How to de-skunk your... everything?

[sauergeek]

One useful thing I've found from getting skunked: a workable de-skunkification mix. A chemist came up with the mix based on a liquid filter he used to break down hydrogen sulfide in a waste gas stream. It's a 192:12:1 mix (in my case, 1 cup, 1 tablespoon, and 1/4 teaspoon) of 3% hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and liquid hand soap. See the actual recipe for details and some explanation, and his IFAQs for a more detailed explanation of how the reaction works.

One of the worst-hit things was one of the bike panniers. I went after the pannier with this stuff and a toothbrush, and it slew the stink. (As a control, the bike itself, which I am slowly acquiring the tools to properly dismantle so I can get at all the places that skunk spray got, and which still is not acceptable in company.)

Comments

[rix_scaedu]

Should I ask how you got skunked in the first place, or just be glad that I'm on the other side of an ocean from skunks in general?

[kelkyag]

Mostly skunks are very chill and it's not an issue. I've walked within a few yards of one without issue on a number of occasions when we were aware of each other.

In this case, sauergeek was on bike and the skunk was in a flower bed right next to the path, and they didn't see each other until they were very close. sauergeek was moving at a good clip and the skunk decided someone closing at speed was alarming. :(

[sauergeek]

I was riding my bike on a boardwalk next to a canal, heading into a curve, and going pretty fast. I was looking around the curve for people, as it was fairly warm out (for early March), and I didn't want to hit anyone.

The canal follows the inside of the curve at that point. There are flowerbeds on the outside of the curve, but nobody's going to come through those without me being able to see them well in advance, so I wasn't worried about people there.

I hadn't thought about there being something much, much shorter in the flowerbeds. I was maybe four or five meters away from the skunk when I saw it -- I think it moved, probably to give its preliminary warnings.

By the time I could react, the only thing I could do was speed up and hope for a miss. If I stopped I would've been a sitting duck, as skunks have respectable aim. I couldn't turn into the curve: there's a rail there to keep people from falling into the rather deep (and far down!) canal. I couldn't turn out of the curve: I probably would've un-biked myself on hitting the flowerbeds and then been an injured sitting duck. So I sped up. The skunk didn't miss.

However bad they smell, skunks are not fundamentally deadly (though getting the spray in your eyes is all sorts of extra No Fun). On several occasions I've been within a few meters of a skunk and had nothing bad happen -- as kelkyag points out, they're pretty chill critters most of the time. I was just going too fast, too close, and skunks don't like that.

To quote tkingfisher from her piece I Can't Believe It's Not Echidna Milk, you live "in a land where everything is poisonous, savage, or Steve Irwin". And without Steve Irwin still around to tame things down, you've got plenty of venomous critters, never mind the ones that are just plain savage. (The fact that your fictional critters include *drop bears*...) It may be just familiarity on my part, but I think I'll take the skunks and leave you with Australia's astonishing collection of incredibly dangerous animals.

[rix_scaedu]

On the other hand, if you stay away from the northern regions and their crocodiles, we have no large native predators bigger than a large dog.

[kazmat]

Sounds like you had a very fragrant time. :} From your initial post, I was thinking motorcycle, not push bike, but your description below says otherwise. Even worse, eeeeeew.

[sauergeek]

Yep, pushbike. It's a fold-up one that I can take on the train. And until I get one more set of hex keys, I still can't remove the rear fender to clean under it. The fragrance continues...

[keshwyn]

My 'favorite' skunk story is how a rabid one decided my *dorm* was threatening it, and skunked the entire east side of the building. I woke up at four a.m., tasting skunk aroma in the back of my mouth, and in my sleepy state, opened the windows.

The level of stink did not appreciably change. That woke me up enough to figure out what was going on. (Being in the basement, I had it worst, of course.)

The whole dorm got those industrial serv-pro fans pointing out our windows for several days, until the smell finally began to dissipate. It was fascinating in a 'I'm glad I'm probably never going to have to deal with this again' kind of way.

[sauergeek]

Ugh, rabid skunks. That sounds like a world of no fun. I wonder if that de-skunking mix would've worked to make the dorm stop stinking faster.

But beware, if you have an outdoor pet: they can occasionally get skunked too. My old dog killed a rabid skunk in the yard (and got sprayed for her trouble). And then apparently she didn't learn, because she managed to get sprayed again a couple years later. (That skunk escaped.)