Northern Michigan in Focus: Skunks on the Move

We’re getting there everyone. Winter still has its grip on us, but there is movement out there and soon you’ll be seeing it.

Corey Adkins explains in this week’s Northern Michigan in Focus.

“At night they can go up to five miles, so they’re moving pretty far,” said Tucker Hogarth with Hogarth’s Pest Control Wildlife and Animal Removal.

It’s usually the first sign of spring, or better yet smell of spring. 

“Skunks are on the move. The males are mating, they’re traveling from den to den and this is causing dogs and other animals to get sprayed as they’re walking around digging and stuff,” explained Tucker.

Soon, we’ll all start seeing them on the side of the road or even worse.

“They dig it out and then they will dig underneath decks, sheds, they walk on top of the snow. They want to be low to the ground and only have one exit so that way they can make sure that random things are not able to access their den: dogs, cats, foxes, anything because other animals might be able to see that home and think it’s good for them and then they’ll smell the skunk and then reconsider. They don’t want to get sprayed either,” said Tucker.

If a skunk does spray, you won’t believe how long the smell can last.

“Especially if they spray underneath the deck and you don’t remove the dirt, sand will last for seven years. And then every time it rains or the humidity rises, then it smells just like the skunk sprayed yesterday. So removing the dirt or getting the dead skunk out from underneath wherever it is, is the best method for control of the odor,” advised Tucker.

And that’s when you can call a place like Hogarth’s Pest Control. Getting rid of unwanted wildlife has turned high tech.

“This is the Arlo. This is what we use to set up and monitor for wildlife control, this is the live feed right now looking at me. Whenever we get an animal in a trap and we get notified and we can go pick it up,” said Tucker.

Who would have thought?

“This is our six different cameras, we got this one for squirrels. This is an active skunk job we just sat yesterday. We legally have to check the traps once a day and this just helps us get to the traps faster, so that way the skunk or animal is not in the trap longer than it needs to be,” explained Tucker.

The technology goes way beyond that.  So if you’re having an issue, give these guys a call because thankfully, spring is coming!

“When we get pockets of the warm weather, then the calls really pick up because they’re out there bugging people, causing a ruckus,” said Tucker.