Hey Pet Parents!
We all know that when our pets start to smell, it’s time to give them a bath. And that’s great! We all love a clean smelling pet. But have you ever wondered how to control pet odors that linger in your yard? Pet waste and odors go together like flies on… well, you know. But it’s not only the dog poop that causes the odors. Pet urine is probably more potent to the nose than the poop, and does more damage to your grass.
The following are excerpts from a blog I wrote several years ago on Start-a-Pooper-Scooper-Business.com. I decided to share the updated results of my personal study and will be comparing different odor control products. Also, I’ll will try to come up with pros and cons of each of them. This is by no means a government funded study lasting for many years and costing millions of dollars only to discover that dog poop smells! I would love to partake in a government study, get paid an insane amount of money, just so I can tell them “Yes, dog poop smells!”
Since that’s not going to happen in the near future, let’s get on with the fun.
Odor Control Products
The products I’m testing are called Top Performance 256, Odormute and Wysiwash. I’ll be conducting three different tests:
One will be in my own bathroom, one will be on my garage floor, (that my Chihuahua, Sparky, has graciously marked for us), and the last one will be on artificial turf, (that my Chihuahua is suppose to be using.)
In all fairness, Sparky does use his grassy toilet, I just removed it for a few days so he would go on the floor.
I’m no photographer, so I won’t be taking pictures in the dark to display my findings, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. If you don’t believe me, then you can conduct your own tests. Why in the dark? Simple. Urine shows up greenish yellow under an ultra violet light at 365-385 nm. That’s nanometers. Leave it to engineers to come up with two initials for a single word. The ultraviolet light will highlight the urine, but as for the fresh ammonia scent, well, I’ll just have to use my nose. However, since a women’s sense of smell is much more sensitive than a man’s, I’ll have my wife take the smell test.
Setting the Stage for Odor Control
The next step is to mark off 5 different areas on each of the test surfaces. Why 5? One for each of the products I’m testing, one for bleach and one for my wife’s favorite, Fabuloso. Sort of for control purposes.
Some of these products take a little mixing to prepare for use. For instance, once Odormute is mixed with warm water, it will be ready to use in about 10 minutes and has about a 4 hour life span. Fresh Scent 256 will make 256 gallons of disinfectant/deodorizer, hence the name. Simply mix 2 oz. of water to each gallon, and it’s ready to go. Wysiwash is ready to go as soon as it’s hooked up to a functioning hose with decent water pressure. Bleach can be mixed at a 10:1 ratio with water and Fabuloso is used full strength.
The first test will be to apply all 5 products and let them dry in accordance to their instructions. The next phase will be to use all five products and let them soak for a few minutes. Then wipe them off with a sponge, a paper towel or whatever I have available at the time, if applicable.
After each application, we’ll look at the areas with the ultraviolet light and compare visual cleanliness. Then I’ll try to talk my wife into sniffing all the areas for the odor she likes to complain about. This oughta be fun! Not the experiment… watching my wife sniff the floor!
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