any supermarket, AFAIK.

[Sgt]

Bait it with carbon fiber and Korean barbecue. Works every time

And I thought all it took was cute female Korean Police Officers:neener:

[Lennyjoe]

And I thought all it took was cute female Korean Police Officers

Nope. That one got away when he was in Korea. Left home without it.;)

[Grayrock]

I just trapped one. CB cap between the eyes (after I found the eyes- he was sleeping all curled up- didn't know which end to shoot, so I tossed a rock at the cage to wake him up!). He sprayed- but not much.

[troublemaker71]

Thanks to all who posted remedies for skunk odor. I have compiled the information in a separate file for future reference; it's only a matter of time before I get sprayed.

I still-hunt hogs after dark with a scope-mounted spotlight. The predominant species during these hours remains skunk. If I am not unwittingly walking up on one every hour or so, they are approaching me while I rest. It's truly an experience to be sitting on a hunting stool, legs outstretched, listening for animals, and have a skunk pass right under your knees (of course, minutes later I realize I've positioned myself on top of a game trail, four feet away from the skunk's hole in the ground). Thankfully, my super-duper camoflouge and secret agent stealth tactics fool the beasts into thinking I'm part of the wooded landscape.

There is only one smell worse than skunk: smoking skunk. One moonlit morning I traversed the gravel sendero leading from our cow pasture and tanks down to the Brazos riverbottom where I planned to stalk and slay my porcine quarry. Stealthily negotiating a bend in the path, and dreaming meanwhile of the glorious bacony-flavored trophy to come, I managed to confront a dreaded skunk walking toward me. He was looking for bugs to eat, I thought momentarily, but before I knew it he was upon me, not even four feet away!

Unfortunately, the only escape involved leaping sideways into a menacing mesquite thicket, or turning tail. However, by turning around and running away I would have had to run considerable distance, then wait an eternity for the casually meandering skunk to casually meander on by. Accordingly, and without further haste, I stepped back a few feet, mounted my rifle, turned on my spotlight, obtained the target through my scope, pulled the trigger, and then witnessed one of the strangest events ever to befall my eyes (and nose).

Of course I "missed" my target; a skunk is a difficult objective from a close six-to-seven feet away, particular for the shooter armed with a .30-06 scoped out for 30-50 yard shots (at night). What I did see through the lens, however, was my 180 grain bullet hitting the gravel road, producing sparks, and launching into the air a molten stream of lead about the size and dimensions of a small, plastic grub fishing worm. Time obviously had slowed down on some cosmic level, because my human eyes were able to witness the "flaming worm" ascend, and then descend, only to land squarely on the skunk's puzzled looking head. I heard commotion.

Then I ran away.

When I returned I nearly retched in the weeds. The startled skunk obviously sprayed involuntarily after being set ablaze by my molten worm of fire. The combination of burnt fur smoke and skunk juice penetrated my sinuses so severely that I almost wish I had just been sprayed in the traditional fashion, like any other average skunk victim. That smoke was too much. My boogers were lethal for days afterward. I did not shoot a pig that morning.

[muleshoe]

While I'd agree that a skunk found out wondering in the middle of the day would raise some suspicion, it's not uncommon to find them out doing their skunky things early morning or late evening. If they're not causing a real problem, I reckon I'd leave well enough alone. If they are wearing out their welcome, likely I'd shoot for the head and expect a smell. (Hint) Don't shoot them next to the house. I think that the 50% spray rate on a headshot skunk is very optimistic, I'd estimate that at least 80% of the time they'll open fire.

Listerine mouth wash is hands down thee best odor remover I've ever come across. 30 years ago my momma scrubbed this kid down with Listerine after I got myself shot in the head. The smell was gone instantly.

[Horsesense]

Broadcast grub-killer on the yard. The polecats like to dig up grubs.

[cdbeaver]

Skunkabillly--

How do you barbecue kimchee?

[Sunray]

"...they can't get their tale over their back..." That isn't a requirement for Pepe. Nor is being southend towards you. Pepe will generally leave you alone if you leave him alone. He can be living quite contentedly under your house and you'll never know unless you look out the window at night as he saunters by. Even if you step out the door in front of him, he'll warn you before he lets you have it. Yes, it is the voice of experience. White guys can too jump. He'll stamp his two front paws on the ground essentially saying get away from me or else.
The downside of having Pepe as a neighbour is he can be a carrier of rabies and not suffer from it. Still if you leave him alone you're fine. You'll know instantly, even if you've never seen one with actual rabies. It'll be coming at you with malicous intent. Head shots only. LR's or .22 Mags only. No .22 CF 's. Too much expansion of the carcass. And a rabid beastie is no excuse to shoot one in an area where shooting isn't allowed.

[RandyB]

In our county skunks that were shot and brought to be tested showed 75% had rabies. (I suspect most were killed during the day). A friend of ours regularly uses live traps on to catch the skunk, then pulls a canvas tarp over the cage, attaches a hose to his truck exhaust and CO them to death. No spray yet, though I imagine the canvas tarp part might be a wee bit exciting.

[Skunkabilly]

A friend of ours regularly uses live traps on to catch the skunk, then pulls a canvas tarp over the cage, attaches a hose to his truck exhaust and CO them to death.

:cuss:

Why??????

[Black Majik]

How do you barbecue kimchee?


Hmm... Korean BBQ perhaps? :D

Make sure to have it w/ some kalbi and fresh bowl of rice.

[RandyB]

Sorry Skunkabilly.

No offense intended. I just mentioned his technique since he has not had any of the critters spray and carbon monoxide seemed to me to be as humane as a bullet. In this particular case he decided that he needed to kill them after they destroyed the undersiding of his house, is shed, etc. and sprayed his dogs.

[standingbear]

i raised 2-a male and a female and they were just the size of a parakeet.they were never "deskunked" and never sprayed anyone in the house..including our cat.i took them hunting for grubs and crayfish and eventually had to return them to the woods.a friend was over and freaked when he saw the skunks chasing the cat and the cat chasing the skunks.back and forth.they moved pretty fast for as fat as they became.we always had a critter of some sort show up now and again.a hawk,crows,a squirrel,racoons and a grey fox pup(which was thought to be a domestic dog until it got bigger..lol)

[LifeNRA]

Hi,
New member here. Just found this forum yesterday. Great place by the way. A few years ago the Preacher and his wife came by our house one evening. When they left it was almost dark so I turned on the carport light for them. Our dog started barking and looking under thier car. I told them to hold up because I could tell by the dogs bark that something was really bothering her. I took a flashlight and shown it under the car and there was a skunk. The skunk ran toward a field. I grabbed a rock from the driveway and threw the rock at the skunk and hit it in the head. The skunk just fell over like it was dead. I told my wife to bring me my .22 and I shot it just to make sure. Never will know if I killed it or just knocked it out with that rock. The skunk never sprayed a drop. I never smelled anything from it. It wasnt a big skunk, maybe 2/3 grown.

[Skunkabilly]

i raised 2-a male and a female and they were just the size of a parakeet.they were never "deskunked" and never sprayed anyone in the house

A life dedicated avoidance, deescalation and deterrence ;)

[Grayrock]

So what did the preacher say when you dropped one of God's creatures with a rock in front of him?

[LifeNRA]

Grayrock,
Sorry to take so long to respond. I went to bed shortly after I posted last night. The Preacher just said "Nice shot". Out here skunks are everywhere and I guess he was just relieved it didnt spray his car.

[Sven]

My new home had a crappy chain-link fence around it up until a couple days ago -former owner used it to keep his dog in, but I don't have a dog and this fence just had to go. Had it taken down and things look much nicer now.

So, last night I'm sitting in the hot tub, when I see a cat walk onto the deck. Only, this cat had a BIG tail sticking up in the air. And white stripes.

I must've looked like a cartoon character, going from totally relaxed to Code Yellow in about 0.1 seconds!

I just did some reading and learned that Skunks eat bees and other nasty critters, so I'm not really that anti-Skunk... that said I did find this product and if I have any problems I will consider using it. It is Fox Urine made into a granular repellent:

https://www.critter-repellent.com/
"Shake-Away Powder contains the scent of your pests worst enemy, the Coyote, Fox and Bobcat."

My question:

Do Skunks spray unprovoked? Like, if I had stayed in the tub, and he had walked over to sniff me, would he have sprayed me if he realized I was sitting there, being quiet? Can I chase them away with a surefire or by shouting "Out of here, Pepe!"?

Any further tactical suggestions or observations about skunk confrontation welcome!

[stevelyn]

Rat poison placed around the perimeter of your property should keep the undesirables populations down.

[Selfdfenz]

The cleaning solutions are much appreaciated.

Troublemaker71

Too funny man...too funny. I'm sending that to my friends that hunt.

S-

[Art Eatman]

Sven: Basically, skunks are fearless. If you don't make sudden moves, they'll generally ignore you.

A buddy of mine was sitting on my porch one night, just star-gazing. He dropped his hand down and Oops! felt fur. He carefully raised his hand; sure enough, it was good ol' Pepe, sniffing around a sack of corn.

He wound up--carefully--feeding grains of corn to Pepe, and then some pieces of cookie. After a while, the skunk casually wandered away.

:), Art

[Smokey Joe]

Art--That's Mephitis, not Mephisto! Mephisto is short for Mephistophiles, one of Satan's AKA's. Hardly an appropriate handle for an innocent and beneficial beastie. Mephitis is the genus to which the "ordinary skunk" the one w/2 racing stripes, belongs. The spotted skunk, which stands on its front legs to spray (I don't know why, don't ask) is genus Spilogale.

Skunks generally obey T. Roosevelt's dictum: "Speak softly & carry a big stick." You let them alone, they let you alone. Often they will stamp their front feet in warning if they feel threatened, before turning around to shoot.

When I lived in Upper Michigan, there were lots of skunks, and all the little kids who were old enough to go outdoors on their own were educated about them, and there was never a problem. The kids learned to walk away, not run, not throw stones, etc. The skunks learned that people don't bother them much.

Of course, that attitude gets skunks in trouble for sure on highways, but that is a whole nother question.

One of my beloved Labs almost caught a skunk once--Lab had his mouth open for the catching bite, when Mephitis let him have it full in the face. We were on a RR track @ the time, and the poor dog began wiping his face on the rails, ties, and gravel! I took Pooch home, stripped down and took him into the basement shower with me. I can tell you that 1 quart of homemade tomato juice, plus quite a bit of dishwashing detergent, will pretty well de-skunk one medium size dog. And the dog thought the spilled tomato juice was a great treat. When he got wet you could still whiff the skunk, for months. The dog was still a retriever, but he did give skunks a wide berth after that!

[Art Eatman]

Yeah, the tomato juice deal works great. My wife's white German Shepard, however, afterwards resembled a Mary Kay ad for a couple of weeks...

:), Art

[BadWolf]

They are nasty critters and have sharp claws and will burrow under your home and make it unlivable anyway.

Bait with peanut butter into a cage

shoot with subsonic .22 from distance

dispose into bag, pour can of tomato juice.

double bag it!

dump in trash

[Battlespace]

When I was about 8 or 9 years old I decided to rid my uncle's sweet corn patch of a racoon that was making a mess of the corn just as it ripened. I had found some muskrat traps and placed them in the corn field hoping to catch the masked raider. I caught a skunk instead and he proceeded to ruin all the corn within the radius of the trap chain, which was pretty long. My unlce dispatched him with a .22, but it fell to me to cart him off and bury him. Not a pleasant experience.


The second experience was one a neighbor had about six or seven years ago. They have garbage pickup and forgot one night to put the cans out. Before leaving for work the next morning he backed the car out of the garage and then got out and carried the cans to the curb. He had left the door from the garage to the house slightly ajar when he left. He hit the garage door closer after taking the last can to the street and headed off to work. His wife is a nurse and had already left when he did this. When she got home that afternoon and opened the door a skunk ran out of the garage. He had been trapped inside the house all day! Needless to say he felt threatened and had exhausted his entire supply, or so it seemed, on the interior of the house! Their insurance company hired a firm that specializes in cleaning houses that have been crime scenes (dead bodies) and even then, it took them over 30 days to get it down to only a faint smell remaining. All carpet and furniture had to be replaced along with all clothes and most of their household items. I don't know what the final bill was, but it included a remodel and refurnish of the entire house.

[JohnKSa]

Mythbusters did a Skunk Episode.

Things I learned.

1. Skunks are pretty good-natured. It took them 4 (or more) skunks before they got one that would spray them. They had to chase it around a closed room and poke it with a broom.

2. Tomato Juice worked. So did the Hydrogen Peroxide/Baking Soda/Detergent mix. They used the Tomato Juice on themselves and the Hydrogen Peroxide on the Room.

3. Commercial Skunk Remover didn't work as well as either of the other remedies. Beer didn't work, neither did vinegar and water.

Killing Skunks without getting sprayed. (Not from Mythbusters)

It is my understanding that a Skunk must intentionally spray. If killed while "full", they MIGHT leak some, but they don't always. If where you shoot them hurts before they die then they will spray.

The Carbon Monoxide (hose on the exhaust pipe to the trap) is a nice humane way to do it if you have them trapped.

I've heard a lung shot usually works.

If you are good enough with a rifle to clip the spinal cord right at the base of the brain (ruin the brainstem) you get a no-reflex (no-spray) kill. That's what snipers are aiming for in hostage situations. If you miss and hit the head (brain) you have a good chance of getting a spray during the reflexive thrashing that often follows a brain shot.

[sm]

Well some rabid skunks got into the traps the fellow had set out. He hadn't thought ahead of time as to how to get the rabid skunks out after being caught though...

We get a phone call for advice,suggestions and help. Did I mention I "just happened" to be test firing a Ruger . 480 , a Taurus in .454, and Model 29 with .44 spl loads?

Lets just say the ammo shot POA/ POI in these guns. The rope "lasso-ed" to critter worked , the bonfire didn't go out when additional " stuff " was added...but the darn skunk hiding behind the name plate of trap....well a .480 kinda sorta ruined the name- plate....other than that , the traps survived.

:D

Later I " learnt" from Art what I did with a model 70 in '06 to a skunk is called....:p

When you don't have a .22....Improvise, Adapt , and Overcome I say. :)

[GigaBuist]

Am I the only one here that doesn't terribly mind the smell of skunks?

We had an ugly as sin beagle/terrier mix as a kid. She'd kill anything, including skunks. She'd get sprayed, and sometimes she'd drop the dead carcass off on the doorstep as a gift to the family. Muskrats and rabbits too.

So, I've smelled skunk a few times in my life. For some reason, I no longer find it -THAT- offensensive. Pequliar, but not something that'd make me vomit. Whenever I get a whiff it takes a second or two to place the smell. Makes me think of home -- and THEN I remember it's a skunk. Odd I guess.

'Course, growing up across the street from a farm got me used to the smell of cow manure too. Another smell that doesn't bother me but makes everybody else want to puke I guess.

[JohnKSa]

I don't find it an offensive odor unless it gets extremely strong. It smells, to me, something like burning rubber.

[Cascade Hunter]

My dog got skunked three time in three weeks last month. Once in my front yard, once in my back yard and once in my woods. I have waged war on them all. I catch them in a have-a-heart trap and shoot them with a .12 guage. Duck and ruffed grouse heads make the best bait.

I really dislike those pests.

[Smokey Joe]

JohnK--Skunk should remind you of burning rubber: The bad smell of rubber comes from the sulfur compounds oxidizing. The active ingredient in "skunk juice" is N-butyl mercaptan, a sulfur compound.

I, too, don't find the odor all that unpleasant, but then I've never been directly sprayed, either. A whiff of "skunk on the breeze" is a nice outdoorsy smell, IMHO. De-skunking my dog (see my post above) was harder on the dog than it was on me. That dog regarded any form of being washed as a severe punishment.

If I never, ever, have to test out whether or not I mind getting directly skunked, I will not complain.

[smokemaker]

A few deer seasons ago I was sitting on my bucket, up against a giant oak tree, and who comes meandering along but a big skunk. It was close to dark, and I've seen racoons out at this time of evening before, so I figured I'd just sit still and let him wander by. He stopped to sniff my boots, which scared the crap outta me, but he never seemed to get ancy or nervous. Aftere a few seconds, the polecat wandered off, and about ten minutes later, my motorola squacked to life, full of obscenity from the other end. It was my buddy Craig, who was sitting on the other side of this cut we were in, maybe 25 yards away, facing the opposing cornfield from the one I was sitting on. He jumped out of the tree he was sitting in, and scared the skunk just enough to catch a blast, full on. :what:
Craig rode in the back of the pickup that night, and I didn't care how cold it was.:barf: