I live in the Northeast so we have snow right now till spring. Last summer I noticed a skunk coming out from under my sun porch which is attached to the back of my kitchen. It is an enclosed porch but not a year round only in the summer months. We have skunks all over our neighborhood, they wonder all over. At night you can watch them from the front of my house. My house always smells like skunk in the summer even in the inside especially in the basement, it seems to be getting worse. The whole neighborhood smells on so many nights. What would you suggest I buy? Should I buy the ultra sound? Will they leave their home under my sun porch? I have no pets just our woodchucks that live far in the back of the yard. We don’t mind Chucky and his family they don’t bother us, just have one hole in our yard. Can I plug a unit on the sun porch? I have electrical outlets out there but will the sound go through the vinyl floor. Last year I threw moth balls under there but didn’t any good. Will the device bother Chucky?
Help I don’t want another summer like last year. Thanks.
Skunks are quite active in upstate New York and it sounds like there are plenty in your neighborhood. If in fact they’ve been living under your sun porch it wouldn’t surprise me if their odor has made it inside. To stop this from happening will require some action on your behalf. And once you get rid of the skunks you should consider treating the area with some skunk odor remover to insure the smell won’t return next summer.
The first thing which needs to be done is for you to make this area uncomfortable for any skunks coming around or nesting. Hopefully this will cause them to move away. I would start with the YARD GARD ULTRA SOUND DEVICE we have listed in our SKUNK CONTROL ARTICLE. You don’t state if there the sun porch is built up off the ground or if it’s on a slab and this will affect your course of action. If there is a slab and the skunk has moved under it, you will have to set the Ultra Sound device up just outside the entry to his den (the space under the porch). This means you’ll need to learn if there is more than one or two entry points to the ground under the slab. Once found, the installation of a Yard Gard right at the entrance will help to deter any animal that would try to take harborage in this area. If there are several entrance ways, you may need more than one unit to get them all covered.
If there is a crawl space up under the porch, position the Yard Gard on one side so it projects the sound out over the area. In this situation, 1 unit should do the job.
I also suggest 1-2 units around the home to deter other skunks from the surrounding area. In the long run, this should prevent anymore from trying to move back in once you’ve chased away the current population.
If the skunks are so comfortable in this area and refuse to leave, you’ll have no choice but to trap them out as explained in our article. This can sometimes happen but there is no way to tell by inspection only; you really must have the Ultra Sound units installed to see if they’ll be effective since every animal is different. In most cases, they will not tolerate direct sound blasting firing at them all the time. When set with the AC Adaptor for power, the Yard Gard will sound off around the clock and this noise is bothersome to them. And since you’ll be directing the sound to the area under the porch, it’s not likely to have any affect on the woodchucks you mention unless you installed it really close to where they’re living. As explained, this sound is highly directional so just keep it pointed away from the woodchucks and they won’t know it’s there.
Unfortunately Ultra Sound does not penetrate well and stands little chance of making it’s way through the floor. For this reason it’s not possible to repel them by setting the unit up inside. Fortunately the Yard Gard is the both the strongest and the most weather resistant so it should perform well outside where you’ll need to have them installed.
Lastly, once the skunks have left the area, treat with the NNZ or N7C we have listed in the article. It does a great job of neutralizing the skunk odor and if you’re able to get it right on top of where the skunks are nesting, the odor will be eliminated for good.
If you have further questions, please give us a call on our toll free 1-800-877-7290.
Leave a Reply