One-way door
A door installed over the den entrance lets the skunk leave at night and blocks its return. The rest of the opening is sealed. This is the preferred approach when no dependent young are inside.
Skunk removal · Licensed wildlife operators
Skunk Removal and Exclusion for Orange County, NY Homes
A skunk living under the porch is not a crisis until the dog finds it, or until a litter of kits shows up in June. A licensed wildlife operator can get the skunk out without anyone getting sprayed and close the space so another one does not move in next season.
- Decks, porches & sheds
- One-way doors & trapping
- Dig-proof exclusion
27 requests from Orange County today · last one 22 min ago
November in Orange County
Rodent calls peak in November. Mice and rats are pushing into heated spaces as overnight temperatures drop into the 20s. Sealing gaps now saves a long winter of traps.
How you know a skunk has moved in
The smell is the obvious clue, but it is not always the best one. Skunks spray when threatened, not as a matter of routine, so a faint musky odor in the morning may mean one passed through or tangled with a dog or fox overnight. A den is better confirmed by what you see around it.
Look for a fresh hole about the size of a softball under the edge of a deck, a stoop, a shed floor or a concrete slab, with loose dirt pushed out and a path worn through the grass. Skunks also leave small, cone-shaped holes scattered across the lawn where they dug for grubs overnight. Those little divots, three or four inches across, are one of the most common reasons Orange County homeowners realize they have a skunk at all.
A simple test: stuff loose newspaper or leaves into the hole at dusk and check in the morning. If it has been pushed out, something is using it. That something could also be a woodchuck or an opossum, so a pro will confirm before choosing a method.
Striped skunk basics
- Species
- Striped skunk, the only skunk in New York
- Size
- About the size of a house cat, 6 to 10 pounds
- Active
- Mostly at night, sometimes at dusk and dawn
- Diet
- Grubs, beetles, mice, eggs, fruit, pet food and garbage
- Breeding
- Late winter, with kits born around May or June
- Spray range
- Ten feet or more, usually after a warning stomp
The skunk calendar, and why timing matters
| Months | What skunks are doing |
|---|---|
| February – March | Breeding season. Males roam widely, and this is when road-kill smell and nighttime spraying peak. Females look for den sites under decks and sheds. |
| April – May | Pregnant females settle into dens. Excluding a skunk before the kits are born is the cleanest option. |
| May – July | Kits are born and stay in the den for several weeks. Closing a den now can trap young inside, so operators plan around the litter. |
| July – August | Kits follow their mother out at night. Families can often be excluded together once they are mobile. |
| September – November | Heavy grub digging in lawns as skunks fatten up. Young disperse and look for their own winter dens. |
| December – January | Skunks slow down in cold snaps, sometimes sharing dens, but they do not truly hibernate. |
Why skunks like Orange County yards so much
Skunks are edge animals. They do best where fields meet woods and where lawns meet both, which describes most of Orange County. The farm country around Montgomery, Campbell Hall and Hamptonburgh gives them hayfields full of insects and barns full of mice. The subdivisions that have filled in around those farms supply the rest: irrigated lawns heavy with grubs, decks built low to the ground, and sheds set on blocks with a dry, sheltered gap underneath.
Newer neighborhoods in the Town of Wallkill, Chester and Blooming Grove tend to have the classic setup, a pressure-treated deck a foot or two off the ground with no skirting below it. Older village homes in Washingtonville and Goshen have stone stoops, porch crawlspaces and bulkhead doors with gaps around the frame. Out in the Warwick Valley, skunks work orchard edges and the drainage ditches between black dirt fields, then wander into yards in Florida and Pine Island at night.
Garbage, compost and pet food left on a porch round out the menu. Skunks are not picky and they remember where the easy meals are.
Skunks, rabies and New York law
Skunks are one of New York's rabies vector species, along with raccoons and bats. A skunk that is out in daylight and acting strangely (stumbling, circling, unusually bold or partly paralyzed) should be avoided and reported. If a person or pet has contact with a skunk, call your doctor or vet and the Orange County Department of Health.
Because of that rabies status, state wildlife and health rules limit how skunks can be handled and where they can go once captured. Anyone removing a skunk for a fee in New York must hold a DEC Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator license, and those operators follow DEC and health department directives on rabies vector species.
Removal options a licensed operator may use
The right method depends on the season, the den location and whether young are present.
Live trapping
Covered cage traps keep the skunk calm and greatly reduce the chance of spray. Used when the den cannot be fitted with a door, or when the animal is in a window well or garage.
Family exclusion
When kits are present, the operator waits until they are mobile, or removes the family together, so no young are left sealed under the deck.
Dig-proof barrier
Galvanized hardware cloth buried in an L-shape along the base of the deck or shed, extending outward underground, so the next skunk cannot dig under it.
Keep the space under your deck empty
- Skirt decks and porches with hardware cloth, not just lattice
- Bury the bottom edge 8 to 12 inches with an outward bend
- Set sheds on a sealed perimeter instead of open blocks
- Close gaps around bulkhead doors and stoops
- Use locking lids on trash and bring cans in at night
- Feed pets indoors and clean up spilled bird seed
- Keep compost in a closed bin
- Address heavy lawn grub populations
Cost, and the case against doing it yourself
Skunk jobs are priced on a few things: how many entry points have to be closed, how much hardware cloth and trenching the exclusion needs, whether trapping is involved and how many return trips that takes, and whether a family with kits changes the timeline. A shed with one hole is a small job. A long wraparound deck on a sloped lot is a bigger one. Ask for the removal and the exclusion to be quoted separately so you can see what you are paying for.
Homeowners do sometimes trap skunks themselves, and plenty of them end up sprayed in the process, or with a skunk in a trap and no legal or safe idea what to do next. The rabies rules, the risk of sealing kits inside, and the plain fact that a cornered skunk will spray make this one of the jobs most worth handing off. Spraying a dog costs a bath. Spraying the underside of your deck, a step from the back door, can linger for weeks.
Skunk removal questions
Will a skunk leave on its own?
Sometimes, especially males in late winter. A female that has picked a den under your deck in spring is likely to stay through the summer with her kits. If you want it gone without a long wait, an operator can use a one-way door once it is safe to do so.
How do I get skunk smell out from under my deck?
Once the skunk is out and the space is sealed, the odor fades over time with airflow. Operators and some cleaning products use enzyme or oxidizing deodorizers on the soil and framing. Do not seal the space until the animal is confirmed gone.
Are mothballs or ammonia rags a good way to drive skunks out?
No. Mothballs used that way are a misuse of a regulated pesticide, they can contaminate soil and foundation air, and they rarely work. A one-way door and proper exclusion are safer and more reliable.
Why is my lawn full of small holes every morning?
That is usually skunks digging for grubs and beetle larvae. Raccoons dig too, but they tend to roll back larger patches of sod. Reducing the grub population and removing any nearby den usually ends it.
Calling around for skunk removal near me?
Typing "skunk removal near me" at eleven at night with a smell coming through the floor vents is a common way people find us. The operators we refer are licensed for nuisance wildlife in New York and know the county from Slate Hill to New Windsor.
Tell us where the skunk is living and if you have seen any young. That helps the operator decide between a quick exclusion and a planned family removal, and gives you a realistic idea of timing.
Other wildlife searches we connect
Skunk calls covered countywide
Licensed wildlife operators work every region below. Choose yours for local pest notes.
Newburgh & the Hudson Riverfront
- Newburgh
- Town of Newburgh
- Balmville
- Gardnertown
- Orange Lake
- New Windsor
- Vails Gate
- Rock Tavern
- Cornwall
- Cornwall-on-Hudson
- Mountainville
- Highland Falls
- Fort Montgomery
Middletown & the Town of Wallkill
- Middletown
- Town of Wallkill
- Scotchtown
- Circleville
- Mechanicstown
- Howells
- Wawayanda
- Slate Hill
- New Hampton
- Mount Hope
- Otisville
Montgomery, Walden & Pine Bush
- Montgomery
- Town of Montgomery
- Walden
- Maybrook
- Pine Bush
- Crawford
- Bullville
- Thompson Ridge
- Campbell Hall
- Hamptonburgh
Goshen, Chester & Blooming Grove
- Goshen
- Chester
- Sugar Loaf
- Washingtonville
- Blooming Grove
- Salisbury Mills
- South Blooming Grove
Monroe, Woodbury & Tuxedo
- Monroe
- Harriman
- Central Valley
- Highland Mills
- Woodbury
- Kiryas Joel
- Tuxedo
- Tuxedo Park
- Southfields
Warwick Valley & the Black Dirt Region
- Warwick
- Greenwood Lake
- Florida
- Pine Island
- Bellvale
- New Milford
- Minisink
- Westtown
- Unionville
- Johnson
Port Jervis & the Upper Delaware
- Port Jervis
- Deerpark
- Huguenot
- Cuddebackville
- Sparrowbush
- Westbrookville
- Greenville
Get the skunk out without getting sprayed.
Reach a licensed Orange County wildlife operator for removal and dig-proof exclusion under decks, porches and sheds.