Mephitis mephitis, the mefites' mustelid

August 31, 2016 7:37 AM

The moment I realize I have skunks living in my yard, I become obsessed with them. Within a few weeks, I have the skunk skull on my desk, a stack of articles on skunks, and a copy of The Biology of the Striped Skunk, by B. J. Verts—the definitive textbook on the animal, published in 1967. (In fact, it’s the only textbook on the striped skunk.) I’m waiting for a bottle of skunk essence to arrive in the mail...

"On my drive to work this morning, I caught an unpleasant whiff of striped skunk several times. For the past week, skunk musk has assaulted my nostrils with increasing regularity. Perhaps you’ve noticed the same thing. No, there isn’t a sudden population explosion of skunks. It’s all tied to their behavior... and right now there are lots of young, relatively inexperienced skunks roaming around."

You might smell striped skunks in the spring, too because of baby striped skunks!

See the Skunk Defensive Secretion page of Humboldt State chemistry professor William F. Wood for more details on the chemistry of skunk spray.

posted by ChuraChura (31 comments total)

(I should note that the title reflects inaccurate skunk phylogeny... skunks are apparently no longer in the family Mustelidae, but have been moved to their own family, Mephitidae, along with the South Asian stink badgers.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:41 AM on August 31, 2016 [9 favorites]

That's one thing that I miss from my Tennessee childhood now that I live in New Orleans: the occasional smell of skunk while driving down country roads at night. We have different nighttime smells here, as you can imagine.

I didn't used to have any particular affinity for skunks themselves but I do like skulls, and a while back Skulls Unlimited had a beautiful little Mephitis mephitis specimen on deep discount, so I picked it up. Here he is in comparison with a black bear skull.

I always had a thing for Bufo bufo, the common toad, and was pleased to see that the skunk was Mephitis mephitis. This eventually led me to the list of tautonyms on Wikipedia - zoological names of species consisting of two identical words.
posted by komara at 7:51 AM on August 31, 2016 [11 favorites]

We have different nighttime smells here, as you can imagine.

When we first rented a row house in DC, I spent months thinking there were skunks around most nights. I smelled them constantly. It was weird, because I didn't think we had that many skunks in the city. Raccoons, sure, we had a charming family of raccoons living in a tree across from our porch, but not skunks. Still, it's not weird to smell skunks without seeing them. I grew up in the country, and I've smelled skunks often, but only ever seen one once, an almost all white skunk who haunts the New Hampshire woods where we go on vacation once a year. I just figured, wow, what an unexpected part of city living.

Anyway, yeah I guess that's what pot smells like now; I've never smoked.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:59 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Baby skunks are so damn cute, I can barely stand it.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:06 AM on August 31, 2016 [3 favorites]

It was weird, because I didn't think we had that many skunks


This is actually an issue in Toronto- are you smelling skunk...or a skunk? Don't guess wrong, if you are someone who bums tokes off strangers.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:10 AM on August 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Baby skunks are so damn cute, I can barely stand it.

You'll barely stand this video of a skunk family then. Based on the mountain bikers I know, it's a tossup who smelled worse - him or the skunks...
posted by kersplunk at 8:26 AM on August 31, 2016 [10 favorites]

I've always liked skunks --- not the smell, their personalities. They're always struck me as sensible compared to, say, squirrels or deer. Basically, don't bug them and they won't bother you. After all, they're sort of like hermits: all they ask is to be left alone. And they're just so darn cute when they stamp their little feet in warning!
posted by easily confused at 8:30 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

My dog, who is death on groundhogs of any age, refuses to go after lost skunk babies. I'd like to chalk it up to good sense and experience, but I secretly believe that he thinks they're kittens, and therefore off-limits.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:31 AM on August 31, 2016 [10 favorites]

I believe TheWhiteSkull has similar views on baby skunks.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:33 AM on August 31, 2016

I saw the title and thought "another ChuraChura post!" Was not disappointed, either by the post or my awesome perception.

Years ago I lived in a semi-rural part of RI, and lacking any kind of social life, I would stand on my balcony at twilight and watch the skunks forage on the lawn. I loved the way they were all business, just doing their jobs.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:35 AM on August 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

Mephitis mephitis means "stinky stinky."

I just wanted to share that.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:40 AM on August 31, 2016 [16 favorites]

My dog, who is death on groundhogs of any age, refuses to go after lost skunk babies. I'd like to chalk it up to good sense and experience, but I secretly believe that he thinks they're kittens, and therefore off-limits.

Good strategy. You never know when a cat may inadvertently be covered with a stripe of white paint.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:44 AM on August 31, 2016 [6 favorites]

You'll barely stand this video of a skunk family then

Ah god the cuteness
posted by rp at 9:21 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

I’m waiting for a bottle of skunk essence to arrive in the mail...

There must be other ways to get skunk essence?
posted by lagomorphius at 10:02 AM on August 31, 2016

"There must be other ways to get skunk essence?"

Harassing a skunk is one of the more expedient ways.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 10:38 AM on August 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

Count me as a skunk lover. They like to eat scorpions, so I say bring on the skunks. Also, we had skunks living under our house when I was a little kid, so the smell is very nostalgic to me.
posted by Maxwell's demon at 10:42 AM on August 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

> There must be other ways to get skunk essence?

Step 1. Pick up skunk.
Step 2. Squeeze.
posted by davelog at 10:42 AM on August 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

The most efficient way to remove skunk odor from clothing, says Wood, is to wash it in a mixture of one cup of bleach per gallon of water. For pets, wash them in a quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, a quarter-cup of baking soda, and a teaspoon of liquid soap.

OK I bookmarked this sucker. Skunk smell might be the end member of odors where a hint is pleasant but Oh My too much of a good thing is a very very small quantity. I feel sorry for the poor dogs.
posted by bukvich at 11:08 AM on August 31, 2016 [3 favorites]

No need to bookmark: if you google "dog skunk" you get the recipe at the top of the page. The chemistry is effective, but you need to avoid getting any in the dog's eyes. As the dog's face is usually ground zero for a skunk spray, there is some residual stink for at least a month.

Compared to the original dosing, which will make your eyes water within 10 feet of the dog, it's a minor annoyance.
posted by cardboard at 12:07 PM on August 31, 2016

I wish the family I used to babysit for knew that recipe for dog de-skunking. They used the tomato sauce remedy, which creating the interesting smell combination of tomato-skunk...it didn't see to do much in the way of eliminating the skunk smell. Cute little terrier though.
posted by dawg-proud at 12:20 PM on August 31, 2016

"There must be other ways to get skunk essence?"

Just take the hair salon's copy while your girl getting her braids. It's usually next to skunk ebony and skunk jet.
posted by leotrotsky at 12:41 PM on August 31, 2016 [6 favorites]

"Mephitidae"

MePhites?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:56 PM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have a bad case of MePhitis. It's kind of like phlebitis but it's when the blood vessels to your thinking parts get all clogged up with beans, like a whole plate full.
posted by komara at 1:02 PM on August 31, 2016

In the last couple of years I kept wondering why I was suddenly smelling skunks - in downtown Seattle. Now I know it's (newly-legalized-but-not-legal-to-smoke-in-public-but-people-do-it-anyway) pot. Pot I smoked never stunk that bad!
posted by dbmcd at 3:39 PM on August 31, 2016

skunks are apparently no longer in the family Mustelidae, but have been moved to their own family, Mephitidae

Honey badgers also have a notably bad smell when they choose to deploy it, are currently numbered among the Mustelidae in a genus all their own (Mellivora), and actually look quite a bit like skunks.

'Mephitic' is a word (I think) I picked up from Lovecraft.
posted by jamjam at 3:42 PM on August 31, 2016

Sweet, unassuming little article about skunks. Skunks are the cutest, and maybe because I have a poor sense of smell, I enjoy getting a whiff of fresh skunk on an evening breeze. It has an earthy funk that I find pleasing.

(I do not enjoy the stink of skunk all over a dog for 2 weeks though)
posted by latkes at 3:54 PM on August 31, 2016

When I was in elementary school we were stationed at Columbus AFB, MS. I enjoyed getting to visit the cockpit of one of the B-52s my father flew. Lots of gauges and levers, and a distinctive smell that was dominated by the black rubber hoses of the oxygen mask system. Years later during a country drive with the windows down, I caught a whiff of a familiar scent and wondered how the hell I could smell a B-52 cockpit in the middle of nowhere. Yup—skunk. Talk about yer nostalgia.

We have some living under our shed and woo-eee are they stinky sometimes. The worst was so bad that it smelled like electrical wiring burning, and because the shed is on the same side of the house as our mains panel I was seriously worried for a few minutes. I can't imagine what a faceful of skunk stank must be like.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:03 PM on August 31, 2016

I was surprised to find that they do, in fact, sometimes get up on their front legs in a handstand before spraying...ask me how I know.

They sure are adorable though, especially the babies, I regularly see tiny families on their evening stroll though the neighborhood and their proud fluffy tails just kill me.
posted by lemonade at 10:34 PM on August 31, 2016

A couple of weeks ago at 12:30am we were awakened by a terrible smell. I got up and closed the window, but it was too late. I guess a cat and a skunk had an encounter under our window, so I looked outside and there was the cat sitting on the street defending the neighbourhood. Bastard. It had already got to the burning wires level, which I think means that your nose is overloaded with scent. Fortunately it was mostly gone the next day - I thought we were going to have to move out of our house for a while.

Weirdly, we almost never see skunks here (Calgary) even if there are lots around, because they'realmost entirely nocturnal. I've seen one near the bus stop at 5:30 in the morning, but that's it.
posted by sneebler at 9:44 AM on September 1, 2016

Apparently you can get them "descented" and keep them as pets!
posted by bendy at 12:57 PM on September 1, 2016

Back in high school I nearly petted a skunk. Early AM paper route, bleary-eyed me, skunk happily attacking a bag of garbage on the porch. For some reason I was sure it was a cat. I was an inch away from petting it when it suddenly clicked in my head that cats don't have white stripes. The skunk slowly turned and stared at me, as if to say "dude, wtf, I'm a skunk!"

We mutually agreed that I would back away slowly and that was the end of that. No harm, no foul (odor).
posted by caution live frogs at 12:57 PM on September 1, 2016