Skunk Under Your Deck or Porch? Here's Exactly What to Do

Decks, porches, and sheds are the most common skunk den sites in the Louisville area. The space underneath is dark, dry, protected from weather and predators, and often just a few inches of digging away. If you've noticed a musky odor near your deck or fresh digging along its edge, here's how to handle it.

Step 1: Confirm It's Actually a Skunk

• •A persistent musky odor, strongest at night and early morning
• •A freshly dug entry hole 4–6 inches wide, often with a fan of loose soil
• •Cone-shaped grub-digging holes in the nearby lawn
• •Five-toed tracks with visible claw marks
• •Sightings at dusk or dawn near the structure

Step 2: Do NOT Seal the Hole Right Away

The most expensive mistake homeowners make is blocking the entry hole while the skunk — or its babies — is still inside. From roughly February through June, a den under a deck often contains a mother with kits that cannot leave on their own. Sealing them in leads to dead animals under your deck, a far worse odor problem, and often structural work to retrieve them.

A simple test: sprinkle flour or lay paper over the entry hole in the evening, then check for tracks in the morning to learn when the den is occupied.

Step 3: Make the Space Less Attractive

While you arrange removal, you can reduce the property's appeal: secure garbage lids, bring pet food in at night, turn on motion-activated lights near the deck, and treat your lawn for grubs. These steps rarely evict an established skunk on their own, but they discourage new ones.

Step 4: Professional Removal and Exclusion

Kentucky and Indiana both regulate the trapping and relocation of skunks, so removal should be done by a licensed wildlife control operator. The professional process is straightforward: confirm occupancy, trap and remove the skunks (or install one-way doors once any kits are mobile), then permanently exclude the space with buried barrier screening so the den can never be reoccupied.

That last step matters most. An empty den under a deck is prime real estate — without exclusion, the next skunk in the neighborhood typically moves in within a season.