This homemade skunk smell remover is an easy recipe to make to remove skunk odor and it really works! It uses common ingredients all of us have on hand!
Homemade Skunk Smell Remover…that REALLY works!!!!
When I say we have included almost every kind of recipe in the Dining on a Dime Cookbook, I’m not joking! We’ve even included a really good and easy homemade skunk smell remover recipe, which actually works. It’s amazing how easily dogs get into mischief and get sprayed by a skunk. Maybe someone in your family stumbled across a skunk and now you want to remove the skunk odor. This recipe will definitely do the trick!
I thought with summer here and with many of us spending more and more time outside some of you might end up needing a good skunk smell remover! It might even be wise to take the ingredients with you on your picnics or camping trips, although these are basic ingredients and you may have them with you anyway.
My neighbor has a cabin by a lake and had to use this recipe about four times last year alone when a skunk made a nest under her porch. Each time she uses this homemade skunk smell remover she gets excited and calls me to let me know how great it worked once again. We hear people say over and over again how great this recipe and that it REALLY works!
Just for the record, things like tomato juice, vinegar, spraying with lemon, citrus, perfume or Febreze almost never work as skunk smell removers. If you don’t want to use the peroxide recipe you can soak down the person or animal with vinegar and dishsoap but this doesn’t work nearly as well as the skunk odor remover and honestly who wants to smell that skunk stink for days on end!
Skunk Smell Remover Recipe
1 quart hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp. dish detergent
Sponge on and let dry. Safe for use on cats and dogs. If you need to double or triple this recipe you can easily do it. Do not use on clothes.
Grizzly Bear Mom says
June 1, 2011 at 8:05 amThanks for this! Our Irish Settle Ginger got sprayed and everytime one of us came home that day we gave her a bath. Poor der got 4 baths that day and still stank! Regular baths don’t remove skunk. You need something with acid like tomato juice or this recipe.
Debbie says
June 1, 2011 at 10:52 amWe used this on our dog 2 summers ago (at lease 3 times). It really works great!!! Nothing else we used work as good as this recipe does. Always keep the stuff on hand.
Tricia Kolsto says
June 9, 2011 at 12:21 pmThank you so much. Our dogs found a skunk a couple of months of go and the vet was sold out of skunk smell remover so we ended up having to take them to a groomers (200.00 later) 🙁 Here is hoping we don’t have to use it!!
Peri says
June 10, 2011 at 11:30 amI have used this a number of times on my feisty little yorkie. Works like a charm! However, make sure you do not get it in their eyes…..it works by a chemical reaction of the ingredients and will severly burn their eyes. “Quincy” was left with a faint smell on his face, but other than that it totally removed the smell………..he even slept with me that night because it removed it so well.
Peggy says
June 13, 2011 at 11:42 amDoes it remove other odors? Such as puppy pee pee?
Tawra says
June 13, 2011 at 1:40 pmI’m not sure.
crystal says
July 27, 2013 at 5:57 pmyes it does work to get rid of puppy pee pee. my used it to get rid of dog urine, coffee stain, juice stain, soda stain and many other stains on her white carpet. just saturate the stain and let it dry. then vaccume the area where you put it.
Cathy P says
April 16, 2012 at 9:48 amThis recipe works great! We had to use it on our German Shepherd a couple of summers ago. She also got in to our breezeway area after being sprayed by the skunk and the smell was horrible. Used this recipe to wash down the walls and the smell was gone! Hope we never have to use it again but at least we know what to do now! 🙂
Melinda says
April 16, 2012 at 10:04 amYes. It does work VERY well. Our dog loves to track animals, especially skunks!! We have used this “recipe” many many times. There usually still is a faint skunky smell but nothing like before we treat him. Also, I have found that Dawn dish soap works the best!
Jeanne T. says
April 2, 2013 at 3:54 pmYes, Dawn is the best. Whenever there are oil spills, it’s what is used to remove the oil. Skunk spray is oily, which is why it is so hard to get rid of the smell.
Ginny says
April 16, 2012 at 11:55 amWished I would have had this recipes years ago. We had a golden retriever who loved his skunks. Unfortunely, they didn’t love him. No matter how much we paid for remover…he still smelled everytime he got wet. If any of you have had a retriever you know that was often ! Thank you so much for this information.
Chris says
April 16, 2012 at 4:39 pmI was told once by a friend to brew coffee and wash the dog in that after it cooled. When one of my dogs did get into a skunk, we did that and it did help. It also helps get rid of the smell in the air and on the furniture when the dog rushes in and wipes their face on the couch to get the smell off of them. Experience.
Joyce says
April 2, 2013 at 11:19 amWe were camped at Ft. Davis, in West Texas.
I fed our dog and went in to put on the coffee, so we could sit out and watch the stars in the clear sky…away from lights.
I heard a commotion….utho..
She had not eaten quite all of her food, and a skunk came up…trying to finish it..She chased it…and ..yep, got sprayed.
My husband poured a liter of coke over her, rubbed it in… Then, rinsed her with water and toweled dried her. He covered her, and put her in the camper for the night.
She did not smell, except when she exhaled, for several weeks…Poor dog…
Jeanne T. says
April 2, 2013 at 3:49 pmWhen our dog got sprayed he continued to chase after the skunk. It was early in the morning, about 6am, so it was still dark, but I could hear our dog rustling in the leaves and “snorting” (I think he got sprayed in the face). He was SO stubborn and would not come back at first. Then he realized he was being bad; I probably woke up the whole neighborhood screaming at him. LOL!
Marcia says
April 2, 2013 at 12:18 pmOur dear departed dog Sadie got sprayed by a skunk a few years ago and it was not a good experience for either her or us! Now we have Mia and since it is spring we need to be prepared just in case. We found that Dawn dishwashing detergent works the best out of any other dishwashing liquid and hydrogen peroxide and baking soda worked well in tandem with them. Keep them on hand but separately don’t mix this up ahead of time!
Jeanne T. says
April 2, 2013 at 3:47 pmMarcia,
I also use Dawn dish detergent, specifically, because it is what is used to clean birds and animals in an oil spill. Also, our our vet recommended it as well. If you have dogs these three ingredients should be readily handy!
Our dog had an encounter with a skunk early one morning late last summer; I ended up having to stay home from work because I wouldn’t let him in the house. I cleaned him several times and had to go to the grocery store to get more hydrogen peroxide. I probably didn’t need to clean him so many times, but I just wanted to be sure.
Magdalen says
April 3, 2013 at 5:56 amI’m so glad we don’t have these creatures in England. 🙂
Jill says
April 3, 2013 at 8:58 amYou learn something new every day. I didn’t know you didn’t have skunks in England. Boy I bet our first colonists had the shock of their lives when they ran into one when they first landed here. 🙂
crystal says
July 27, 2013 at 5:49 pmthis recipe also works really well on stains. my mom sprayed a generouse amount on a stain on her carpet from coffee and dog urine and it lifted the stain almost emediately.
TMK says
July 22, 2014 at 4:00 pmA couple of months ago I moved to a more rural area here in SoCal. Our back yard is frequented by possums, and by skunks. My big German Shepherd dog takes exception to their incursions and makes it a point to tell them so. The possums wisely make for the nearest fence when the door to the back yard is opened after dark. The skunks, of course, fire a salvo at my dog before waddling away. The big problem is they may have a den under the shed in the lower half of the back yard; at any rate, skunks are regular visitors to this neighborhood and the local pet groomers make a decent living off of the owners of skunked dogs. Last night my dog had, yet another, close encounter of the stinky kind, so today I Googled for “homemade skunk odor remover” and I found your recipe. I only had a pint of hydrogen peroxide on hand, so I made up 1/2 the recipe, which was plenty because the skunk spray generally gets my dug more strongly around the face, top of his head and neck, and the top of his back only gets misted with “Parfum Puant.” Even before I finished sponging the concoction onto my dogs face and top of his head, the odor began to dissipate! I just checked him to see how if his fur has dried and, aside from missing the inside of one ear, this recipe effectively negated the skunk spray. I am not easily impressed, but this recipe impresses me! So grateful you shared it and I’m going to pass it along to my friends and family. Thank you!!
Jill says
July 22, 2014 at 5:53 pmSo glad it worked for you. So many are shocked that it works because they have tried so many things that haven’t. This is one homemade recipe that actually works – thank goodness. : )
Christina HAMMOND says
September 30, 2017 at 10:13 amCan anyone make recommendations for how to rid the grass of the skunk spray? Every time we let Broc out it smells as though he goes right back to that spot and rolls in it. We’ve had a couple days of hard rain and still!!!!! ANYTHING WOULD BE APPRECIATED
Jill says
September 30, 2017 at 3:01 pmYou could try maybe making this skunk smell remover and spraying it on the grass. Be sure to do it at a time when it wasn’t going to rain for at least a day. I know this stuff works really good on dogs and clothing so it might work for grass.
TMK says
July 22, 2014 at 4:13 pmP.S. I forgot to ask, what do you do once the skunk odor removing solution is dry? Should it be rinsed off with water, should the dog be shampooed, or should the dry residue be vacuumed from the dog’s fur? Please advise what the follow-up should be – it would be very helpful to have this information! Thanks again!
Jill says
July 23, 2014 at 11:42 amNo you don’t rinse it off or any thing. Usually they run around rubbing on the ground like the do sometimes when they are wet so I can’t help but think that helps with getting rid of the smell and all too so don’t rinse. Don’t need to vacuum either.
Alea erickson says
March 22, 2019 at 10:43 amSo cats have to be washed afterwards to take off the solution.
Jill says
March 22, 2019 at 2:23 pmYes it is best to wash them afterwards.
Jen says
September 14, 2014 at 5:48 pmThis mixture totally worked. BUT I sponged it on my black dog and let it dry on a sunny day…and it changed the color of her fur!!!! Yikes! 🙂
The smell is gone AND she has new highlights. Win win.
Jill says
September 15, 2014 at 7:02 amThat makes sense Jen that it would do that. I don’t know if it still is but hair color use to be used to be made with peroxide or girls would put that and other stuff on their hair and go sit in the sun to get highlights in their hair. My granddaughter has been doing this on her hair all summer long this year to get highlights.
If you don’t want them to have highlights don’t leave them in the sun for too long and rinse them off as soon as they dry. I like Jen wouldn’t worry too much about it.
New England Flybaby says
April 22, 2015 at 12:18 pmI love your website, “Living on a Dime”. It is wonderful!! This skunk remedy works brilliantly. Please credit the inventor of the skunk remedy. His name is Paul Krebaum, a chemist from Illinois, who first published the remedy in 1993. If you want to read the story of how he invented it, go to home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/ It is such a wonderful solution for that horrendous smell, that I think he deserves to be credited. Thanks so much.
Jill says
April 24, 2015 at 7:46 amWe always try to give credit for recipes when we can but with so much flying around the internet now it is almost impossible to always do that. I don’t know how many recipes and things I have read that people take credit for something and I know that that recipe had been around before they were even born or I will get a book out from the early 1900’s and find the same recipe in there. We could spend weeks just researching a recipe and then probably wouldn’t be sure about it. Thank goodness there are no copy right laws for recipes because they too know it would be impossible to give credit to the right person.
So if we know proof positive someone did something we will give credit but otherwise it really is very hard to do because you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Wilma Newton says
February 18, 2016 at 8:26 pmMy husband walks our standard poodle every night, this night, he ran in the door yelling Lolly just got sprayed by a skunk! She was shaking, tearing, and foaming at the mouth. We called our vet. they told us the recipie. I got her in the shower and repeated shampooed her many times. It got the oil out but not the smell out. Got her to the groomer the next day they used something else. Because she is black the peroxide bleached her fur. It took a few months to grow out. At night we were so happy to have this recipie!
Sheila B says
April 3, 2016 at 3:07 pmIf you get skunk spray on your clothes, just put the quart of hydrogen peroxide and a box of baking soda in your washer with regular detergent, fill it with water and wash clothes. Works well. My husband caught a skunk in a live trap, that was meant to catch a groundhog! Anyway, he shot the skunk (not smart, because they immediately release their spray), approached the trapped skunk with a tarp. He draped the tarp over the trap, picked it up by the handle on top, and walked it over to the middle of a vacant field across from us and dumped it. The odor clung to his clothes, even though he didn’t get sprayed. So he stripped in the garage and hosed himself down. I washed his clothes and they came out odor free. Although the odor stayed in the air outside for another day or two. YUK!
SO says
August 25, 2016 at 8:15 pmWhile no one likes the smell of the skunks spray they are quite beneficial to the environment. I help feed a feral cat community and the skins love to finish what the cats may have left for later. I researched what skunks eat – hoping to lure them away from my back yard area, and found they eat a lot of things we don’t want in our backyards. Things like voles and little mic and ants and spiders. They are quite docile if you stay calm and don’t frighten them.
However, that being said, I am quite glad to have this smell remover recipe. As fogs will be dogs and will chase anything they can there will always be the need for this recipe.
Thank you for this and for all those who’ve shared their takes on this and for the laundry.
SO says
August 25, 2016 at 8:29 pmafter ‘feral community’ it should be ‘skunks’ not ‘skins’
julysurvivor 1855 says
October 1, 2016 at 9:39 pmmy daughter-in-law said she tried this recipe with her German shepherd/labrador mixed and it never worked she bought some enzyme stuff will have to check the name I have a feeling she did not follow recipe exactly because she’s a bit indifferent to people’s opinion plus with everyone here saying it worked i have to take exception to her sole comment
Jill says
October 2, 2016 at 4:49 pmShe may not have done something quite right because this is one recipe that everyone has tried and have so excited because it really worked and in some cases they used it more than once.
helen smith says
November 15, 2016 at 3:59 ama skunk sprayed under our home last night do pour this recipe all over the ground we can hardly stand it. thanks
Jill says
November 15, 2016 at 9:27 amI don’t know why you couldn’t Helen. I think it would be worth a try and since it works so good on dogs I would think it would neutralize the smell on anything
Myra Brown says
July 6, 2018 at 7:46 amHow do i apply this mixture, and will it harm my plants around the area?
Jill says
July 6, 2018 at 1:47 pmMyra this is not really to put on your plants but you just rub it on your pet if they get sprayed by a skunk. Just rub it on with your hands or you could use rubber gloves it you think you need to.
Thomas Curtis III says
August 15, 2018 at 10:26 pmHello, Ur skunk smell remover is something that I really don’t want to ever have to use. My problem is what can I use to be proactive. I want and need something to deter them all together. And yes I will be using Ur knowledge that U’ve already obtained. Thank U
Jill says
August 16, 2018 at 9:19 amThat I am not sure of Thomas. I think you can use things like rags soaked in ammonia, sonic sound things and you need to make sure there are no openings around your house for them to crawl under porches and things like that. You may just have to google it because I really don’t know for sure.
liz anderson says
August 23, 2018 at 9:23 pmYou can toss mothballs into the areas the skunks like. I also think you could try planting mont around those areas as most rodents hate smell of peppermint. Worth a try and is non-toxic.
Edward Leslie says
September 10, 2018 at 7:26 amAmber 4 am on 9-10-18 got sprayed this morning and i live in Etna ca. these skunks are powerful and really stenched, i used tomato sauce negitive … use your methode its helps but still smells
Jill says
September 10, 2018 at 10:10 amYou may have to do it 2-3 times if it is really really bad
Gazebosteve says
September 19, 2018 at 4:23 amFrom a professional carpet cleaner I would always recommend testing any kind of products homemade or store-bought no matter what fabric in an inconspicuous area as hydrogen peroxide has the ability to brighten and whiten. I think that if you get this mixture onto you can possibly bleach fur. I have a brindle dog and it really helped get the smell out but I gave her a bath and I rinsed it off.
Caitlyn says
October 27, 2018 at 4:48 pmIt really does work, my Rottweiler got sprayed by a skunk and she had a litter of puppies, she couldn’t leave them so I used this recipe. love it , putting it in my book😀
IKE P says
February 21, 2019 at 8:23 pmwe just bought a vacation home up in the mountains, we noticed that there was a strong flowery pungent smell in the house, come to find out the people who were watching over the place were masking the smell with airwick smellers plugged into the wall outlet, once I removed the airwick oder masker the smell of SKUNK came thru. Found out that a skunk had gotten under the house and made his way into the Heater air vent duct. I had a professional HVAC contractor come in and clean the air vent ducts and had a professional carpet cleaner come in and cleaned and deoderized the rungs but the smell is still prevelent. Patched the hole where he got under the house and the air duct vent BUT the smell is still prevelant. HELP!! spent over 800.00 already. trying to get rid of the smell.
Jill says
February 22, 2019 at 9:16 amThe only thing I can think of is to mix up some of this skunk remover and spray it and wipe it on any of the surfaces you can and see if that helps. Now skunk smell should eventually go away on it’s own after about 3 wks – maybe a month. It the smell doesn’t go away it may be something else.
Julie says
April 4, 2019 at 8:15 amWould this work on cat pee smell too?!
Jill says
April 4, 2019 at 8:53 amI am not sure it would Julie but it isn’t that hard to mix up so you might try it. Just do a test spot though because peroxide can ever so slightly bleach the color out of some things.