http://www.wral.com/news/strange/story/3065566/ Skunks under Ohio family's home reek havoc Posted: Today at 3:09 p.m. SHEFFIELD LAKE, Ohio — A family's dream home became a stinky nightmare after skunks moved in. They chewed underneath Kerry McCullough's house in Sheffield Lake, about 20 miles west of Cleveland, and started their own family. McCullough said the odor from the four skunks is like the stench of burning plastic, so bad that it hurt his lungs. The squatters went unnoticed until the heat was turned on last winter. The McCulloughs' house uses hot water heat with exposed pipes running under the floors. When a skunk brushed up against the pipes, it would spray. "It would be 30 degrees, and I'd have the windows open," said Karen McCullough, 46. "I'd go to the grocery store and people would say, 'It smells like skunk.'" What's really foul is how much damage the critters can cause. The McCulloughs had to replace doors and walls and take their kitchen apart, for a total cost of about $75,000. Kerry McCullough said at least his insurance doesn't stink: It covered most of the bills.
That definitley is one thing down here in the south that I don't miss, the skunks. I would equate seeing possums here, as regularly as I saw skunks living up north. I don't think I ever saw a 'possum up north, and I can count the number of skunks I have seen or just been in the vicinity to smell down here on one hand in 11 years. There used to be one in our woods, and it would spray in the wooded area outside my bedroom window when I was living at home, and that smell is so strong, I could've sworn on more than one occasion that he was under my bed! It was horrible... and don't ever hit one with a car. When I got my first car, an 82 'vette (chevette, that is) I hit one on the way to visit a friend at college for the weekend. For months my car smelled, no matter how many pine tree air fresheners I used, it just smelled like a skunk in a pinetree! Atleast 'possums don't smell... and they are kinda cute. :mrgreen:
