Skunk Removal & Trapping Services in Dallas & Houston

 Facts About Skunks

• Skunks are considered a threat for rabies, as they can host the virus.
• Skunks very sharp claws used for digging burrows and will often look for abandoned armadillo burrows as homes.
• Skunks have very poor vision, but have an incredible sense of smell and hearing.
• Skunks can accurately spray their musk up to 10 feet.
• Skunks can also secret their musk multiple times in a row if needed.
• Skunks can have litters of up to 10 offspring.
• Skunks are very well adapted to urban life and typically will eat anything from plants to trash to rodents to reptiles.
• Skunks often will invade hen houses and often dig dens right next to home’s and commercial buildings.
• Skunks typically live in solitary but sometimes share dens in the coldest months of the year.

Things to keep in mind when dealing with a skunk infestation

• Skunks are crepuscular; they come out during dawn and dusk. For most of the day and night, they are asleep in burrows or other small, sheltered spaces. This can lead to skunks inhabiting an area for an extended period of time without being spotted.
• Skunks have well-developed senses of hearing and smell; while their vision is poor, skunks are likely to notice and flee or hide from you well before you ever notice them. This makes it even more difficult to notice their presence in an area.
• Skunks are reluctant to use their spray; because they only ever carry enough for a few uses at a time, they are likely to leave an area in which they detect a potential threat. Even if they can’t leave that easily or rapidly, they will first engage in deimatic displays in an effort to encourage the potential threat to leave them alone. They will only spray once they feel these displays are ineffective. If you see a skunk hissing, stamping its feet, or moving into odd positions, run the other way – it’s about to spray you!
• Skunks can spray accurately to a distance of about ten feet; although reluctant to use their spray, once they make the decision to do so, they are likely to hit you even if you’re not right next to them.
• Skunk spray is potent and difficult to remove; it is composed of various sulfur-based thiols. The odor-causing components are neither water- nor oil-soluble. This means they cannot be washed away by normal means. This is why the recognizable “skunk smell” can stay in an area for days at a time.
• Skunks are a strong rabies vector; although raccoons represent the largest rabies vector for the USA as a whole, there are regions and states in which skunks are responsible for more cases of rabies than raccoons are.
• Skunks are omnivorous; they will gladly pursue just about anything as a food source, from small reptiles, to leafy greens, to fungi. Fruits, worms, and beehives are some of their favorites. This makes them highly attracted to garbage receptacles; a trash can represents a source of food that is plentiful, varied, and self-replenishing.
• Skunks dig for food; they have very powerful claws with which they rapidly leave holes throughout any landscape they occupy. These same claws allow them to overturn and even tear open the trash containers to which they will already be attracted.
• Skunks create burrow systems; in the absence of appropriate natural shelters such as hollow logs, skunks will dig out expansive systems of underground chambers connected by tunnels. They use these dens to rest and to raise their young. They can become surprisingly large very quickly, posing significant risks to the structural integrity of anything built on the ground above them.
• Skunks are typically solitary; they will generally only occupy dens together during cold periods. This means that if there are multiple skunks in an area, their burrow systems will rapidly spread out to cover a large area.
• Skunks have little fear of predation; there are always exceptions, but in the wild, only the great horned owl represents a consistently threatening predator to skunks. As such, skunks are more likely to infiltrate a human-occupied area than many other animals, and may prove more difficult to remove from said area as well.

Identifying a skunk problem

• Shallow, conical holes in the ground a couple of inches across, made in search of food
• Much deeper holes with an entrance of about eight inches, especially those near foundations, woodpiles, overgrown grasses, piles of rocks or leaves, hen houses, etc.
• Torn-open trash bags or garbage bins
• Empty pet food bowls outside, in the garage, or in the basement
• And, of course, the smell; if you have never smelled skunk spray before, its sulfur compounds give a smell similar to rotten eggs, burned rubber, and garlic

Skunks in DFW and Houston

Skunks often choose to den underneath homes and will dig cone-shaped holes in the yard – looking for grubs. Plus, there’s no doubt about it, simply the smell of their odor lets you know of their proximity!

Of all the animals regarding which Trapping USA receives removal requests, perhaps none is preceded by its reputation quite like the skunk. It is so well-known for its malodorous defensive spray, that many people are unfamiliar with any of its other characteristics.

For this reason, many people who attempt to eliminate a presence of skunks in their area end up only worsening the problems these animals bring with them. Trapping USA has developed a comprehensive knowledge base with which to develop a system allowing us attack the problem of skunk infestations with speed and efficiency. We know what to look for, and how to address whatever is found. Our process is furthermore backed up by a guarantee ensuring that our work remains effective even in the future. We are able to to offer this guarantee due to our knowledge and experience with skunks; we are aware of all the factors that other people may not be.

The second most recognizable aspect of a skunk, and one with which almost everyone is still familiar, is its high-contrast appearance. In the days of fur trapping, the animal was prized for its long, soft, and glossy coat. But while the skunk’s highly visible black and white appearance is not meant to impart an idea of beauty to other animals, it is meant to be highly visible.

This is basically because a skunk’s anal scent glands can only hold enough chemical in reserve to spray half a dozen times. As such, a skunk will generally only use this defense as a last resort. When first faced with a potential threat, skunks will hiss, stamp their feet, or perform deimatic postures to scare it off. If the threat remains despite these attempts, the skunk will then release its infamous spray. It takes about ten days for the skunk to replenish its supply of the spray.

The skunk’s coloration goes hand-in-hand with this threat posturing, and the general reluctance it demonstrates towards relying on the spray for defense. The starkly contrasted black and white pattern skunks display is an example of an aposematic signal; it serves to alert predators that the skunk is to be avoided. Since it is easier to avoid a predator that never sees you in the first place than it is to be forced to flee from it, most animals make use of camouflage as a defense mechanism. However, possessing a potent deterrent has allowed the skunk to evolve coloration that alerts predators it is unlike other prey, and has no need to hide itself from them. This alone lowers the danger skunks have to face in the wild.

And a potent deterrent it is. Skunks can use their spray to ward off attacks from numerous types of predators, including foxes, badgers, coyotes, wolves, and even smaller bears. An array of muscles around their anal scent glands allows them to spray with a high degree of accuracy to a distance ten feet. This is especially useful because the spray is not only foul-smelling, but contains irritant compounds as well, and has been known to even cause temporary blindness.

As a result, the skunk is safe from the majority of predators. It has been well-documented that predators in the USA will generally avoid skunks whenever possible. The groups of animals known to attack skunks fall into only a few categories; the first is any individual animal that hasn’t encountered skunks before, or for whatever reason hasn’t developed an aversion towards them. Occasionally an animal will attack a skunk, but its attack is almost always stopped dead in its tracks. Even if the predator does manage to kill the skunk, it is unlikely to ever approach another one afterwards.

The second category is domesticated dogs, particularly of the sporting or terrier varieties. Because these dogs are generally bred with strong pursuit and prey instincts, they will generally react to the sight of a skunk with extreme and immediate aggression. Even if the skunk does manage to spray them before they reach it, they will often end up injuring the skunk at bare minimum regardless.

The third category, which is also the only truly significant one, is the great horned owl. This particular species of owl native to the Americas is, in fact, the skunk’s one and only regular predator. More than anything else, this fact speaks to the effectiveness of the skunk’s defense mechanisms in the wild.

Perhaps it is for these reasons that skunk infestations occur so frequently. Being an omnivorous and generally fearless animal, skunks infiltrate human areas without a second thought. And the presence of a skunk infestation is a problem in more ways than one.

Skunk Removal in DFW and Houston

The smartest home and business owners, call Trapping USA of Dallas, a Texas skunk specialist will take care of your nuisance skunk problem and assume the risk of smelling as bad as a skunk! But if that isn’t enough to convince you, keep in mind that skunks are a significant carrier of rabies in the United States. Plus, their tendency to settle in urbanized areas makes them a double threat to you and your family or coworkers. Skunks can carry parasites that include leptospirosis and an intestinal roundworm called baylisascaris columnaris; these diseases, in addition to distemper, canine hepatitis, fleas, ticks, lice and mites can be transferred from skunks to your pets causing serious harm and/or death.

Call Trapping USA and a skunk specialist will come out to your home or business to solve your skunk problem today!

We service residential and commercial customers throughout North Texas in towns such as Addison, Allen, Arlington, Carrollton, The Colony, Dallas, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Irving, Lewisville, McKinney, Plano, Prosper, Richardson, Rockwall, Rowlett and more!