General Information

The skunk is a medium to small sized animal, much like the groundhog, raccoon, opossum, or weasel even, that’s renowned for its stinky spray secreted by an anal scent gland. This spray (which it only uses in defensive encounters) is notoriously foul smelling and difficult to remove. It has even been recognized that getting sprayed directly in the face or eyes by this spray can result in temporary blindness. Yikes.

Oftentimes, us humans will smell this as a result of a male skunk attempting to mate with a female skunk. This is just another way of telling him to back off. Skunk mating season here in Kentucky begins in early February and lasts all the way until late March. During this time, skunks will search everywhere for a safe place to raise their young. This can include old dirt animal burrows, their own dirt burrows, abandoned buildings, drainage ditches, thickets, hollowed out logs, and even under decks and porches. Skunk gestation takes on average 66 days with most kits being born in May.

During this time, the skunk’s diet also changes as it does throughout the year depending on what’s available. Usually, you can find skunks munching on insects, fungi, larvae, earthworms, eggs, rodents, lizards, berries, roots, and so on. Skunks are also known to scavenge off dead animal carcasses, especially when food is scarce.

Description

One thing that’s worth mentioning is that there are in fact several different kinds of skunks. The scientific name “Mephitidae” only applies to the family in which all modern skunks belong too. There are only two such types in the Bluegrass state, striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) and spotted skunks (Spilogale putorius). The first of which is very common and found throughout the state, while the spotted variety is very rare and most often seen in Southeastern corners of the state. There are a few differences between the two contrary to their simple names.

The spotted skunk is larger than the spotted by about double, and the spotted skunk is more like a weasel in appearance having bands of white and brown/ black fur around their body. Meanwhile, the striped skunk is jet black with occasional flecks of brown, and white stripes going down its back on either side, all the way to its tail.

Interesting Facts

• A skunk’s spray has a range of up to 10 feet!

• While it’s thought skunks have poor eyesight, they have excellent senses of smell and hearing.

• Skunks will often eat wasps, honeybees, and even venomous snakes like water moccasins and copperheads!

• Skunks carry enough liquid in their spray sac for about 5 to 6 uses that then requires another 10 days to resupply.

Inspecting for Skunks

Inspecting for skunks can be tricky. While looking for obvious signs such as digging, and burrowing is straight forward, it can be hard to tell how many there are or when they’ll be around. Skunks often take up residence in multiple dens at one time so it can be hard to tell when they’ll come by the same location again. This is why you should leave up to the experts at S-Tier to handle your skunk problem. In addition, you won’t have to worry about getting sprayed or catching any nasty diseases like leptospirosis, rabies, or any others.

Skunk Removal

There’s a variety of effective methods to use when attempting to control skunks. The two most effective of these however are #1 habitat modification and #2 trapping. S-Tier can accomplish both of these by either telling you what to change so that they don’t come back or setting traps for those that are more persistent or are of immediate concern.

Finally, if you find your skunk problem to be ongoing or getting worse, give us a call today! You can call anytime, toll-free at 859-492-6284. Also try emailing us at S-TierWildlifeControl@outlook.com with any questions, comments, concerns, or pictures of these animals or others.