Plant Squash to Keep Skunks and Raccoons Away

We now have what appears to be a skunk nest in our garden, just above the vegetable planters. 

This seems like a potentially unpleasant problem, particularly if they're planning on starting a family. We've got a humane trap we can set with the idea of relocating him/her to the local national forest. In the meantime, I've learned that skunks dislike squash leaves. They may eat ripe summer squash if it's accessible, but they won't walk on the leaves of squash plants because they have little hairs that irritate the skin on skunk's feet. Any variety of squash should work, but you've got to allow the vines to lay on the ground instead of training them up a pole or trellis. 

This still doesn't definitively answer the question of who/what ate all the leaves off the squash plants the week they were planted. Guess I'm staying with grasshoppers as the culprit.