Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Help, remove the smell of decomp from my boat?

19 foot Almar Aluminum jet boat. It has been parked under a tree for a couple months. I went out and hooked it up to go to the lake today for Grand Daughter's 16'th birthday. Only to find a mummified cat lying on the floor at the back of the boat.

Even the maggots were done with it.

The carcass was lying on indoor outdoor carpet over plywood.

Any suggestions to get rid of the stench short of sawing out and replacing the plywood floor?

I am going out now to soak it with Dawn and hose it out, two or three times. Then leave the hose running over it all night. The answer to pollution is dilution? Right?

Ammonia, bleach?

Soak the crap out of it with straight bleach. Hose off after 24 hours, let dry. Then cover the whole area with a thick coating of baking soda, cover with plastic. Let sit a few days, and rinse, let dry.

If that doesn't do it, break out the saw

Peroxide- - - -the hair bleaching kind. It's twice as strong as the stuff used medicinally. Spray it on liberally withg a spritz bottle, let it sit awhile, then hose it down. Repeaf as necessary.

Microban will help, but time is your friend.

Peroxide is the ticket. You can mix it with some dawn to break surface tension, but peroxide is the end of organics.

Uh, not at the same time. Chlorine gas.

Spot on, Doc.

I’d try the peroxide mixed with some vinegar and a stiff brush. Scrub let sit. Rinse and repeat.

Honestly it’d likely be less work to replace the ply and carpet.

Pour on a bottle of Brut.

Doubt I'd really want to be washing bleach down in my welded aluminum boat. Chlorine is a bit of a corrosive.

I don't think it will do the plywood any good either.

Simple green.


It's just a little dead cat smell....sheesh.

I'd use an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle, the enzymes will eat up the organic material causing the problem.

Hah! Didn’t think about that.

Peracetic acid likely ain’t gonna be friendly either. Spray it on the wood from a spray bottle and mask of the metal? Rinse the hell out of it?

That

Also, get an Ozone generating air freshener machine. Turn it on and let it run in an enclosed area as long as it takes.

We know how you are about smells.

Not to mention what it would do to burgundy carpet.

I soaked it with water and then applied 1/2 bottle of Dawn, then rinsed with full flow of garden hose until suds quit, repeated, and repeated again. The hose is still running over the area.

Actually, surprisingly, I am unable to detect an odor at this time. But after being out on the lake in the boat all day, I may just be "nose blind".

Thanks for the suggestions. I will go out in a bit and shut off the hose, then rub a box of baking soda into the area. Tomorrow, I will grab a couple bottles of high strength peroxide, and apply that, then vinegar.

Pretty close to the same recipe I use on skunked dogs. It should at least reduce the smell to a tolerable level until time cures it completely.

I have my fingers crossed.

MICROBAN... I have used it to kill dog and cat piss odor on concrete slabs when replacing carpets in homes, it kills the bacteria that causes the odor.