I’ll keep it short – I can’t smell skunk. In my entire life I have never had the privilege of smelling that pungent aroma. I had another opportunity tonight, but alas, even several deep breaths didn’t work. My question for you all is obvious: Why can’t I smell skunk odor? My nose seems to work with every other stench. The only possible related feature I can think of is that I seem to be a little hypersensitive to bitter tastes. But that’s it. Any ideas?
Do you drink a lot of tomato juice? It is used to get rid of the smell.
Nope, I’ve never touched the stuff. Good thought, though…
There is a rare and harmless condition, a sort of olfactory color-blindness, that prevents some people from smelling skunk. Or rather, they can smell skunk, just not in the same way that other people do. To me, the skunk odor is a not unpleasant sharp lemony smell. For years I thought I could not smell skunk at all because I didn’t smell anything bad while everyone else was gagging, but after reading an article on this subject in National Wildlife I realized I was just special. 
I have the same problem, with everything. I can detect an odor, but cannot distinguish it. Everything, good or bad, smells the same to me. I can taste the air, but it is bad form to walk around the mall flicking out the tongue like a snake. Plus I’m just begging for a sexual harassment suit. It’s a blessing and a curse.
They don’t have that scent continuously, do they?
I remember the old Warner Brothers cartoons with the amorous French skunk Pepe le Pew. To hear the way the story is told by the cartoons’ writers, one would think that skunks always smell like that. I have rarely seen a skunk in my life–once was on a winding section of Palos Verdes Drive East, near 25th Street in San Pedro, when I waited for a skunk to amble off the roadway. I think they only smell bad (worse than other wild animals) when they actively eject their scent. (In November 1966, a skunk got under the band building at Redondo High in Redondo Beach, CA; it died. We had an exchange student from India that year, and the band teacher followed his suggestion to burn incense sticks in the band room to dispel the smell of the dead skunk.)
Somepig, to never have the pleasure of experiencing the odoriferous cadenza that a skunk can unleash is truly a shame. I believe that a maximum dose is beyond a mere mortal’s capability to actually smell. You do not smell, you are immursed!
I can distinguish a skunk smell very easily. Thing is, it doesn’t smell bad to me. Yes, any smell that is overpowering is bad because it chokes you, but in moderate doses I almost like the way it smells. I’m guessing it’s like taste, some people think saccarin tastes bitter, while it just tastes sweet to others?
somepig
How close have you been to one that has sprayed???
Did you know the cloud is yellow?
Now thats close.
I kinda like the smell if it is at a considerable distance.
Up close you’ll have a different understanding of the word pungent.
I dunno about somepig, but I was sprayed in the face by a skunk at a range of 4 feet. Couldn’t really smell anything out of the ordinary, but I can tell you this… I know what skunk piss tastes like (not good) and it will burn the hell outta your eyes.
driving to work in vallejo I’d see the poor things along side the road pancaked. diluted,they didn’t smell bad at all to me either,smelled good actually. but I imagine if I got sprayed it would be a different story entirely…
IIRC, no they don’t. The chemical responsible for the scent is released on;y for self-defense.
somepig I would have swapped residences with you back in August. My apartment was sprayed by a wayward skunk and my place stunk beyond belief for two days.
You would have enjoyed it. I fled and bought about four bottles of skunk odor remover in an attempt to combat the smell.
Unfortunately, even if you couldn’t detect the smell yourself, you still would have been a social pariah because the odor attached itself to my body for a couple of days before it wore off.
I wasn’t popular with my friends.
I normally find the smell somewhat pleasant when it is merely a spray in the vicinity. However, I once accidentally ran a skunk over during fall, with my heater going, and wow I can say that that experience was not pleasant. My eyes were watering something terrible it smelled so… strong. But still, even at that, it wasn’t so bad of a smell as merely… strong.
Know how sometimes, when you’ve been around a smell for a while, you don’t notice it?
Do people avoid you in closed spaces?
(I am kidding you, FTR)