Skunks are not terribly picky eaters, but why make it easy for them? Around the house, make sure all garbage containers have tight-fitting lids. Place the cans in racks or anchor them so they can’t be tipped over. Don’t leave pet food out overnight. Make sure woodpiles (which harbor mice and voles) are placed well away from the house.
If skunks are digging up your lawn, they are looking for the immature stages (larvae, or grubs) of June bugs, Japanese beetles, chafers, billbugs, and other pests, which live just below the thatch layer and dine on turf roots. You may think you have a skunk problem, but it may really be a grub problem. You can kill the grubs in your lawn if you act before the middle of June when they usually emerge from the soil. Two environmentally friendly products (Meritä, a new insecticide, and predatory nematodes) can be used to kill grubs where they live in the soil. Neither product has any adverse effects on other soil life.