Neighbours and giving their kids food outside!

[KrazE]

I'm really getting sick & tired of 3 neighbours around us that give their kids food to eat outside - I'm not just talking about a snack here & there, I'm talking about letting them eat actual lunch or supper outside... the problem is that if they don't like it, or they are full, they throw the food on the ground, under their cement steps, or in the pathway behind the houses which attracts skunks.

It's actually bad enough that we now have a few skunks that wander in front & back of the houses & under front steps looking for food every single night. I have to constantly check for skunks when I go outside my house because the neighbours I'm talking about are the two directly beside me (well one right beside, and one beside her) and the one across the street. We live in condo townhomes, so there isn't a big distance between neighbours.

Last night pepe le pew was digging all over and damaged places in my backyard that I have been working hard at getting nice grass growing after planting new from seed at the start of the season, and it knocked over my stone bird bath as well, but thankfully it didn't break.

The condo corp will not do full fencing, so there is fencing on the side facing the street, and wooden storage sheds between each backyard for storage, plus the wooden gate, but the rest of it is all bushes which are not in the greatest condition (they are responsible for all the maintenance of the bushes) as they don't have the landscaping companies come out to do very much at all.

I put a line of chicken wire along the most exposed section, so there is just one small section not covered, but I shouldn't have to spend money on ways to keep skunks out of the backyard if neighbours would feed their kids meals INSIDE THE HOUSE.

The ages of the kids are from 7 to 13, so it's not like they are quite young and "don't know any better".

I really hate useless neighbours.

[erin9mmm]

I would be annoyed too. We live on the outskirts of a small village and being so close to the woods and a river I never understood why people would put their garbage out early - it's just an invitation to a buffet!

I read that ammonia will keep them away (soak rags in it) - or get you husband or another equipped male to go out at night and mark the territory around your house. Maybe the skunks will then head to the neighbours who are causing the problem in the first place!

[Minou]

Throw some mothballs wrapped in pieces of nylon pantyhose under the steps to keep the skunk from taking up residence. Is the condo board also responsible for renting a skunk trap?

Maybe you could talk to the parents and mention what you've noticed. I doubt they'll be impressed that their kids are dumping their suppers everywhere and attracting skunks.

[KrazE]

They usually ARE at the neighbours that cause problems, the biggest issue is that the worst one lives right beside us, which means her front step is mere feet from ours, and her backyard is connected to ours

Last night was the first time our backyard has been damaged since I put up the chicken wire, but I guess I'll need to do something about every possible entry.

The small creatures know how to get to their food (bird feeders up high) and for the squirrels & chipmunks, they know that their food is up on top of the storage shed we added to the backyard, so they can climb up fine - the skunks can't manage it, but it can get access from the neighbour's yard as I haven't done that side, though in hindsight I should have after looking into her backyard from one of our back windows - what a pigsty.

I've been working on the backyard a lot this year so we have a nice place to go to enjoy the weather & the invited wildlife like these guys:








BTW - None of those pictures are on zoom, I really am standing that closely to them all. They know who feeds them, and in the mornings when I go out to clean off the top of the shed from the seeds that they opened & ate to put fresh stuff down I usually have a chipmunk sitting at my feet, and a squirrel peaking up from behind the shed almost as if saying "are you done yet?" lol

[KrazE]

Throw some mothballs wrapped in pieces of nylon pantyhose under the steps to keep the skunk from taking up residence. Is the condo board also responsible for renting a skunk trap?

Maybe you could talk to the parents and mention what you've noticed. I doubt they'll be impressed that their kids are dumping their suppers everywhere and attracting skunks.

The first one would require me buying both nylons & mothballs, and then putting them under other people's steps which isn't an option (neighbours would poo their pants if I dared do that).

For the second one, the parents already know what the kids are doing, and in fact, they will walk right past food & garbage tossed on their own property that they know belongs to their own kid (or kids) and not pick them up (sometimes days later they will pick up garbage that didn't blow away) or the parent will actually kick the food under their own step (neighbour right beside me)!

The condo corp will do nothing more than send them letters, as usual, and then never follow up on anything - believe me, we've faxed them plenty of letters and only once did they ever follow up (fire pit in a backyard....against the house.. and those are completely banned in the entire area.. and used it during the burn ban drought the same week that we lost 10 acres of forest to fire!)

[Minou]

So, one evening when you see the skunk outside their house, give them a call and ask them to meet you outside for a second.

[KrazE]

So, one evening when you see the skunk outside their house, give them a call and ask them to meet you outside for a second.

lol, I keep hoping that they will step outside one of these times & get sprayed; eventually it will happen, I just have to be patient

[torontogal12]

It is their home and it is their right to eat outside if they want. Maybe the parents aren't connecting the dots that the skunks are coming because of the dropped food. Some people need that stuff spelled out for them and it can't hurt if you point it out

But the skunks may be coming for other reasons. My parents rarely eat outside at their place and skunks have been going there for 20 years!

[KrazE]

It is their home and it is their right to eat outside if they want. Maybe the parents aren't connecting the dots that the skunks are coming because of the dropped food. Some people need that stuff spelled out for them and it can't hurt if you point it out

But the skunks may be coming for other reasons. My parents rarely eat outside at their place and skunks have been going there for 20 years!

It's all townhomes with the property that they are leaving food and trash on actually being owned by the condo corp, not the homeowner. The only exterior that we 'own' is the backyard with the exception of the lines of bushes which are their responsibility.
There are a lot of rules here, one of them includes rules about garbage (which is not being followed obviously).

Also, all of us pay monthly fees for the upkeep of the exterior which includes landscaping, the streets (not city owned), the clearing of snow, the cost of water, re-doing the roofs (done last year) etc - so while the INSIDE of the homes belong to the homeowners, the upkeep of the outside of the homes come from everyone's pockets.

More trash outside means more to clean up which increases the bill for landscaping. Skunk problems caused by neighbour's kids throwing food on the ground outside could very well lead to the condo corp having to get someone in with traps to deal with the problem, which comes from the fees we pay. Water waste affects us all too, so people who waste water by washing their cars, or just letting their kids stand there with a running hose spraying the street costs everyone money.

If we didn't pay fees for all these things, that's one thing, but since we do, it's our bank account that ends up paying higher fees because people can't follow basic rules, or have respect for others around them.

There were zero skunks around here until the eating outside started happening - this just started this year.

[Minou]

Has a natural area nearby been disturbed recently? Where we used to live, we didn't have a problem with skunks until the land developer removed a large area of tall grass and brush nearby in order to put in new housing.

[KrazE]

Nope, this started not long after the weather warmed up & the kids were eating outside. The only construction going on just started 2 weeks ago & that's nothing but roadwork.

Pepe le pews need to go find themselves some female cats to chase.

[Springbreeze]

Oh my I know how you feel, lucky for us our problem was not skunks but it was raccoons. Not one or 2 that I could have handled. One evening my husband and I counted 30 raccoons. I wish it had been children throwing food that would have been easier to deal with. This was our neighbours who fed them on purpose. Three times a day they would put food out for them. Usually strawberries or peanut butter bread. For most of the neighbours this was not a problem but for us yeah it was bad. We lived in a mini home and the yards were all connected and also quite mini. So our yard their yard all really just the one yard. We had tried to bring the subject up to them a few times and they would always say we are not going to stop feeding them we like feeding them. It started to get bad one when night we went to leave the house and two raccoons charged at us. A few days later in the middle of the afternoon our cat got out and a raccoon went after her thank goodness I had not yet shut the door and she got back in the house safely. I quickly slammed the door shut just seconds before the raccoon could get through the door. It tried. We talking to the owner of the park that we lived in who told us there was nothing he could do try the police. We spoke to an officer who told us the only thing that could be done was for us to pay a trapper to come in and get them. The owner of the park did speak to the neighbours and they did stop putting out food and within a few days the raccoons stopped coming. The neighbours was upset with us and I am sure we could have handled it better but we felt trapped. Raccoons were not only our only problem though they also put out birdseed, a lot of birdseed. It attracted so many pigeons. They used our roof to land on and oh my it sounded like thunder when they all took off. They where also damaging our roof, they were eating the sand off of the shingles. So I understand exactly what you are going through. Although we probably went about it the wrong way having someone talked to them did help for us. We firmly believed that they wouldn't stop they told us so, so we did what we had too. Hopefully if you tell them what's happening, maybe even writing them a letter could help. I do help you get it sorted out, I know what a pain this is.

[saddlebag]

Unfortunately some folks are just pigs......too lazy to clean up their own mess.....however I love the smell of skunk....no joke

[KrazE]

The only time we used to ever see one skunk, and one raccoon was the night before garbage day when people put out the garbage and the animals were checking out the buffet (quite a few do not use garbage cans, just the bags in the open!).

The squirrels & chipmunks have almost completely stopped checking out the garbage since they know that there are nummies available to them already, and they are very clean about it.

The bird feeders I use are not accessible to anything but the smaller birds, and the largest visitors are bluejays - haven't ever seen a pigeon or seagull around here, and the black crows follow the garbage day schedule for visits lol.

I really do wish it was a simple reminder about the food & garbage causing regular skunk visitation, but that's been tried and it hasn't done any good unfortunately, so now I will just be patient until the day the messy neighbours get sprayed lol

Those people who keep winning my lottery money need to stop it so I can buy land miles away from other people and build my own home lol

[wolfwoman]

You could just be lucky and won the skunk lotto! I've lived out in the country since '94 and only ever had 1 close encounter with a baby skunk.