Try this simple skunk odor remedy made of ingredients every one has on hand. It neutralizes skunk odor instantly without harming people, pets, or plants.
If you have hydrogen peroxide, baking soda (not powder), and dish soap handy, you can mix up a bath that neutralizes the smell. An easy to remember recipe of one pint of hydrogen peroxide, one small box of baking soda, and a couple of squirts of any dish washing liquid mixed in a gallon of water makes an effective, scientifically based antidote. Those ingredients, in their separate packages, are easy to store in a plastic bucket with camping equipment or on the back porch to be handy when they're needed. The recipe must be mixed up and used quickly; it loses its effectiveness within about an hour, and it will explode if it's kept in a covered container. CAUTION: hydrogen peroxide can blind your pet if it gets into their eyes.

All these ingredients are safe to use around pets, animals or humans; the "explosive" effect when the mixed solution is covered comes from a release of oxygen. There is the possibility that it will bleach what it touches through oxidation, so it might turn a black dog brown or grey until the natural color of hair grows back out.

Tomato juice, the stand-by of folklore, doesn't work. Because it does have some oil in it, it might break up the structure of the sulfur-based make-up of the skunk spray and make it easier to wash out. It's gotten a reputation for killing skunk odor because, after the sulfuric compound in skunk spray has assaulted human noses and created olfactory fatigue, the pungency of tomato can be detected as "stronger" than skunk. So, it doesn't kill the odor, but it does make it less noticeable.


Chlorine bleach also oxidizes, and therefore, neutralizes, skunk odor, and is satisfactory to use on wood, cars, clothing, bricks and other surfaces where a permanent color change would not be a problem.





Written by Diana Maree
Copyright 2002 by PageWise, Inc