Skunks Around Your Trash Cans in the KC Northland: A Fall Guide

If you've walked out to the curb on a cool October morning and caught that smell near your trash cart, you aren't imagining things. Fall is skunk season in the Northland. Not because there are more of them, but because the ones already living along Line Creek, Shoal Creek and every wooded draw behind a subdivision are eating as much as they can before cold weather slows them down.

A trash cart that smells like food is part of that menu.

Key takeaway: Skunks are poor climbers, so a tall wheeled cart with the lid shut is hard for them to get into. The trouble is what's around it: bags beside the cart, a lid propped open by overflow, a short open-top can, and a cart that smells like food even when empty. Fix those, and most skunks walk past.

Why skunks show up at your bins in fall

The Missouri Department of Conservation describes skunks as omnivores that eat insects, small mammals, fruit, nuts and plant matter, and that use their long front claws to dig for food. In spring and summer they lean on insects. In fall and winter, MDC notes, plant and animal foods split roughly evenly, which means they're less picky about where calories come from.

They don't truly hibernate. University of Missouri Extension says skunks may stay inactive in the den for days or weeks at a time in winter, so October and November are when they forage hardest. A cart with old food residue on the bottom smells like an easy meal from a long way off.

Where Northland skunks live

MDC's field guide lists a skunk den as usually in the ground, but sometimes in a stump, a wood pile, a rock pile or under a farm building. In Northland terms, that means:

• Under decks and porches, especially low decks with open lattice
• Beneath sheds set on blocks
• In wood piles stacked against a fence for fire pit season
• In the creek banks and brush along Line Creek Trail, Shoal Creek Parkway and Rush Creek

Homes that back up to green space see the most activity: around Hodge Park and Shoal Creek (64156, 64157), Tiffany Springs (64153), the bluffs and Riss Lake area of Parkville (64152), Happy Rock Park in Gladstone (64118), and the rural edges of Kearney (64060) and Smithville (64089) near the lake.

How to tell it's a skunk and not a raccoon

Both show up at night, both like trash, and the damage can look similar at first. A few signs point clearly to a skunk:

• The smell. A faint skunk odor near the bins in the morning usually means one passed through, not that one sprayed.
• Small cone-shaped holes in the lawn. Skunks dig for grubs, leaving neat holes a few inches across, often in a scattered pattern near the house or along the fence line. Raccoons tend to roll back strips of sod instead.
• A tipped bag, not a tipped cart. Raccoons can work a lid open. Skunks mostly go after what's on the ground: a bag next to the cart, a torn sack of yard waste, a pet food bowl.
• Tracks with long front claw marks in mud near the bins or a downspout.

If the lids are open and trash is spread across the driveway, it's more likely a raccoon. Our guide to raccoons in Northland trash covers that one. If you see a gray animal with a long bare tail, read about opossums in the garbage instead.

How to get a skunk out of a trash can without getting sprayed

This happens more than people expect, usually with a short open-top can, a recycling bin, or a cart left tipped on its side. The skunk climbs or falls in after food, then can't climb back out.

Cook County, Illinois' wildlife guidance on trapped skunks gives the approach that works:

1. Keep people and pets inside. A trapped skunk is scared, and a dog barking at it makes things worse.
2. Approach slowly and stay low. Skunks see poorly. Move quietly and don't loom over the can.
3. Watch for the warning. A skunk stamps its front feet, raises its tail or turns its rear toward you before it sprays. If you see any of that, back off and try again later.
4. Give it a way out. Lean a rough board or a board with cleats into the can as a ramp, at an angle under 45 degrees so it can get traction. With a cart, you can instead tip it slowly onto its side using a rake handle or broom from as far back as you can manage.
5. Leave. The skunk will usually climb out on its own after dark. Don't stand there waiting for it.

Don't try to lift the can and dump it. That's how most people get sprayed. If the animal hasn't left by the next morning, or it's acting strange, call a licensed wildlife control operator. Inside KCMO, 311 at (816) 513-1313 can point you to animal services.

Daytime skunks and rabies

A skunk out in daylight isn't automatically sick. Hungry fall skunks sometimes forage early. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says rabies in Missouri occurs mainly in bats and skunks. A 2014 state health advisory found bats made up about 71% of rabid animals detected over the previous decade, with skunks the most commonly infected land animal, and most skunk cases in the southern half of the state.

So the risk in the Northland is low, but not zero. A skunk that stumbles, circles, seems unafraid of people, or attacks a pet is a call to animal control, not a DIY project. Keep dogs and cats current on rabies shots. It's the single best protection you have.

If your dog gets sprayed

It's almost always the dog. Skunk spray is built from sulfur compounds called thiols. Chemist William Wood at Humboldt State University also identified thioacetates in the spray, which turn into thiols when they get wet. That's why a dog can smell fine the next day and terrible after a rainstorm or a bath.

Tomato juice doesn't remove it. It mostly masks the smell while your nose gets used to it. What does work is the recipe published by chemist Paul Krebaum in 1993:

• 1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• 1/4 cup of baking soda
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of liquid dish soap

Mix it right before you use it, work it into a dry coat while avoiding the eyes, leave it on for about five minutes, and rinse well. Never mix it ahead or store it in a closed bottle, because it releases oxygen and can burst the container. It can lighten dark fur a little. If your dog got sprayed in the face, check its eyes and call your vet.

For the bacteria side of what a dog picks up around dirty bins, see our piece on whether a dirty trash can is bad for your dog.

What keeps skunks away from your trash

Skunks follow the smell of easy food and come back to places that paid off before. Take away the payoff and they move on.

Close the lid, every time

A wheeled cart with the lid shut is close to skunk-proof, because skunks can't climb its smooth sides well. Don't overfill it so the lid sits open, and don't set bags next to it. If you regularly run out of room, look at the extra-bag rules on our KC Northland trash day map for your ZIP and hauler.

Put the cart out the morning of pickup, not the night before

A cart out all night is a buffet on the sidewalk. Check your city's or hauler's set-out time (KCMO, GFL and Republic Services all post theirs), and if your route allows it, roll the cart out in the morning instead.

Get the smell out of the cart

This is the step people skip. Even an empty cart holds a film of food residue and bag leakage on the bottom and around the hinge, and that smell brings skunks, raccoons, opossums and flies to the same spot. A garden hose leaves most of it behind.

Close the den sites

• Block the space under low decks and sheds with hardware cloth buried a few inches into the ground, bent outward in an L shape so they can't dig under.
• Move wood piles off the ground and away from the house.
• Bring pet food and bird seed in at night.
• Treat a lawn grub problem, and skunks lose a reason to dig near the house.

Don't seal a den in spring or early summer without checking it's empty. That's when young are inside.

Our coyote guide makes the same point from a different angle: wildlife around the bins usually comes back to one thing, which is food smell.

Frequently asked questions

Can a skunk get into a wheeled trash cart?

Rarely, if the lid is closed. Skunks are poor climbers. They get in when a cart is tipped over, the lid is propped open by overflow, or the can is a short open-top container.

How do I get a skunk out of my trash can?

Keep pets and people inside, approach slowly and low, and lean a rough board into the can as a ramp at less than 45 degrees. Then leave. The skunk usually climbs out after dark.

Why are skunks digging holes in my lawn in the fall?

They're digging for grubs before winter. Small cone-shaped holes a few inches wide, scattered across the yard, are the classic sign.

Are skunks in Missouri dangerous?

Usually not. Missouri health officials say rabies here occurs mainly in bats and skunks, so report a skunk acting sick, unafraid or aggressive to animal control, and keep pets vaccinated.

Does cleaning my trash can keep skunks away?

It helps. Skunks find food by smell, and old residue keeps drawing them back even to an empty cart.

What to do this week

1. Check the lid tonight. If it doesn't close, take out a bag or two and hold them for next week.
2. Look under the deck and shed for a fresh hole or a worn path in the grass.
3. Get the food smell out of the cart. Our crew cleans and deodorizes carts at the curb with 200°F water and a pet-safe deodorizer, with no soap and no chemicals left behind. Quarterly service runs $15/mo, and code FIRST50 takes 50% off your first clean. Book your first clean here.

Looking for a holiday gift? Give a Bin Bros gift card: a year of clean bins is $180 (4 cleans, 2 bins), a single cleaning is $90, and you pick the day the gift email arrives and add a note.

Related reading: raccoons in Northland trash, opossums in the garbage, coyotes near your bins, and the KC Northland trash day map.