Seeing a skunk in your yard conjures up feelings of fear and dread for most people. While they may look cute, most are well aware that getting sprayed by a skunk is an experience to be avoided. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of different things that you can do to help get rid of the skunks in your yard. 

1. Get Rid Of Any Food Sources

Skunks are much more likely to hang out in your yard if they happen to discover a readily available food source. That's why it is very important that you make sure the lids on all of your garbage cans are tightly secured so that skunks can't dig through them.

You should also make sure that you don't leave any cat or dog food outside in your yard. It's best to have your pets eat their food inside of your house instead. Otherwise, there's a good chance that skunks will keep coming back to your yard to eat your pet's food. 

2. Install Motion Activated Lights 

Skunks generally tend to wander around at night and they really don't care for sunlight or bright lights. Installing motion activated lights such as a flood lamp in your yard is a great way to scare them away. After just one or two encounters with bright lights in your yard, it's very unlikely that the skunks will decide to return for another visit. 

3. Let Them Get A Whiff Of These Scents 

Skunks are well known for giving off a really disgusting, very strong odor. Although they are really in no position to judge, skunks also find certain scents very distasteful. Ammonia, mothballs, citrus, and predator urine from dogs or coyotes are some of the scents that they dislike the very most. 

Take an old T-shirt or rag and saturate it with one of those scents. Place the rags around your yard as well as your front porch if you happen to have one. Since skunks really hate these particular scents, this will help discourage the skunks from wanting to visit your yard. If you decide to use either mothballs or ammonia soaked rags, you should make sure to keep them away from children. 

There's no doubt about it that having to deal with skunks in your yard can be a major hassle. Luckily though, trying even just one or two of these tips should go a really long ways in helping you to get rid of these stinky little critters for good. If they do not work or you'd prefer that a professional handle it, contact a pest control company like Cal-Rid Exterminators Inc.