We've been back in our house for a week or so after being out for ten days due to a skunk spraying underneath it. So believe me when I tell you to eliminate the critters, if you release them they will come back. And make sure they cannot get under or in your house. Our ten days in an apartment and other expenses added up to more than $4000, well $1000 for me, the remainder for the insurance company. One couple in our community was out of town for two weeks. When they returned home a skunk had got under the house, torn down the flexible ductwork, got in the vents and in the house and sprayed. Our insurance adjuster told us that the people would have been better off if their house had burned. Before we could get out of the house the night it sprayed we had to run back in, me to get keys and my wife her purse. We could both TASTE it. The smell was that strong.
I caught three of the little stinkers. The local "skunk catcher" put my traps in black trashbags. The skunk can't see you and so will not spray. The first I caught was in that trap and I carried it to the middle of the back yard and shot it. Had to throw the trap away with the skunk in it. The second one was a large male. He had tore the trash bag into little pieces and was not happy. I had a short cable attached to the trap but every time I would start to the trap the skunk would start hissing and pawing the ground with his tail held up high. The trap was right up against the house and we had been out for five days and I didn't want it to spray. It was also right up against the central air unit. So I climbed on top of the unit and shot down at the critter. I then made the worst mistake of the two week ordeal. I took my shotgun inside the house and warmed my hands for a few minutes. When I went back out he had released all his scent oil. After taking him off I went back in the house and had to leave because of the smell. The third trap I tied a 50' nylon rope to so I could drag it out in the cornfield behind the house. The skunk chewed the rope apart. So I had to use the sheet trick were you hold up a sheet and walk up to the trap and cover it with the sheet. If the skunk can't see you, he won't spray. Oh yeah, had to throw away the shoes I had on when the second skunk was trapped. Apparently I stepped in the oil and nothing will remove the smell. Kept them outside for three weeks and it seemed they smelled worse ever time I checked them.
Believe me, you don't want to go thru an ordeal like we have had.
RSKY