Ah skunk spray. That special country smell, notorious for being difficult to get out of your curious dog’s fur, your car’s air vents, and now… my unfortunate husband’s hair.
That’s right, poor Cody got up close and personal with the famous striped skunk last week. And boy let me tell you… skunk spray is nothing to sniff at!
What’s been digging up the garden?
It all started in the garden with two holes: one under the fence and one in the compost. We had noticed for some time that something had been digging up our garden.
This critter seemed to be particularly interested in our compost cores (small holes dug in the garden beds and filled with kitchen scraps), which we frequently found dug out and missing. It left most of the garden plants alone, but when it dug up the compost cores it was trampling the other plants and making a general mess of things. Quite frustrating!
There’s a deer fence around the perimeter of the garden, so that ruled out a large animal. Upon examination of the garden fenceline, we noticed a section where the wire didn’t quite reach the ground and tall grass had been pushed out of the way. So maybe an opossum or a raccoon was to blame?
Our first thought was to set up a trail cam and see if we could get a picture of whatever was getting in. But it was only a small hole, so Cody decided to just put a live trap right up to the opening and hope to catch it sight-unseen.
But when he went out to the garden early the next morning to check the trap… he realized that he had made a mistake.
What to do with a skunk in a trap?
Cody never thought he’d be asking that question. But there he was, face to face with a big, angry skunk in a trap, and no idea how to get it out.
His first thought was to grab a sheet of cardboard and hold it between him and the cage while he carried it down the hill. Within a few steps, the skunk decided that it wasn’t okay with this course of action and released a neon yellow spray (same color as the cartoons!) toward Cody, which was safely blocked by the cardboard.
Unfortunately, just as my poor husband was beginning to think he was in the clear, the skunk made a second attempt, and the spray went up over the cardboard… and straight into Cody’s face! Oof.
By this time I could smell skunk back in the yurt. I thought maybe the dog had found one (again), but I was not prepared for Cody to walk in dripping with hose water and skunk spray. Poor guy looked miserable, and smelled worse. He only stayed long enough to grab another cardboard box (which was plently long enough to stink up the whole yurt!) then he went back to the garden to try again. This time he brought a pitchfork, a garden cart, and a plastic bin with him.
He cut the cardboard to fit over the top and sides of the trap, then used the pitchfork to lift the whole thing into the plastic tub, which he set into the garden cart. Then he wheeled it down to the end of the logging road and somehow managed to let the thing out without getting sprayed again.
How do you get skunk spray out of your hair?
Another question we hoped we’d never have to ask. And frankly we still don’t know the answer. Getting the smell out of his clothes was easy enough, I just ran them through several hot soaks with lots of oxyclean and that seemed to get most of it out. Althought since the washing machine drainsdirectly into the utility sink, the shop had a wiffy smell for several days afterward.
But after multiple showers with hot water, the strongest soaps, and even a special skunk wash for pets, Cody’s head still smells skunky any time his hair gets wet. Aparently skunk spray smell is reactivated by water.
The only thing we haven’t tried is the ol’ fashioned tomato juice method, which I thought I’d heard didn’t work. But at this point we’re willing to try anything!
Feels Like Homestead 
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