Skunks show up at your house because it offers some combination of easy food, reliable water, and sheltered places to sleep. They’re opportunistic and not picky, so even a yard that seems tidy can have several things pulling them in. Understanding exactly what attracts them is the first step to convincing them to move on.
Grubs and Insects in Your Lawn
The single biggest reason skunks visit residential yards is what’s living just below the surface of your grass. Skunks eat grubs, earthworms, and other soil insects, and your lawn is essentially a buffet. They press their nose to the ground to locate prey, then dig with their long front claws, leaving shallow holes about the size of a skunk’s nose surrounded by a ring of loosened soil. If you’re waking up to small divots scattered across your yard, grubs are almost certainly the draw.
In extreme cases, the ground can look like it’s been tilled, with dozens of small holes concentrated in one area. Skunks will also dig up underground wasp nests in late summer and fall, leaving larger holes with chunks of comb scattered around. All of this digging happens overnight since skunks are nocturnal, so the damage appears suddenly in the morning.
A lawn with a heavy grub population is essentially advertising to every skunk in the neighborhood. Treating your lawn for grubs removes the main incentive for skunks to keep coming back.
Pet Food, Birdseed, and Garbage
Skunks have a wide-ranging diet that includes fruit, berries, small rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs, and mushrooms. But the easiest calories in a residential setting come from things people leave out unintentionally. Dog or cat food left on a porch or patio is one of the most common attractants. Even water bowls set out for pets can draw skunks in, giving them one more reason to linger.
Bird feeders create problems too, not because skunks climb up to them (they can’t climb), but because spilled seed accumulates on the ground below. Fallen fruit from trees works the same way. A single apple tree dropping fruit you don’t pick up can sustain a skunk for weeks. Garbage cans without tight-fitting lids round out the list. Skunks will rummage through trash just like raccoons, and compost piles that use a cold composting method give off smells that attract them as well.
The fix for all of these is straightforward: bring pet food inside at night, clean up birdseed regularly, pick up fallen fruit, secure your garbage lids, and switch to hot composting if you have a compost pile.
Sheltered Denning Spots
Food gets skunks onto your property, but shelter is what makes them stay. Skunks need dens for sleeping, raising young, and staying warm during cold stretches. In residential areas, the most common den sites are under decks, porches, garden sheds, and the crawl spaces beneath homes and mobile homes. These structures provide a roof overhead, protection from predators, and insulation from weather, which is everything a skunk needs.
When those ideal spots aren’t available, skunks will settle for brush piles, hollow logs, overgrown shrubbery, and loosely stacked firewood. Any dark, low-to-the-ground gap that a skunk can squeeze into becomes a potential home. Remember that skunks can’t jump or climb, so they work close to the ground. If there’s an opening at ground level, they’ll find it.
Overgrown yards are especially inviting. Dense, low shrubs provide cover that makes skunks feel safe moving through your property. Firewood stacked directly on the ground creates gaps underneath that serve as ready-made dens.
Seasonal Patterns That Increase Activity
Skunk visits aren’t random throughout the year. There are predictable windows when they’re most likely to show up at your house.
In late February and early March, skunks mate. Males roam widely looking for females, which means skunks that don’t normally live near you may wander through your yard. About 62 days later, in May, females give birth to litters of four to seven young. A mother skunk needs a safe, enclosed den during this period, and the space under your deck or shed is exactly what she’s looking for. The young skunks are weaned after two months and follow their mother through the summer before dispersing on their own in fall. During those months, you might see an entire family moving through your yard at dusk.
Skunks don’t truly hibernate in winter, but they become inactive during the coldest stretches and share dens for warmth. Several skunks may huddle together in one nest during cold periods. If that nest happens to be under your house, you could have multiple skunks as winter tenants.
How to Tell Skunks Are Already Visiting
The smell is the obvious giveaway, but skunks don’t spray unless they feel threatened, so you might have regular visitors without ever catching a whiff. The more reliable sign is damage to your lawn: small, shallow holes appearing overnight, each surrounded by a ring of loosened soil. These nose-sized divots are distinctive and hard to confuse with other animals. Raccoons tear up larger patches of turf, and moles leave raised tunnels rather than individual holes.
You might also notice tracks. Skunk prints show five toes on both front and back feet, with visible claw marks extending from the front toes. Because skunks stay low to the ground, you won’t find damage to elevated bird feeders, trellises, or rooflines. If something is getting into your garden or digging in your flower beds at ground level, skunks belong on your short list.
Keeping Skunks Out for Good
Removing attractants solves most skunk problems, but if skunks are denning under a structure, you’ll also need physical barriers. The standard approach is to close off all openings under porches, decks, sheds, and homes with quarter-inch mesh hardware cloth. For areas where skunks might try to dig underneath the barrier, bury half-inch mesh fencing about 2 inches below the soil surface and extend it outward at least 12 inches perpendicular to the structure. This L-shaped footer stops skunks from burrowing past the barrier.
Before sealing any opening, make sure no skunks are currently inside. The simplest test is to loosely stuff the opening with newspaper or leaves and check after a few nights. If the material gets pushed out, something is still using the den. Once you’re confident the space is empty, install the barrier.
For the rest of your yard, cut back overgrown shrubbery to eliminate ground-level cover, and stack firewood tightly at least 18 inches above the ground. These changes make your property feel exposed and uncomfortable for an animal that depends on staying hidden. Combined with removing food sources, most skunks will simply move to a neighbor’s yard where life is easier.