Skunking Incident – Coffee To the Rescue

Jennifer Quasha endured a “skunking” incident this week and was able to maintain her sense of humor long enough to write up the incident for Fox News. She paints a hilarious picture of the aftermath and the attempt to restore her bedroom to a stink-free zone so that she and her husband could get some sleep. In the process she discovered yet another use for coffee grounds. It seems the skunk had been scouting out the area under the open bedroom window when it was startled and inspired to express its natural startle reflex. She and her husband scrambled to close the window but it was too late. An internet search informed her that to remove the smell, one should put Vapo-rub in the nostrils to mask the smell while de-stinking; place coffee grounds in a shallow dish near the stinky area and put apple cider vinegar in a shallow dish in the area as well. She added the additional lighting of candles in the area, since that had been helpful for other smells. Amazingly, by morning the stink was gone. Now Quasha keeps an emergency de-skunking kit of coffee grounds, Vapo-rub, apple cider vinegar and candles on hand at all times. She felt it was a miracle that she happened to have all those items in the house. The one item that she deliberated over was the coffee. It seems she had the used coffee grounds from that night’s use plus expensive espresso beans. She figured in this case, the sacrifice was worth it and opted to use the more expensive beans instead of cutting corners with the used grounds. We’ve learned to put used grounds in our compost, our garden, to clean the fireplace and other uses. Now we know yet another use for coffee grounds. A Google search found other techniques to remove the smell, but the coffee ground techniques mentioned seemed to assume unused coffee grounds are the grounds of choice. The great smell masks the skunk odor well, especially when combined with the vinegar smell. And candles were recommended by several other helpful sites. Remember, this remedy is just for removing the stink from a room in which the smell entered by a window or a door. This won’t work if the actual spray contacted the rug or furniture etc. If that happens, a combination of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish detergent may do the trick. If you live in an area frequented by skunks, it’s important to skunk-proof your yard. Be sure to tightly close all garbage cans – open garbage is a skunk attraction - and keep grasses and weeds trimmed so that your yard will not look attractive as a nesting area. Once you are skunk-proofed, enjoy your coffee grounds after brewing them, and sleep well. Tip: The de-stinking works by the strong coffee smell, so for some strongly aromatic suggestions, see below.