What happened to this skunk?
September 16, 2010 7:17 AM Subscribe
The great skunk mystery. (Warning: involves roadkill. May not be safe for weak stomachs)
A friend and I were driving down the highway last night and hit a skunk. I saw it waddling its little body across the road as we approached and was really really hoping it would stop or turn around or SOMETHING, but unfortunately it didn’t, and we felt it go under the back right tire (I know, how horrible, poor thing! I feel awful about it). Now here is the mystery: about 7-10 seconds AFTER I hit the skunk, we started to smell it. Like REALLY smell it. And it wasn’t just in my head; the smell hit both my friend and I at the same time. Keep in mind we were going at highway speed – about 100 km/h or 65 mph. So we were really far away from the poor skunk by the time we smelled it. So we’re both trying to understand what happened. Did I somehow crush its scent glands and spray…skunk juice onto my car? Did it maybe spray the car in the split second before I ran over it? But then why would we only smell it 10 seconds later? The smell is still there this morning, and it’s pretty strong. For awhile while we were driving, we thought maybe it had somehow gotten stuck onto my car (that was a terrible thought) but when we got to our destination and checked, there were no physical signs of skunk anywhere on my car. Can anyone help figure this out?
Yes, this is the same car that got sprayed with paint last week. This car is not having a good month. Is someone trying to tell me something?
A friend and I were driving down the highway last night and hit a skunk. I saw it waddling its little body across the road as we approached and was really really hoping it would stop or turn around or SOMETHING, but unfortunately it didn’t, and we felt it go under the back right tire (I know, how horrible, poor thing! I feel awful about it). Now here is the mystery: about 7-10 seconds AFTER I hit the skunk, we started to smell it. Like REALLY smell it. And it wasn’t just in my head; the smell hit both my friend and I at the same time. Keep in mind we were going at highway speed – about 100 km/h or 65 mph. So we were really far away from the poor skunk by the time we smelled it. So we’re both trying to understand what happened. Did I somehow crush its scent glands and spray…skunk juice onto my car? Did it maybe spray the car in the split second before I ran over it? But then why would we only smell it 10 seconds later? The smell is still there this morning, and it’s pretty strong. For awhile while we were driving, we thought maybe it had somehow gotten stuck onto my car (that was a terrible thought) but when we got to our destination and checked, there were no physical signs of skunk anywhere on my car. Can anyone help figure this out?
Yes, this is the same car that got sprayed with paint last week. This car is not having a good month. Is someone trying to tell me something?
Best answer: 7-10 seconds is the time the smell needs to get sucked into your AC and/or vents and distributed inside the car.
And if you mean 'pretty strong' as anything you can stand at all, I guess you're experiencing just the skunk's natural perfume, not it's emergency concentrate.
posted by Namlit at 7:32 AM on September 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
And if you mean 'pretty strong' as anything you can stand at all, I guess you're experiencing just the skunk's natural perfume, not it's emergency concentrate.
posted by Namlit at 7:32 AM on September 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
You squashed a skunk and skunk juice got splattered onto the car. It merely took a few seconds for the odor to penetrate into the cabin of the car. It's pretty pernicious.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:33 AM on September 16, 2010
posted by Thorzdad at 7:33 AM on September 16, 2010
The skunk treated the car as an attacking animal and sprayed just before you got to it, and then what Namlit said happened. Your air con or air vent intakes are usually up front, so it's unlikely the smell is anything to do with running the skunk over. Same thing would have happened if it went cleanly between the wheels.
posted by Ahab at 8:08 AM on September 16, 2010
posted by Ahab at 8:08 AM on September 16, 2010
Imagine instead that you drove through a line of smoke from a farmer burning leaves at the side of the road. Would you smell the smoke immediately?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:23 AM on September 16, 2010
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:23 AM on September 16, 2010
Best answer: It's pretty pernicious.
It's detectable by the human nose in quantities as small as 10 parts per billion; it doesn't take much at all for people to smell it, and it can be noticed from a long way off.
posted by quin at 8:50 AM on September 16, 2010
It's detectable by the human nose in quantities as small as 10 parts per billion; it doesn't take much at all for people to smell it, and it can be noticed from a long way off.
posted by quin at 8:50 AM on September 16, 2010
Good luck finding enough tomato juice to wash your car. What does get rid of that smell once it's inside your ventilation ducts & A/C?
posted by wenestvedt at 8:58 AM on September 16, 2010
posted by wenestvedt at 8:58 AM on September 16, 2010
Best answer: When a skunk sprays, the smell can be detected up to a mile away--though of course much fainter. At the site, it is almost unbearable. I think two things happened; first, as others have said, there's a delay between the outside air getting into the car's cabin. The second phenomenon is one I have learned the hard way. The fully concentrated, right on the spot skunk spray is so strong it overrides the normal senses of smell for what seems like 4-5 seconds, but is probably like 1/2 a second or so. Then an overwhelming strong garlic+onion+mustard stink that will knock you back.
We live on the edge of a woods, and north of us has been a lot of new development, causing many skunk families to relocate. We have multifamily housing right here, which means Dumpsters, which means an never-ending supply of food for skunks and raccoons & opossum. The first time our dog got sprayed here, I saw it happening in slow motion and could do nothing about it--she was, after all, a badger hound and skunks are pretty damn good badgers. It sprayed, she yelped & came running for the house. I could sort of smell the faint odor, and then as I was letting her in the house, thinking--well this shouldn't be too bad--and after the 7 second countdown you experienced--BLAM, full force, with every exposed orifice burning & nose refusing to believe the inputs. Sensory overload.
If your car or your clothes have lingering eau de skonque, I recommend Nature's Miracle or Skunk Away (I think they are by the same company). We tried all of the home remedies from tomato juice (HA! Bloody Skunkies for everyone!) to peroxide mixed with baking soda: a nice dye job for the dog, but only moderate skunk relief. The enzyme based products seem to be well developed as neutralizers of the skunk oils. That's the only thing we keep around for the once-every-other-year encounter.
posted by beelzbubba at 9:10 AM on September 16, 2010
We live on the edge of a woods, and north of us has been a lot of new development, causing many skunk families to relocate. We have multifamily housing right here, which means Dumpsters, which means an never-ending supply of food for skunks and raccoons & opossum. The first time our dog got sprayed here, I saw it happening in slow motion and could do nothing about it--she was, after all, a badger hound and skunks are pretty damn good badgers. It sprayed, she yelped & came running for the house. I could sort of smell the faint odor, and then as I was letting her in the house, thinking--well this shouldn't be too bad--and after the 7 second countdown you experienced--BLAM, full force, with every exposed orifice burning & nose refusing to believe the inputs. Sensory overload.
If your car or your clothes have lingering eau de skonque, I recommend Nature's Miracle or Skunk Away (I think they are by the same company). We tried all of the home remedies from tomato juice (HA! Bloody Skunkies for everyone!) to peroxide mixed with baking soda: a nice dye job for the dog, but only moderate skunk relief. The enzyme based products seem to be well developed as neutralizers of the skunk oils. That's the only thing we keep around for the once-every-other-year encounter.
posted by beelzbubba at 9:10 AM on September 16, 2010
Best answer: My dad once hit a skunk and the same thing happened (poor skunk). The car smelled strongly of skunk for weeks afterwards and vaguely of skung for months afterwards. It was terrible. Nothing we tried got rid of the odor. This was about 20 years ago, so maybe better products to eliminate the odor exist.
I recommend taking the car to a professional cleaning place and see what they have to offer. Unfortunately, I don't think the smell is going to dissipate any time soon. You might want to ask your car insurance agent if your plan covers the removal of odors.
posted by parakeetdog at 10:05 AM on September 16, 2010
I recommend taking the car to a professional cleaning place and see what they have to offer. Unfortunately, I don't think the smell is going to dissipate any time soon. You might want to ask your car insurance agent if your plan covers the removal of odors.
posted by parakeetdog at 10:05 AM on September 16, 2010
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posted by iconomy at 7:26 AM on September 16, 2010