How Do Skunks Get In Your Backyard? Gaps and Grubs

Skunks walk in under fences, through gaps as small as 10 cm, and stay for grubs, pet food and the space under a deck. The entry points to close.

By Zakaria November 3, 2026 2 min read Save to Pinterest

A striped skunk resting on straw in a den beneath a fallen log — Photo: christels, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay

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Skunks come in at ground level, through a gap you would not think twice about. What keeps them coming back is almost always the grubs in the lawn.

The short answer

Skunks enter backyards at ground level — under gates, through washed-out hollows along a fence line, through broken boards, or by digging a shallow entrance under a solid fence. A gap of roughly 10 cm (4 in) is enough. Striped skunks are poor climbers, so fence height matters far less than sealing the base. They return for food: lawn grubs above all, then pet food, fallen fruit, spilled birdseed and unsecured bins. Block entry with 1.3 cm hardware cloth buried 15–20 cm and bent outward into an L, and skirt decking and sheds — after checking nothing is denning underneath.

Ground level entry — 10 cm gap is enough
Poor climbers: seal the fence base, not the top
Lawn grubs are the main reason they keep coming
Hardware cloth in an L, buried and bent outward
Check for kits before sealing any den

Where they get in

route	what it looks like
Under a gate	a 10 cm strip of daylight at the bottom
Washed-out fence line	shallow hollow where water runs
Dug entrance	fresh soil fan against a solid fence
Broken board	one missing or rotted picket
Drainage gap	culvert or French drain outlet

What tells you it is a skunk and not something else

sign	skunk	raccoon
Lawn damage	small neat cones, 5 cm across	turf rolled back in sheets
Entry height	ground level only	climbs readily
Droppings	tubular, insect parts visible	blunt, often on a flat surface
Smell	obvious	none

Cone-shaped divots in a lawn, appearing overnight, are grub hunting. Turf peeled back like carpet is a raccoon.

Fix the grubs and the visits usually stop

Skunk lawn digging is a symptom. If the lawn is being worked over nightly, the question to answer is why there are enough chafer or Japanese beetle larvae to be worth the effort.

Never seal a den without checking it is empty

Pack the entrance loosely with newspaper and watch it for two or three nights. In spring there may be kits inside, and sealing them in is both inhumane and a smell you will not forget.

Common questions

How do skunks get in your backyard?

Mostly by walking in at ground level. Skunks are poor climbers but capable diggers, and they pass through any gap of roughly 10 cm (4 in) or more — the space beneath a gate, a washed-out hollow under a fence line, a broken board, a drainage gap. They will also dig a shallow entrance under a solid fence. What keeps them coming back is food: lawn grubs, fallen fruit, pet food and accessible bins.

What attracts skunks to a garden?

Grubs are the biggest draw and the one most people miss. Skunks dig small neat cone-shaped holes in lawns hunting Japanese beetle and chafer larvae, and a lawn with a grub problem will be visited nightly until the grubs are gone. After that: pet food left out, fallen fruit, birdseed spill, open compost and unsecured bins. Shelter under decking or a shed is what turns a visitor into a resident.

Can skunks climb fences?

Striped skunks are poor climbers and rarely go over a smooth fence, though they can scramble up chain link and rough timber. Spotted skunks climb well. For the common striped skunk, the fence is defeated at the bottom rather than the top, which is why a buried or outward-laid wire apron matters far more than fence height.

How do you block them out?

Run 1.3 cm (½ in) hardware cloth along the fence base, buried 15–20 cm and then bent outward into an L for another 30 cm so a digging animal hits mesh. Close gaps under gates with a board or brush strip. Skirt decking and shed bases with the same mesh, after checking nothing is living under there — sealing a mother and kits in is both cruel and a problem you will smell.

Are skunks actually a problem?

They are useful in a garden more often than not: they eat grubs, cutworms, wasp larvae and mice. The real costs are the lawn digging, the risk to a dog that corners one, and rabies, for which skunks are a significant carrier in North America. Most people can tolerate a passing skunk and should still exclude them from under buildings.

How do you get a skunk to leave on its own?

Remove the food, then make the shelter unpleasant: a radio on low, a light shining under the deck, and loosely packed newspaper in the entrance hole. If the paper stays undisturbed for two or three nights the den is empty and you can seal it. Do this outside the spring denning season, or you risk trapping kits behind the mesh.

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A striped skunk standing in long grass among dandelions, its white back stripe clearly visible

Backyard Animals · Sep 21, 2026

How Do Skunks Get In Your Backyard? Gaps and Grubs

Where they get in

What tells you it is a skunk and not something else