Though most people view skunks as friendly creatures thanks to their depiction in many popular cartoons, they are wild animals that pose a genuine danger to human properties. Skunks mainly target households that keep domestic animals and feature gardens that provide food sources. Skunks feed on meat, hunting smaller animals, which serves a vital role to the ecosystem. They help keep the snake and rodent population under control, but they’ll also look to enter your property once they’re disturbed in their natural habitats.

Since neglected homes and gardens filled with trash and overgrown bushes draw rodents, skunks might soon follow. The damage skunks can do to a home can be substantial. They can damage wooden beams, fences, gates, scratch and bite through walls, as well nest in hidden spots which results in further contamination and damage. Out of all possible scenarios, having a skunk den in your home is the most difficult one to handle.

Why Skunks Build Dens in Homes

Female skunks will often build dens in sheds or underneath porches because these areas provide a dark, sheltered environment that the highly vulnerable kits need to survive. They’re nocturnal and mate throughout the spring, and the kits stay alongside the mother for a full year before they become independent.

Skunks prefer nesting and living in their natural habitats, which are normally tree hollows, larger holes, and caves far from urban environments. When fires, human influence or other types of natural disasters compromise their habitats, they will seek out the nearest form of shelter, which could very well be your home or property. Once you have a skunk family in your home, you’ll need to be careful about handling the situation. Attempting to get rid of skunks from your home without expert help could be dangerous for more than one reason. Mother skunks can become very aggressive and defensive if they feel their kits are being threatened. They might react with spraying a strong-smelling substance from a gland underneath their tail. But they can also become aggressive, biting and scratching everything and everyone standing in the way between them and their babies. Separating mother skunk from her babies is unnecessary and inhumane, and it will also cause the mother to further attack and damage the area in an attempt to reach her kits. Trapping and killing skunks is inhumane, since they should return safely into the wild for the mother to create a new den. It is also inhumane to exclude a mother skunk from her kits, as they are extremely dependent on her for their survival.

Skunk leaving to go to the next den after being evicted.

Skedaddle is Your Solution to Get Rid of Skunks

Setting up traps and baits if you’re not familiar and don’t possess enough skills to handle pests could lead to ineffective efforts which leave the mother suffering for days, and her babies being left alone, unable to survive by themselves. This is why you need expert help to get rid of skunks. Skedaddle technicians possess the expert knowledge to trap and remove the skunk family without separating it, laying out the removal tools in the exact spots to capture the skunks in a humane way.