Eli5 Why is skunk spray so potent and stay in one area for so long?
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The skunk’s spray is a thiol, an organic compound in which sulfur is one of the main components. Sulfur has a rotten egg scent that is distained by most, making a skunk’s spray extremely pungent. The scent is so strong it can be smelled up to half a mile away and can linger for days to weeks.
Skunk spray is an organic compound with sulfur as the principal component. That’s what makes it so pungent. It has a huge range, so it all has to breakdown or be removed to get rid of the smell.
It’s the thiol(s) that stink. But there are 2-3 compounds in the spray- and the non-stinky ones break down to the stinky ones with water.
To clean, use hydrogen peroxide to break down the thiols, soap to break down the oils, and water.
Gotta say, I like general skunk smell, maybe a nostalgic thing, but damn the spray up close is rough. Like rotten onions. My dog killed one on our back porch once. Somehow he didn’t get a drop on him but the whole porch was coated. Took a lot of scrubbing with skunk out and even then weeks for it to leave.
Because it’s evolved to do just that. It’s made to make other animals stay away, and does that quite well.
Your nose is fine tuned for smelling sulfur because sulfur can be a sign of toxicity. Sulfur is what mainly makes the skunk smell, so smelly. The sulfur in skunk spray is specially made to stick to things it touches and is mixed with the oily spray which doesn’t wash away well. That means that not only are you able to smell only a little, when there is a lot it is overwhelming and is about to hang out a lot longer.
Fun fact, baking soda, dish soap, and most importantly hydrogen peroxide mixed together work well to actually wash it away.
The peroxide makes the sulfur less sticky, the dish soap washes away the oily stuff, and the baking soda helps keep the peroxide from being to acidic.
I used this mix on my doggo who got sprayed and it worked better than just shampoo. I also powdered the house with baking soda to soak up the sent like I do for the fridge and that helped. It’s still gonna smell but it helps, a lot.
I grew up in Northeast America smelling skunks every gd night. I moved to FL and my kids were amazed to see a skunk at the zoo. They thought it was amazing when I explained how I had to wash my dog numerous times due to chasing skunks. Where I lived, they even had something called “skunk cabbage” (not sure on the actual plant name). If you stepped on it, and broke it apart, it smelled just like a skunk.
And what no one has mentioned here is how the ‘smell goes away after 5 minutes’. Only it doesn’t! Our dog got sprayed. While my wife tried cleaning him, the smell got better, and I then went off to the supermarket to get baking soda. When I came back, the smell in the house was overpowering again. It turns out that your olfactory bulbs get overwhelmed and you start to lose your sense of smell temporarily. Getting away from it allows them to recover. That means, you may think it’s not too bad, but everyone else knows it’s bad!
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