omg, skunk. please help asap

[lmh2402]

seriously, this is not something i want to be dealing with. i mean, i'm sure no one does. but it makes me hate living here even more than i did before.

a skunk has sprayed something in our backyard...either our car, or near our backdoor

seriously, the whole freaking house smells like skunk. i am not exaggerating. all the way up the 3rd floor! and i just had to go to an appt. when i got back in the car to go home, it stunk like skunk too!

in the name of all that is holy, how do i get rid of this stench from my home and car...and driveway? i mean, i can't even tell where the point of origin is...when you open the backdoor it's just a shock of stench. and it's creeping in through i guess cracks or something.

perhaps it's b/c i'm pregnant and my sense of smell is heightened, but this is killing me.

[BabbyO]

Without the point of origin, I'm not sure how to help. However, I've heard that tomato juice neutralizes the smell of skunk on clothes/upholstry/dog fur. This is first hand knowledge from my mom.

As for neutralizing from the air....I'm just not sure.

[lmh2402]

Without the point of origin, I'm not sure how to help. However, I've heard that tomato juice neutralizes the smell of skunk on clothes/upholstry/dog fur. This is first hand knowledge from my mom.

As for neutralizing from the air....I'm just not sure.

yes, i've heard this too...and i'm almost ready to send someone to buy me a vast quantity of tomato juice and just start sloshing it around outside, but i'm not sure if that would be wise or just insanely messy

thanks for the thoughts. praying someone has a solution for just the air in my house. please.

[BabbyO]

yes, i've heard this too...and i'm almost ready to send someone to buy me a vast quantity of tomato juice and just start sloshing it around outside, but i'm not sure if that would be wise or just insanely messy

thanks for the thoughts. praying someone has a solution for just the air in my house. please.

I'm sorry not laughing at you...but the image of a pregnant lady sloshing tomato juice all over her back yard just made me giggle out loud.

I REALLY do hope that someone has some good suggestions for you. I can't imagine how icky that must smell...and feel being pg!

[mackmama]

Ahhh yuck! I'm sorry you have to deal with this. I'd give it some time to let the smell dissipate from outdoors then open up your windows to circulate the air out. At that point you'll probably be able to identify if there's one stinky area (like your door). If you can identify a certain spot, I'd wipe down the area or spray with Febreeze or something else that is supposed to absorb odors (unlike a room freshener which will just add another odor). Maybe you can leave the house for a couple of hours while the smell dissipates?

[gatorsmom]

Call the nearest veterinarian or Petco. They have products that deal with pets getting sprayed. They might have something you can either spray outside or slosh around.

As for the tomatoe juice solution, my mom tried that once on our cat. It didn't take away the skunk smell and mom spent a day cleaning splattered tomatoe juice off the walls and ceiling. :)

[Melaine]

That's awful. I hope you figure it out. I only know that curious George took a tomato juice bath in Curious George goes camping.

[Moneypenny]

Put coffee grounds dry in a pan on the stove. Burn them. Make sure they don't catch fire, but you want them good and toasty. Your house will briefly smell of burnt coffee grounds, but then that should dissipate and the skunk odor will be at least greatly reduced if not gone completely,

Now, if the smell is still outside and seeping in, you'll need to find out where the spray was outside and take care of that, too.

[Blue Hydrangea]

Our dogs were sprayed in our backyard a few years ago. Tomato juice had no effect, but what did work the best was a recipe I found online that was a combination of peroxide, baking soda and small amount of dish soap. Didn't get rid of the smell completely, but did make it a lot better, and it was cheap! Unfortunately, you would still need to figure out where the smell was coming from for it to work. You could make it up by the bucketful and splash it around for a just couple bucks.

And I hate to be bearer of bad news, but for us, the dogs still smelled of skunk whenever they go wet for months. On the bright side, at least it's just outside, and not on your usually indoor dogs who proceed to run, freshly skunked, through your entire house as if on fire! That night will forever be burned into my memory- and nasal passages.

[chozen]

do you have any pets? could they have rolled in something.

[lmh2402]

Put coffee grounds dry in a pan on the stove. Burn them. Make sure they don't catch fire, but you want them good and toasty. Your house will briefly smell of burnt coffee grounds, but then that should dissipate and the skunk odor will be at least greatly reduced if not gone completely,

Now, if the smell is still outside and seeping in, you'll need to find out where the spray was outside and take care of that, too.

thank you, going to try this

also going to try the dish soap, peroxide thing...thanks, guys

do have a dog, but he was definitely not sprayed. it happened at some point over night and when we opened the door this morning it was like holy-moly. and/but, it's not been getting better all day. last straw when when i got in my car and realized that even miles from my house, my car now reeks of skunk.

i hate skunks. seriously. i really do.

[Trigglet]

We had a dead mouse in our walls last week, so I feel your pain - the stench was unreal, and DH was ready to rip out the kitchen cabinets! We used cups/bowls of baking soda, coffee grounds or vinegar around the place (separately, not mixed together), plus drops of eucalyptus oil in a fragrance burner (the kind you get from BB&B - like a scentsy thing but cheaper). It didn't get rid of the smell, but it disguised it enough to live with for the ten days it took for the friggin thing to decompose and stop stinking. Gah.

[tny915]

Ugh, I hate hate hate skunks! I'm so sorry you have to deal with this!

Do you have any crawlspaces under your house where a skunk may have gotten in? I'm only mentioning this because we had a skunk living under our kitchen at our last house. I just happened to be in the kitchen one night when it was scratching the floorboards under my feet one night and screeching. That was in February too, which is apparently mating season when they're more active. Anyway, it sprayed under the house, and our house, clothes, and us reeked. It was so awful! The only thing that helped with the smell was time and open windows. We got an exterminator who drove the skunk off by blasting loud music into the crawlspace, and then closed off all points of entry.

Could you try a heavy duty air purifier?

[c&j04]

Candles! As many as you have:)Burns the gas out of the air. Cleared 95% of the smell out of a one story house in a couple hours.

[lmh2402]

Ugh, I hate hate hate skunks! I'm so sorry you have to deal with this!

Do you have any crawlspaces under your house where a skunk may have gotten in? I'm only mentioning this because we had a skunk living under our kitchen at our last house. I just happened to be in the kitchen one night when it was scratching the floorboards under my feet one night and screeching. That was in February too, which is apparently mating season when they're more active. Anyway, it sprayed under the house, and our house, clothes, and us reeked. It was so awful! The only thing that helped with the smell was time and open windows. We got an exterminator who drove the skunk off by blasting loud music into the crawlspace, and then closed off all points of entry.

Could you try a heavy duty air purifier?

so, this is basically the stuff of nightmares. if i heard a skunk scratching and screaming under my kitchen, i think i might pass out.

i don't think there are any openings for a skunk to fit under our house and i haven't heard anything.

the house is finally starting to smell better... i did some serious coffee ground cooking. unfortunately house is not one story and i might be nuts, but i honestly feel like the smell like floated all the way up to the top and go stuck up there...so it was/is worse at this point on the 3rd floor than on the first

but it still STINKS outside. serious stinks. and i have no idea what i can really do about it b/c i can't pinpoint exactly where... unfortunately right around the cars reeks!!! which is why inside the cars now stinks.

i think it's supposed to be rainy tomorrow...i'm praying that helps some.

thanks, guys

[MommyAllison]

Do you have a deck in your backyard? I've known several people who had a skunk living under their deck.

[trales]

If you find the source, add Massignal medicated douche to the peroxide/baking soda mix. Whatever it does a dog will no longer smell when wet.

We had a Newfie, I got a lot of good experiences.

[MamaMolly]

Ooooooooooh pregnant and skunk smell ought to be outlawed by Mother Nature. I'm so, so, so sorry! :(

[twowhat?]

Our dogs were skunked a couple of years ago I think. The female took a straight hit to the center of her chest (and I know, because her chest is snow white and she had a LARGE YELLOW SOAKED SPOT) on it, her eyes were watering and mouth foaming. And enough of the spray got onto our male dog (bystander effect. female was faster). I used the dish soap, H2O2, baking soda method with great success in getting the smell mostly off the dogs. But the house (we were at grandma's and it happened right in her backyard) we honestly couldn't do anything about. We opened all the windows when there was a good breeze. It took a couple of weeks before Grandma said she couldn't smell it anymore.

Sorry:(