Well, as you may soon find out, it is fairly difficult and can result in the worst smell in the world. You have to be careful because one false move and you have spooked the skunk, and we all know what happens then.
After a series of warning that you may or may not know, you have been thoroughly drenched in the most atrocious, foul smelling liquid in the world and now you are going over and over trying to remember what is recommended to get rid of this horrendous smell.
Tomato juice
Most of us clearly remember the old wives tale of taking a bath in tomato juice to get rid of a skunk’s smell. It is probably the first thing that will pop into your mind as you are wondering how you got yourself into this predicament in the first place.
However, the tomato juice solution does not work. According to William F. Wood, Department of Chemistry, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California and author of Chemistry of Skunk Spray, “tomato juice may seem to work to the victim because being exposed to high doses of skunk spray can cause the human nose to stop smelling the odor, which is causes olfactory fatigue.
When this happens, the odor of tomato juice can easily be detected and not the skunk smell. A person suffering olfactory fatigue to skunk spray will swear that the skunk odor is gone and was neutralized by the tomato juice.
However, anyone else who happens by the scene can easily point out that the skunk spray has not been neutralized by the tomato juice.” So, I would not rely on tomato juice getting rid of the skunk smell that has by now invaded all your senses.
Other myths
It may seem like countless others have the perfect solution for your skunk smell problem. However, a lot of these solutions will probably just turn out like the tomato juice solution and be completely bogus. Some people hope that you can just cover the skunk smell by using febreze, perfume or cologne.
However, once you have been sprayed by a skunk and experienced the smell for yourself, I am pretty sure you will automatically know that this is not possible. This is one smell that you can not just overpower or cover up, so do not think that you can just douse yourself with some type of spray and be done with it.
Others may swear that you can cover up skunk smell by spraying lemon or some other type of citrus fruit on it. This too will only leave you smelling like a skunk sprayed you that was eating lemons. It just won’t work.
The solution
By now you have tried just about everything you can think of to get rid of that smell. There is one solution that you can mix together that will give you some reprieve from that odor. All you need to do is one quart of 3% percent hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda and a teaspoon of liquid soap or dish detergent.
Then you use this solution like a shampoo and rub it into wherever the skunk sprayed. It should sit for five minutes before you wash it off with ordinary tap water. You may have to repeat it a few times to get a good result. The faster you can use this solution the better, so once you get sprayed you need to start making it. Also use it immediately because the mixture is unstable. This means you can not make it and then store it for later use.
I know that being sprayed by a skunk can be a truly unpleasant situation and may cause many of us to panic. The best thing to do is calm down and think. You do not want to go on smelling like this any longer than necessary. So, keep our skunk solution in mind, and the next time you see one on your property do not try to remove it yourself.
Call in the professions to handle it, and you will surely stay odor free.