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DIY treatments may help minor issues, but professionals provide long-term solutions and prevent recurrence.

No, vinegar cannot kill bamboo. Common household chemicals like vinegar and even bleach are unlikely to kill bamboo, and they may only have minimal effect on bamboo roots. Since they can alter the chemical composition of nearby soil, we suggest avoiding these methods. Bamboo is very tough and not even all herbicides work well against it. To beat back bamboo, find an herbicide that’s specifically designed to work against tough grasses.

Like a rent-controlled apartment in New York City, rodents know a good thing when they see it. If they've found a cozy nest inside your home, they will set up camp and stay there, leaving only to forage for food and water. As long as they have a warm place to sleep, raise their young, and continue access to water and food, they're going to stick around.

Skunks spray as a defense mechanism to ward off predators. The active ingredient in their sulfurous, oily musk is n-butyl mercaptan, which evaporates into a powerful and smelly gas. Once the spray hits the skunk’s target, the stench can linger for days, and water and common cleaning kits aren’t enough to wash it away.

If you happen upon a skunk in your yard, try to back away slowly to reduce the chance of them aiming at you. Encouragingly, they don’t use their weapon casually, as it can take up to 10 days for their life-saving weaponry to refill. Paw stamping, hissing, lifting their tail, and arching their back are early signs they feel trapped or under threat and that it’s time to make a careful retreat.