What does it smell like?
Rotten eggs?
It’s really more of a thick, musky smell. More like a huge rotten egg fart interacting with Liz Taylor’s perfume than rotten eggs themselves.
Have you ever smelled bile? If you can imagine the smell of rotten fruit mixed with the raw sewage aftertaste of a port-a-potty on a musty Alabama afternoon that’s pretty close.
Yum.
Never?! :eek:
It’s actually not as foul-smelling as most would have you believe, but words cannot describe it. From my experience, it is identifiable as uniquely skunk. Nothing else even close. But it’s not a sickening smell like rotten eggs or putrid meat. Granted, I wouldn’t want my apartment smelling like a skunk or to have to smell it for an extended period, but I can’t think of any way to describe it or something to compare it to … maybe industrial chemicals or something.
Nope, never.
Well, while the smell of a skunk is unique, its aroma is approximated in a few other media, such as the musk of other animals, skunk cabbage, certain herbs…
I have never smelled a skunk before…
But my heart is very sure
No one else could smell it more.
Sorry, it popped into my head as soon as I saw the thread
What is that? A country song?
“To all the girls I’ve loved before” maybe?
It’s not that bad, it’s just very strong. My grandmother actually loves the smell - she says it clears her sinuses.
My grandmother’s kind of weird, though.
Have you ever smelt a nice tasty bud from Northern California, it’s pretty close to that.
Yeah.
Tasty buds, dude.
ruadh I have friends that say the same thing.
It may be that the muskiness isn’t “awful” as much as it’s “overpowering.”
I’ve always thought it smelled similar to a “garlic fart” with a bit of vinegar.
… or a warm Heineken …
A skunk off to the side of the road is one thing. It doesn’t smell all that bad. A dead skunk in the road is a lot worse. You don’t really want to be near it. Your dog getting skunked, freaking out and jumping into your bed…you could never imagine that a smell could be that bad. Trust me.
Haj
It IS very musky but unpleasant, with a sharp note, and pretty persistent. The closest thing I can think of on the unpleasantness scale would be a full cat litterbox. While it may be yucky but tolerable at a distance, let me tell you that up close (or at high concentrations) the smell can be nauseating.
My neighbor’s dog once had a close encounter with a skunk. Now, when the skunk sprays, the target should be offended/irritated enough to run away… but in this case, the dog just got infuriated, grabbed the skunk by the back of the neck, and proceeded to shake vigorously. My neighbor said that when she ran out to try to break things up, the yard appeared to be foggy with skunk spray (ugh!). I don’t know WHAT possessed her, but in an effort to keep the dog out of further trouble she brought it INTO the house, where the scent permeated everything. The next day, one of her kids got sent home from school for stinking so much, and her husband’s colleagues kept asking if something had died in the closet where he’d hung up his jacket.
The dog got a thorough bath, but for days afterward whenever she barked you could smell skunk…
Oh, I should add that the litterbox-skunk comparison only applies to more remote sources of skunk smell. Up close, there really is no comparison.
Up close, it’s horrible, but catching a brief, distant whiff of it (like when you’re tooling down the road and think, “hmm, someone hit a skunk”) – I kind of like it.
I dont mind smelling it, but I wouldnt want to wear it.
I cant really describe the smell. Ozone,sulfer and ass. yeah, thats about it.
One word of advice, Dont shoot a skunk in the brain when its buisness end is pointed at your garden.
Skunky tomatoes dont taste good either.
Keep your pets away from Skunks out in the daylight. Chances are its rabid. Thats why the above skunk was shot, that and it was walking like it was drunk, and drooling all over.
I’ve always thought the smell was close to an extremely pungent version of burning rubber.
When I lived in Connecticut, someone ran a skunk over right by my front door. Even when the roadkill was removed, the smell was still there for about 5 days. It smells like tomcat piss x 10, in my opinion.