Skunks in Virginia: What Homeowners Need to Know
If you’ve spent time in Northern Virginia, then you’re probably familiar with skunks – or at least you’ve experienced their unpleasant scent. While skunks tend to be gentle animals, you’re in for an uncomfortable disaster if a skunk burrows under your home or sprays your pets. If you want to keep your Northern Virginia property safe from skunks, here’s what you need to know.
Skunk Removal
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If you’ve spent any time in Northern Virginia, then you’re probably familiar with skunks. At the very least, you’ve experienced their unpleasant scent. While skunks might look harmless when you watch them waddling around at a distance, the smell alone is enough to dislike them.
While skunks tend to be timid and gentle animals, one spray near your porch, crawl space, or HVAC intake is enough to contaminate your entire home. You’re in for an uncomfortable disaster if a skunk burrows under your deck, near your home’s foundation, or if it sprays your pets.
If you want to keep your Northern Virginia property safe from skunks (and skunk smell), here’s everything you need to know.
ARTICLE CONTENTS:
Why Skunks are Problematic for Homeowners
Skunks are common in wooded neighborhoods, on farms, around suburbs, and anywhere else with readily-available den spots and food sources. That means they’re common in practically every neighborhood in Northern Virginia.
While skunks don’t present serious physical danger to humans, they can be problematic. Here’s why:
1. Odor
The biggest problem with skunks is their bad smell.
If a skunk sprays near your home, the stink can last for days if not weeks. If it reaches your indoor HVAC system, that stink spreads quickly. Skunk smells will cling to your home’s siding, your vents, carpet, furniture, and your pets (even after a good bath).
The most common reason that a skunk sprays is because it feels startled or threatened. This means if your dog runs up to one in your backyard (or one creating a den under your crawl space), it’s very likely a spray will occur and linger.
Reach out to our team to schedule a skunk removal now.
2. Lawn or Foundation Damage
Skunks like to dig. They may dig around for bugs to eat or to find shelter. They’re also good scavengers, so they don’t mind digging up multiple mounds of dirt in their search for food or shelter. This leads to torn up lawns, holes near the foundation of your home, burrows around your AC unit or in your crawl space, and more.
If a skunk gets too close to your home and is eager in their digging, this can cause structural issues over time.
3. Confrontation with Pets
While any strictly indoor pets are safe, outdoor cats and dogs are not. If your pet is curious, friendly, or territorial, they’re likely to get in a confrontation with a skunk.
Thankfully, skunks don’t tend to cause a lot of physical damage. They prefer to avoid direct confrontation and aren’t aggressive. However, they are quick to spray.
If a skunk sprays your pets, this can cause skin irritation, eye irritation, a severe odor that lasts days or weeks, and even temporary blindness if sprayed in the eyes.
4. Disease
Skunks can carry a range of harmful diseases and parasites. These are mostly dangerous to your pets, but they can also cause harm to humans. A few to be aware of are rabies, canine distemper, leptospirosis, and intestinal parasites like roundworms.
Identifying Skunk Behavior
Skunks are opportunistic scavengers that like to roam, and they’re not very territorial. Seeing a skunk near your home doesn’t necessarily mean it’s setting up a den nearby. It could simply mean that it’s roaming around wherever the easy food is located.
However, don’t assume a skunk sighting is harmless. As mentioned before, they’re shy creatures who don’t like to be seen, and skunks are mostly nocturnal. If you see one, especially multiple times, then it could be getting more comfortable in your area.
Here are six signs that you might have a skunk living nearby:
- Holes in your lawn with mounds of dirt beside them
- Musky odors lingering around your yard
- Skunk tracks (skunks have five toes and claws)
- Pets coming inside smelling skunky
- Spotting a skunk consistently, particularly at dusk or dawn
- Scratching or rustling sounds under your porch, deck, shed, or crawl space
If you notice these signs, it’s possible you have a skunk with a den near your property. Professional pest control may be your best next step.
Safe Skunk Removal
Preventing a skunk from creating a den on your property is easier (and cheaper) than dealing with it once it’s fully moved in. It’s important to note that it’s illegal to capture or relocate skunks without the proper licensing. This is due to health and ecological concerns.
Here are safe skunk pest control and prevention methods we recommend to our Northern Virginia homeowners:
- Secure All Food Sources
If a skunk can’t find good food, then it’s less likely to stay. While skunks eat a lot of insects, mice, and even snakes and fish, they also might like what’s in your trash can. Skunks have been known to go after pet food, bird seed, garden fruits and vegetables, and even compost piles.
Secure all exterior food sources as much as possible to prevent skunks.
- Seal Crawl Spaces and Gaps
Skunks prefer a dark, protected area for its den. Make your home less attractive by closing off your crawl spaces, deck, porch, shed, patio, and anything else that might look homey to a skunk. Even small openings are enough for a skunk to fit through, so don’t leave any gaps. - Treat for Bugs
Since bugs make up a large part of a skunk’s diet, do what you can to limit the number of grubs, beetles, and other insects in your yard. Proper bug pest control will keep your home and yard more comfortable overall. - Install Yard Lighting and Sprinklers
Skunks prefer a quiet, dark area to sleep near and scavenge. They’re very timid. Discourage them from coming up to your home by installing motion-activated lighting and even yard sprinklers. These are especially helpful near your deck, shed, and trash bins.
- Call a Professional
If these methods aren’t working or if you’ve located a skunk den on your property, then it’s important to call in professional help. Remember that skunks spray when scared or threatened, so you never want to provoke them or get too close. A licensed, experienced wildlife expert like Hunt Country Wildlife Control will help keep you and your home safe (and stink-free).
Our Skunk Removal Process
At Hunt Country Wildlife Control, we specialize in safe, humane skunk pest control for residential and commercial properties throughout Loudoun County, VA.
While skunks are timid, gentle creatures, they leave quite an impact with their spray. Our team is experienced and knowledgeable in skunk behavior and will implement effective, safe, ethical pest control methods to keep your space safe and stink-free.
Our Skunk Pest Control Process:
1. Comprehensive Property Assessment
Our pest control strategies always begin with a detailed inspection of your property to determine the scale of the pest issue and pinpoint any den sites. We also check for structural vulnerabilities that may be inviting pests nearer or into your structures.
2. Tailored Pest Control Strategy
Once we've identified the pest control issue, we develop a customized pest control plan based on your property and the state of the pest issue. Our approach is always designed to be humane, effective, and fully compliant with local and federal wildlife laws.
3. Skunk Deterrence
We use proven, humane pest control techniques to make your property less inviting to your current pest problems, including removing food sources and sealing off any access points.
4. Cleanup & Sanitation
Skunk droppings can carry harmful pathogens and bacteria, so our team will provide thorough cleaning and disinfection of noticeably affected areas. This step is vital for restoring your property’s health and safety.
5. Ongoing Monitoring & Support
At Hunt Country Wildlife Control, our goal is to ensure your property remains safe. That means we won’t just walk away when the initial job is done. We provide follow-up visits to guarantee that our pest control measures remain effective, providing you long-term peace of mind.
Areas Served
Areas We Services for Skunk Pest Control
Hunt Country Wildlife Control serves the entire area of Loudoun County, Virginia. This includes:
- Purcellville
- Round Hill
- Leesburg
- Hamilton
- South Riding
- Ashburn
- Sterling
- Middleburg
Additionally, our experienced team will service select parts of Fairfax County, including:
- McLean
- Arlington
- Alexandria
If you’ve encountered a skunk pest control problem and are in one of these locations, reach out to our team. Hunt Country Wildlife Control is ready to keep you and your property safe.
FAQ
What does it mean when skunks hang around your house?
Skunks tend to be creatures of habit. They are gentle, shy, but willing to scavenge. If you see one poking around your house, typically it’s because they’re on the hunt for food. They could be after insects, or the leftovers in your trash bins.
What is a skunk’s worst enemy?
As mentioned, skunks are timid. Anything that makes a lot of noise or is bigger than them would be considered an enemy. However, most wildlife predators like foxes, badgers, and coyotes avoid attacking skunks because they don’t want to get sprayed. Great horned owls and your pet dog are a skunk’s most likely predator.
Are skunks harmful?
The skunk’s main defense mechanism is their spray. Other than that, they are fairly non-aggressive animals and don’t want to attack. They prefer to avoid conflict entirely if they can. The only other threats they present are diseases and other pathogens.
What attracts skunks to your yard?
The most attractive thing to a skunk is any easy-to-access food. For homeowners, this is most often garbage and pet food left outside at night. They also are attracted to good denning sites such as elevated sheds, crawl spaces, porches, wood or rock piles, and openings beneath concrete slabs. Remove these attractants and skunks are less likely to come around.
Call now for expert wildlife removal and exclusion you can trust.
Don’t wait until a small problem becomes a big one. Call now and get the peace of mind you deserve.