Other Animal Odours - Possums, Birds, Rats, Mice,

Smellgone products tackle the compounds causing the smell and out compete the other micro-organisms making those smelly compounds.  Smellgone products are very effective against cat and dog odours and have been used to combat odours from other animals such as possums, birds, rats and mice.

Possum odours can be particularly strong, especially from male possums.  The organic compounds producing the odours, both urine, faeces and the musky odours possums and other animals (such as cats, dogs, rats and mice) use for marking their territory are ‘eaten’ up by the friendly microbes present in all Smellgone products.

If you have a difficult animal odour to get rid of or control, just give us a call on 07 5428 7499 or send us an email
(info@smellgone.com.au) and we will be happy to get our friendly microbes working for you!

Cooking, Smoking, Paint and Plastics Odours

Smellgone Odour Control Spray will combat these odours, especially smells due to cooking and cigarette smoking. 

Odours due to paint, plastics, fuels or pesticides for instance can be more difficult as many of these substances are toxic to the beneficial micro-organisms which are at the heart of Smellgone products.  Nevertheless, significant relief from these types of inorganic odours can also be achieved. 

Please see our Resources Page for more information on all of these odours.

Wastewater Odours

Odours related to toilets, drains, septic tanks,
grease traps, greywater tanks, wastewater treatment systems

These cause some of the most common household (and commercial) odour problems.

First step is to make sure that the system, tank or drain is operating mechanically as well as possible and that there are no physical blockages, broken equipment or structures.

Secondly, whatever is going down the drain is usually a big part of the problem too, so in terms of what type of products to use or not use please have a look here looking after your wastewater treatment or sewage system.

Floor Drains

Starting in the toilet/bathroom, is there a smell coming from the floor drain?  In bathrooms not used very often it is not unusual for the U bend in the floor drain to dry out a bit and therefore smells can come wafting back up from the tank or pipes.

If there is a smell and the drain appear dryish, put on a pair of rubber gloves, remove the grate, clear out any accumulated hair etc and flush the drain thoroughly with warm water.  You may find it useful to carefully hose the drain out with the garden hose which gives you more pressure, but not too much or you could cause a flood. 

Finish off by spraying down the drain thoroughly with Odour Control Spray and respray weekly if necessary.  It may be necessary to periodically flush the drain with warm water, to maintain the protective water trapped in the U bend.

Toilets

Sources of some pretty foul odours, it must be said.  First, for immediate relief from ‘user produced’ smells, use Smellgone Rapid   Smellgone products are not just ‘deordorisers’ that spray a perfume over the top of the bad smell.  Smellgone products actually ‘eat up’ the bad smells so they have a lasting effect after the initial control of the odour has been achieved. 

Toilet bowl and cistern deordorisers or cleaners that hang in a little basket add a small amount of disinfectant and perfume at every flush.  In addition, every week or so you are likely going to clean the toilet with one of the TV advertised toilet cleaners which are in the main a concentrated solution of disinfectant, detergent and perfume.  If you are on town sewage then your wastewater is combined with everybody else’s and treated at the sewage treatment works. They have the problem of dealing with all those disinfectants that seriously effect the bacteria which actually do most of the water treatment. 

If your toilet and greywater is treated at your place in some sort of onsite wastewater treatment system, be that a septic tank or an aerated wastewater treatment system for instance, then you have to ‘look after’ those beneficial bacteria so that they can do their job.

You need cleaners and odour control methods which are “not harmful to your tank, but are actually good for it!”  The beneficial microorganisms in Smellgone products and also the Odour Control Concentrate diluted 1 part concentrate to 10 parts water, as a cleaner, (instead of 1:100 as an odour control spray) provide effective cleaning and support for your septic tank or treatment system.

Septic Tanks

As mentioned in ‘Toilets’, septic tanks rely on bacteria to break down the wastes.  A cocktail of harmful chemicals coming down the drain is going to result in a dead and smelly septic tank.  A cup of bleach down the toilet will kill the smell for a day, but the smell will return as bad if not worse.  Instead, using the Odour Control Spray, at every flush will gradually bring the tank back to life.  In severe cases a complete pumpout and restart may be necessary, at which time a tank starter treatment to inoculate the newly filled tank with ‘good’ bacteria will get the treatment of to a good start.  It still means however that you have to be careful of what goes down the drain.  Disinfectants and antibiotics, kill all bacteria, not just the ‘bad’ guys.

Grease Traps

Grease traps are supposed to collect all the fats and oils in the water from the kitchen sink, before it gets to the greywater pump well.  Grease traps help treat the kitchen greywater, (septic tanks treat the toilet (black) water).  All other water from the laundry, bath, shower (and kitchen) goes to the greywater pump well where it is either sprayed out or distributed underground to trenches in much the same way as septic water is normal distributed to trenches.

Because of the fats and oils, food and cooking scraps, a grease trap can become quite smelly.  It is a good idea to have them completely pumped out every 3-6 month by a local septic pumpout company. Typical cost for pumpout of a grease trap is $25-$40.  Well worth it because this keeps on top of any excess build up in the grease trap itself, typically situated outside the kitchen window and often responsible for bad odours at the kitchen sink.  Keeping the grease trap well maintained will reduce odour problems at the greywater pumpout end as well.

Using the odour control spray as a general cleaner in the kitchen especially at the sink will inoculate the drain lines and grease trap helping prevent odours.  A handful of Smellgone Odour Control Powder directly to the surface of the water in the grease trap will assist greatly in minimising odours. This can be added any time there is a problem but works best if added soon after a grease trap pumpout.

Greywater Tanks

Greywater tanks can be very smelly.  Grey water is not supposed to be stored for more than 24 hours, otherwise the bacteria present in the water feed on the nutrients (from the soaps, detergents and kitchen wastes) and really can make very bad smells in a relatively short time.

It is best to leave your greywater pump switched on all the time so that the tanks is emptied as needed via the submersible pump at the bottom of the tank.

If your grey water tank is very smelly then getting it completely pumped out by the same pump out company that does your grease trap, is a very good idea.  Using Smellgone Odour Control Spray in your kitchen, bathroom and laundry will inoculate the drain lines and the tank itself to help prevent offensive smells.

Wastewater Treatment Systems

These systems generally treat all the black (toilet) and grey water used in the household.  On average this is something like 180-200 litres per person per day.  A Secondary wastewater treatment system, as they are called, (a septic system is only considered Primary treatment) can produce water suitable for watering your lawn and ornamental gardens but not safe enough for your vegetable garden or to use where you might come in contact with the water such as washing your car.

Together the mechanical and biological treatment processes reduce the toxicity of some of the nutrients in the water, reduce the overall bacterial numbers and significantly reduce the number of pathogens or disease causing organisms.  They don’t get rid of all the pathogens however which is why you can’t use the water on your vegetable garden or come into direct contact with it.

So to go back to the first point made in this section, it is very important that your wastewater treatment system is operating mechanically as well as its design and condition allow.  Next is to consider what is coming down the drain and what ‘help’ can be given to the ‘good’ bacteria that actually do most of the treatment work.

This where Smellgone products come in, not only will they control odours but by doing so they add beneficial bacteria to your treatment system that helps the treatment bacteria do a better job overall.

No amount of good bacteria is going to compensate for a broken aerator (no oxygen for the bacteria) or for bleaches, disinfects and other anti-bacterial cleaners that may come down the drain.  Pro-biotic cleaners and odour control products from the Smellgone range will support a good treatment process in the tank and assist it to remain odour free.  It is better and easier to maintain a healthy odour free environment than try and recover from a smell problem or catastrophe!

Where a treatment system does require a complete pumpout then Smellgone can provide a Tank Starter Treatment to get your wastewater system off to a good start, please contact us for details info@smellgone.com.au .

For additional advice and information on wastewater treatment see our site at Australian Wastewater Treatment Services.