Unfortunately, sooner or later a person’s life is interrupted. If the body is not detected in a timely manner, for natural reasons organic substances begin to decompose and a real danger arises for others . In hot weather, a cadaverous smell in an apartment can form as early as the second day after a person’s death. The peculiarity of the fetid odor is its rapid spread not only indoors and throughout the apartment, it easily penetrates even through walls through micro-slots, cracks, socket boxes and ventilation ducts.
Please pay attention! An unpleasant odor from a deceased person is dangerous. If you stay for a long time in a room where decomposition processes were taking place, you can get serious poisoning, inflammation of the lymph nodes, weakened immunity, and even mental disorders due to the experiences that arise.
Therefore, the best option for eliminating cadaveric odor is to contact specialists. We have been working in the field of professional cleaning for 20 years, we have the necessary protective equipment, special preparations for treating and disinfecting surfaces, and we can quickly put the premises in order after the death of a person.
Common methods
If the dead person was in a closed room for less than 2 days, then the unpleasant smell could not yet have had time to take root and you can still cope with it with your own efforts. To do this, you can use the following methods:
- first you need to completely vacate the apartment: take out all the furniture, and also, if possible, tear off the wallpaper;
- all windows in the apartment must be opened every day for at least 10 hours;
- the ceilings and floors need to be washed with water and bleach: to get rid of the unpleasant odor, this procedure will have to be done several times;
- you need to pour water and vinegar under the baseboard, and after a few hours add bleach;
- The last and most labor-intensive method is considered to be a complete renovation of the apartment.
It is important to prepare yourself for the fact that it will take a long time to get rid of the cadaverous smell. Any work to eliminate odor must be carried out using a special respirator and thick rubber gloves.
What to do?
If even after some time there is a residual odor in the room. There are a number of simple and accessible means to eliminate it:
Soda. The area that was the source of the cadaverous odor should be treated with a soda solution and powder. To do this, add washing powder and soda to warm water in a 1:1 ratio. The room must be treated with this solution repeatedly.
Coffee beans
In some cases, a cadaverous smell may come from a refrigerator in which meat has been left for a long time and has spoiled. The refrigerator will need to be cleaned with water and vinegar, and then coffee beans will be placed on all shelves for 3-4 days.
Air freshener
Using air fresheners will help achieve the desired effect. It can be used not only by spraying into the air, but also on furniture upholstery.
Scented candles
Candles made from beeswax or soy wax are considered safe for health. After using them, a pleasant aroma remains in the room.
Essential oils
If a foul odor is coming from your refrigerator, we recommend making an effective cleaning solution by mixing essential oil, lemon juice and water. Treat the refrigerator with the resulting product.
Incense
At home, you can light incense in a tablespoon and fumigate the room three times.
Linden
Linden contains phraseol, a substance with a pronounced pleasant aroma.
He advises placing pieces of wood around the room to eliminate the foul aroma.
Basil, thyme, lavender
These herbs are used to fumigate residential areas. Processing a room takes from 10 to 40 minutes. If the cadaverous smell does not disappear after the first fumigation, the procedure will need to be repeated 2-3 times.
Vinegar
Mix vinegar with water in a ratio of 1:5, then treat the surface that is the source of the stench with the solution.
Potassium permangantsovka
A solution of potassium permanganate effectively eliminates the cadaverous odor while deodorizing the room. Method of preparation: add 10 grams of potassium permanganate per liter of water, mix thoroughly.
Hydrogen peroxide
A hydrogen peroxide solution is suitable for cleaning floor coverings.
Dry fog
Treating a room with dry fog involves using a special preparation that converts the detergent into smoke. This allows you to eliminate the foul odor and deodorize the room.
Unpleasant smell from an animal
How to get rid of odor at home? First you need to try to find a dead animal. First, it is better to check the basement and attic, if such rooms are provided in the house, and then check the places where the unpleasant odor is most noticeable. In some cases, the animal may be in hidden places, so you will have to carefully check every corner in the house:
- behind the walls (an animal could make a hole for itself);
- under the floorboard;
- behind the insulation system;
- under a pile of things;
- near heating devices or air duct openings;
- close to pipes.
Eliminate odor
Further actions will directly depend on the laws provided for: bury, burn or throw away the dead animal. It is important to remember that it is forbidden to touch the corpse with bare hands: first you need to wear thick gloves or use a shovel or scoop.
If you plan to bury the animal, then first you need to place it in a biodegradable bag and a box of the appropriate size. Next, you need to choose a safe place where communications do not pass through, so as not to damage them. A hole is dug one meter deep, a box is placed at the bottom and covered with soil.
If you are allowed to light a fire, you can burn the animal's corpse. You can also wrap a dead animal in any newspaper, place it in a plastic bag and throw it in the trash.
Symptoms of cadaveric poisoning
As already mentioned, cadaveric poison, apart from the irritating odor, does not harm humans. But, every rule has an exception. If infection occurs as a result of contact between cadaveric tissue and a fresh wound surface, nothing bad will happen to a healthy person when treated with an antiseptic.
The wound may become inflamed, but even without specific treatment, it will heal in a couple of days, and all components of cadaveric poison are deactivated by the liver. But, if the infection occurs in a person with metabolic disorders or pathology of the hepatorenal system, an ordinary wound can develop into a big problem.
Since neurin is highly toxic, poisoning with it is not asymptomatic. People with weak immunity or concomitant diseases have a clear clinical picture. Symptoms of ptomian poisoning include:
- nausea and vomiting that does not bring relief;
- temperature increase;
- severe drooling and subsequent dehydration;
- increased sweating;
- cough with large amounts of sputum;
- constipation, but more often diarrhea, which also leads to dehydration;
- swelling of the lymph nodes;
- weakness and malaise;
- muscle spasms and cramps in rare cases;
- development of pneumonia.
These symptoms are characteristic of acute poisoning. If the process has entered a chronic stage, cadaveric warts may appear on the hands. They look like ordinary small bumps, but are very painful. Their mechanism is associated with primary damage to the wound by ptomians followed by infection with bacteria. They go away on their own.
All these symptoms soon disappear, death occurs only if neurin is moderately administered in the required dose intravenously. Ordinary contact with the deceased does not threaten serious illness, except if concomitant pathogenic microflora has joined the affected area. Corpse poison that gets into the water will not kill a person either. The fact is that stomach acid can neutralize toxins diluted in water. Moreover, such situations are practically impossible.
Ptomians in beer are considered not dangerous to consumers. During the decomposition of hops, monoamines are formed, similar to the substances of corpse poison. Many people think that they are completely safe, but in fact, monoamines have an adverse effect on the brain, just like alcohol, which is part of it. Drinking beer in large quantities is not recommended.
As for raw meat, it is best to eat it fresh. Raw foodists who store it in the ground rarely get poisoned, because they perform this technology correctly, and their bodies are already accustomed to such food. For an ordinary person, poisoning from meat that has been in a warm room for more than three hours is very difficult to bear. A stale, decomposing product contains a lot of biological amines. All of them disintegrate a little, poisoning the meat product.
Cleaning the house
How to get rid of the cadaverous smell in a room? First you need to put on thick gloves, take an unnecessary rag and collect all the remains of the animal: fur, droppings, dirt. Next, the apartment is treated with cleaning agents that eliminate organic residues, kill microbes and get rid of the cadaverous odor.
The cleaning solution is left at the place of death of the animal for 10-15 minutes, and then removed with a clean rag and thrown away. The following products can be used for cleaning:
- "Pemolux";
- "Nika-Lux Enzyme";
- "Mister proper".
How I cleaned my refrigerator
After that story with our trip to the sea, I have a principle: I leave the refrigerator empty, clean, dry and open. How did I personally manage to remove the smell from the refrigerator after rotten meat? I acted partly on a whim, partly according to advice from the forums. This is how I cleaned up the rotten stuff:
- I treated it with a solution of my favorite Domestos. I left it overnight. She wiped it clean with a wet rag. I soaked the removable parts and washed them in the bathroom. I dried it outside.
- Then I rubbed it again with vodka and lemon juice (see recipe above). She closed the door and left it overnight. I placed glasses of vinegar on the doors - at the top and bottom.
- I ventilated the refrigerator for 3 days. At this stage, the smell began to slowly disappear.
- I washed it again with Domestos. Rubbed it again with vodka and lemon. Finally, our “white friend” began to smell like lemon!
- Dried it. Closed it empty. Connected to the network. I installed an air ionizer for the refrigerator inside. And also activated carbon (10 tablets), soda (1 open pack).
- I left the “white friend” alone for 3 days.
- I made sure the smell was gone.
- Loaded the products.
All! Since then, our refrigerator smells only of cleanliness and my love J.
Furniture and fabrics
All furniture and materials that were close to the corpse (clothing, fabric, curtains) also need to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. The best solution would be to take your items to the dry cleaner.
If you can’t take your items to the dry cleaner, you can wash them in a washing machine at high temperature. When washing, it is important to add the following products:
- hydrogen peroxide;
- bleach;
- detergent.
If the material of the item does not allow it to be washed, then you should get rid of it. In some cases, the animal dies in a place that is quite difficult to clean, then the item needs to be thrown away or removed and part of it replaced.
Calling a disinfection service
How to get rid of smell in an apartment? If you cannot find the source of the unpleasant odor on your own or get rid of it, then all that remains is to contact a special disinfection service. Currently, there are private and public organizations. Such companies help to clean the premises efficiently, but this takes some time. Most often, the procedure takes several weeks, as various chemicals are used.
If a corpse continues to remain in a closed room for a long time, it begins to decompose irreversibly, which leads to a very strong and persistent odor that only disinfectants can cope with.
Main reasons
The causes of odor in an apartment can be not only animals or humans. Often what is stored incorrectly goes missing. Then it's hard to escape the stench. The problem can be resolved by identifying the source of the odor.
Household items
Appliances located in the kitchen are often the cause of unpleasant odors. When you open the refrigerator, you feel that some product has gone bad. Ice stuck to the freezer also smells bad.
Wet, poorly dried laundry is stored in closets. And in the laundry baskets there are dirty towels and clothes for more than a day. Over time, the whole house begins to smell like mold.
Alcohol and smoking
The room in which people smoke becomes saturated with smoke. After the holiday, the smell of fumes lingers in the rooms for a long time. Upholstered furniture and clothing strongly absorb odors.
Pets
Our smaller brothers brighten up our loneliness. But dogs and cats must be kept in the house correctly. Otherwise, the smell of urine and excrement penetrates even into neighboring apartments.
Expired food or trash bin
If a person wants to spoil the smell in the apartment, it is worth throwing waste after cleaning the fish into the trash can. Pieces of rotten meat or a meat dish in the refrigerator leave behind a sickening aroma that is difficult to get rid of for a long time.
Sewerage, poor exhaust, unscrupulous cleaning, storage of dirty things
The bathroom can constantly smell of mold and dirty things if the room is not cleaned on time. Problems with siphons, clogged sinks and toilets lead to the smell of sewage lingering in the apartment for a long time.
If the hood is of poor quality or the ventilation is clogged with dust, the aromas of the house are not at all pleasant.
Getting rid of car odor
How to get rid of corpse smell in a car? For proper cleaning, it is best to immediately take the car in which the corpse was located to a car wash or order a complete dry cleaning of the interior.
But before you spend your money, you can use proven methods and clean the interior yourself:
- leave the interior to ventilate for several hours;
- then wash it with water with the addition of citric acid or vinegar (5 tablespoons per bucket of water);
- install a new fragrance in the car.
Can't find source
Sometimes it happens that an animal dies in a place from which it is not possible to remove the corpse. Since the time of decomposition of an animal and the appearance of a persistent corpse odor directly depends on the size of the corpse, the temperature in the room and the humidity level, this can take from a couple of weeks to whole months.
How to get rid of corpse smell? First you need to outline the area from which the cadaverous odor emanates. If this is possible, then you need to drill a couple of holes to gain free access to the dead animal (behind a wall or baseboard), and use a cleaning agent.
To get rid of the smell, it is important to use a strong detergent. You can also use sprays and spray them into the holes. When the smell has completely passed, the holes must be sealed.
Regardless of whether the owner completely got rid of the unpleasant odor or waited until the corpse was completely decomposed, good ventilation will come to the rescue in any situation, which will help refresh the air around and reduce the smell. To do this, you need to open all the windows in the room and install several fans that will blow the unpleasant odor out of the room.
A good effect can be achieved if you use products that eliminate unpleasant odors in the room. There are a large number of products that help eliminate residual cadaverous odor. For this you can use:
- containers with baking soda;
- a jar of freshly ground coffee;
- charcoal;
- special air purifiers.
Apple vinegar
Some may be confused by this method of getting rid of tobacco and cigarette odors. After all, vinegar itself has a persistent, pungent aroma. However, everyone knows that vinegar can quickly disappear from the room, so the method is quite effective.
To prepare the solution, you need a glass of apple cider vinegar. Pour the vinegar into a container and mix with half a glass of water.
This mixture will effectively help eliminate old and ingrained smoking odors from various washable surfaces; it will not spoil the varnished finish of furniture.
The mixture can be used to clean upholstery and even wallpaper. To do this, take a soft cloth, soak it in the solution, squeeze it well and wipe the surface.
After cleaning, open windows and balconies and ventilate the room. The smell of apple cider vinegar will disappear quite quickly, and along with it the smell of tobacco smoke.
