Tuesday, April 21, 2009

There's a skunk living under my front porch

Ever since last year my husband has been battling with some animal who is living under our front porch. It is a cement landing that is hollow underneath with an interlocking brick pathway to the drive way. Last spring our interlocking brick started caving in by the cement landing because of the animal digging under the concrete. Everyday the problem got worse. My husband on the weekends would spend hours back filling the whole with gravel and adding bleach and limes and what ever else he could think of to make our front porch less attractive to the animal. One day their was a strong skunk odour near our front door in the fall. A skunk must have sprayed near our front door because it smelled so bad outside and inside in a small room located under that porch for about 2 weeks. Well in the fall he filled the whole again and fixed all the brick. It was a weekend project. He also put big pieces of stone by the entrance in an attempt to limit the skunk's access to its place of residence. Well 2 weeks ago the problem was back again. It starts with some noticeable digging that gets more and more noticeable and then the bricks starts to cave in again. Well this morning at about 4:10am my husband woke me and said come quick. I ran down and low and behold their was a very large skunk squeezing under my front porch. We have googled the problem but I don't know if there is much that we can do at this time of year. It seems that skunks like to den under cement porches. I don't know if this is a male or a female who may be expecting. They deliver their babies anytime between the end of April and the beginning of May. Well today he wants me to call pest control to see how much it will cost to trap the skunk. As usual I want the skunk to be removed unharmed or better yet solve the access problem when the animal is officially gone and he wants the animal removed and he would prefer that the skunk be unable to return ever!!!!

The skunk may have been living under our porch all winter. There is nothing to make this an attractive area for the skunk other than the porch access. We do not leave any garbage or pet food or fruit from trees and it is not attracted by larvae because it does not touch the grass it only uses the porch as its home. I suppose that it can be a problem with small kids and a pet. This is our entrance to our home and we come in and out that door countless times during the day. Well I hope that no one gets sprayed today and we will see how the skunk will finally get removed from its home.

4 comments:

  1. try a rag soaked in amonia. The city told us to do this when we had a raccoon in our garage. They don't like the smell and will leave.

    A skunk under your front poarch well that explains the body order coming from the Sunshine household!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't wait to be sprayed befor you get rid of Mr. skunk. Animal control will set a trap that will not hurt him. They will relocate him out of the city. You will have to pay for this service, but it is well worth it. Try the amonia first. Welcome to spring.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well we tried the ammonia rags and put down some flower to see if we can see a set of foot prints leaving or coming from the den. I hope that the problem has been solved. I'll let you know how it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well even though we soaked numerous clothes with ammonia and placed them in the den deep inside and close to the entrance too. This morning there were tracks in the flour leading into the den. I haven't told my husband yet. Well we will have to go to plan B.

    ReplyDelete