Spilled milk in boot - what a pong!

I had a similar problem when two cartons of prawn curry fell into the passenger footwell of an Triumph 2500TC I had over twenty-five years ago - had to sell it in the winter.

Take the carpet out.

Make sure that you have cleaned out any crevices underneath.

White wine vinegar sounds promising.

Otherwise lots of cold water and then leave it in the sun for a while until the milk has completely broken down.

Shevek haute in die Tasten:

Milk? Uh-oh! The most efficient smell removing treatment I have heard of is a flooding with ozone gas. There are companies which do these jobs for money, you could ask a second hand car dealer for a contact. The cheapest yet recommendable solution I have ever heard of is taking a pound of freshly milled coffee powder, pour it into a shallow soup dish and place the dish in the trunk for two days. I doubt that this solution will entirely remove the smell of sour milk.

Frank

Get yourself some antibiotic capsules (not tablets). About 20 or so will do. After washing the carpet in plain water, open the capsules while the carpet is still damp, and sprinkle the powder onto the stain. The smell is caused by the bacteria, not the milk. The antibiotics will kill all of the bacteria stone dead. End of problem. I have successfully used this method both on the carpets and inside the air vents of a 735. (I had to brake pretty suddenly and fogot the litre of chocolate milk sitting on the console didn't have a lid on it!!)

JB

Don't for the love of God use Ozone! It will *eat* all of the rubber-based components it touches, and many plastics too. Some rubbers go very 'tacky', while some go brittle. It just ain't worth the risk. Pretty toxic too.

JB

Heh, sun, in the UK, in January, heh.

;-)

Sounds good, thanks...

Ultimately, the best fix may be to replace all the carpets and padding. I had a bottle of wine break in the boot, and that's what I ended up doing. Until I did that, I couldn't get rid of a smell like a wino had been kipping and throwing up in there.

You never said you were in the UK!

Ah, yeah, er, missed that bit!

I really don't want to wait for July with that smell.. Maybe I'll put it under a sunbed ;-)

Ouch!

The key here is to remove the trunk (boot) liner and clean it outside of the trunk. If you have access to a carpet cleaning machine (the kind that shoots cleaner into the rug and then immediately sucks it back out) that should do a credible job. Then let it dry completely outside of the boot (trunk).

The idea is just to let the process of decay of any residual milk complete, leaving nothing.

Spilled a pint (568 ml) on a hall carpet. I rinsed it and the wife did similar after I left (and something else?). Smelled for a few days then it stopped.

As indicated below and elsewhere I think it is important to get the carpet out of the boot into where it can air.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Try getting a prescription from your local doctor...

Dr: Hello Mr Shevek, why do you want a week's supply of antibiotic?

S: Hi doc, my carpet smells...

Pray tell, where do you just "get yourself some antibiotic" if you have none left over and are not in the back streets of Bangladesh?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Ebay, online pharmacies, or a vet's (where I got mine from). Plenty about if you just ask.

JB

ahahahahahaha!

Anyway....I'd be concerned the anti-B's would leave their own stain on the carpet.

And wouldn't killing bacteria without actually removing their "food" just result in bacteria eventually re-colonizing the carpet?

Rogue online pharmacies? The sort that offer me medicines almost every day? Otherwise a prescription would be required, and then we are back to the hypothetical dialogue...

Vets.. that's interesting...

Dialogue:

Pet Doctor:

Mr JB: My pets smells...(a white lie unless it has rolled around on the stain) or ..My carpet smells and I don't want my pet to fall ill...

;-) DAS

"JB" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net... | Get yourself some antibiotic capsules (not tablets). About 20 or so will do.

A friendly vet is an option, but you can also visit a farm and ranch supply/coop (or whatever they call them in your neck of the woods) and tell the nice folks behind the counter what you want them for. The fridges behind the counter are full of just those things, and providing they are for animal use, as they usually are, no prescription is required. I highly do not recommend you acquiring any of these for personal use. Not to mention they aren't approved for human use and illegal, antibiotics for humans work a bit differently and may put you in a worse way than before. If you were very familiar with animal medicines, I would feel differently, but it ain't worth your health.

"Shevek" wrote

Go to your local pet store and get a product called "Nature's Miracle". If they don't have that, ask for any enzymatic cleaner designed for pet stains.

I've used this stuff all over the house (I have a baby and a dog)...you soak it in to the stain, give it a good scrub to drive it down in the fibers, then let it dry. The enzymes basically eat the organic material (milk, in this case) and, voila, smell gone.

Good luck! Tom.