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    shmeryl john's Avatar
    shmeryl john Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Nov 6, 2006, 07:08 PM
    Foul smell in front entrance to home-onion smell
    A really weird smell, like rotten onions, quite embarrassing because my home is kept spotless everyone comments on the smell right when they walk into the house. There is a shower stall in a bedroom above this entrance but we have snaked it and poured drain cleansers down it and also stopped using that shower but nothing helps. Help!
    CS Lawrence's Avatar
    CS Lawrence Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
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    #2

    Mar 6, 2007, 04:51 PM
    Hi John
    Just signed up today as I have a similar smell eminating from the downstairs shower room coming from the shower head. Did you ever find out what yours was. Mine only seems noticeable when it's turned on. I'm wondering if it means the water is fouled up in the pressurised storage tank?

    Be good to hear from you

    Regards & Thanks, Craig
    nmeekin's Avatar
    nmeekin Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #3

    Mar 7, 2007, 08:22 AM
    Any time we've had smells that bad it's been dead animals or urine from woodchucks under the front porch. The dead animal smell lasts a few weeks. The urine smell is ongoing - depends on which way the wind is blowing.
    measkman1's Avatar
    measkman1 Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
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    #4

    Jun 9, 2011, 12:19 PM
    A rotten onion-spices-dirt smell very strong would happen maybe once a week. It would waft around the room then suddenly go away, then return, even when the small garden style apt was empty all units, eliminating some sort of bad cook downstairs. Then came odd scratching noises and xtreme strong same smell. Went on for
    5 years, maybe once a week 10 or 15 minutes, always thought it was very odd, maybe supernatural. Moved down to d.c. after a month or so it started. It followed me... lasted a few years but slowly waned away. Strange...
    kayway's Avatar
    kayway Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
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    #5

    Feb 14, 2012, 03:14 AM
    Hi measkman1: I have been having something similar in my house... Although we keep our house clean, we could not figure out exactly where it was coming from.
    It surely didn't come from any corner. It was just there at a spot at a little height in the kitchen. I tried to figure out the source.. and that is when I realised that.

    I believe it is supernatural. Because the next day it moved into my bedroom and we could smell it only at a particular spot about 5 feet away from the ground and a decent distance from any window or wall or any object.
    jgarc099's Avatar
    jgarc099 Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #6

    Mar 8, 2012, 11:15 AM
    Hi I had posted this response on another blog about this problem. Many pediatrist and home inspectors can not even begin to explain this problem, yet it is and has been occurring for a very very long time, probably need a biologist to describe and declare what it is. Please read what I think your smell is:

    "I think it’s S. Brevacaulis. You can sometimes get the same smell probably from people’s tennis shoes that have been dried out from a workout. This mold is bad, and it loves to live off the calluses and toenails of our feet. You can smell it inside of plastic trashcans sometimes, microfiber couches, rugs, sleeping bags, and backpacks. It can get into the cuticles of our feet and never come out, accept with Amprocilin b, which is taken orally for a year. Even then, the toe nails infected need to be removed or continually cut and treated with Clotrimazole (lotimin) or Tea tree oil for a year (minimum!). The calluses need to be smoothed out, with a pumice stone or using Eucerin on them on a daily basis. Even worse, there’s the probability that during this time, you will have to wear open toed shoes/sandals, because the enclosed environment of regular shoes, (however slightly humid or well ventilated) allows the mold to survive. People who have to under go this doctor prescribed humiliation in public can be seen wearing rubber sandals with like velcro straps, even if they are dressed professionally.
    From what I’ve been able to figure out about S. Brevacaulis (and it’s cousin Aspergillis-another super annoying smelly fungus) is that it gets assisted by other molds/mildews in digging into our skin or the substrates of materials. Once inside, it begins to grow by feeding off either Keratin or arsenic present within the environment or materials/skin. Why those two things I have no idea why. As it eats arsenic, it releases arsine gas (gosio gas), which quickly kills most other molds around it, even the one that helped it! Next, it begins to completely devour its living area. Its colonies seem to smell like onions when they are dry or inactive. When they are warmed or wet they seem to smell, to me, like warm, pungent watermellon. That’s the gosio gas (arsenic gas) and some people may actually find it’s smell attractive, believe it or not, probably because it makes those sensitive to its smell a bit woosy, as if they were drunk. That’s just the arsenic’s means of debilitation. We can inhale it and we won’t keel over and die, yet there is mounting evidence that this mold is responsible for SIDS in infants that sleep facing downward, as this mold gets into the flame retardent (made with arsenic) of the child’s bed, where it releases the gas in force through the cussion fibers.
    Your bathroom probably got this mold from a person who lived their before. When they would run hot showers over their body, the S. Brevacalis on their feet would warm up, releasing spores. These small, tough, sticky, smelly spores would get lifted by the steam and air currents within the shower, sticking to the bathroom walls or ceiling just like mildew does. It probably colonied with regular mildew for a while, until it could take over.
    One thing you can do actually is to deny the mold air. That can be done by painting over it with mold proof paint. They say not to do this because it will spread under the paint, but the thing is that S. brevacaulis really isn’t adapted for being in a bathroom. It needs other molds to “grow up” also. It’s ideal environment in fact is complete darkness and eternal humidity. It hates light of any kind, I think, in addition to soapy or clorinated environments. So as long as you don’t let it infect you through a cut on your foot, it should die out in the bathroom once you’ve painted and replaced any (ALL) shower items that smell like it.
    Remember, its colonies get fresh conscripts from moisture heated feet, so if you don’t have an active infection by it on your toes, (or frequently warm parts of your body like waistline, belly button, ribcage, or head hair) then you can not spread it in the shower. Wipe down the entire bathroom with lysol wipes or soapy water and vinegar, let it dry, then paint over. Try not to dry scrape it out as this will release it’s spores into your face, and that’s asking for trouble, especially since it likes to eat keratin, which is what your hair and eyballs are made out of…so no sand paper.
    Lastly, there might be shower door railings, aluminum windows, or (worse of all) small ceiling bathroom vent fans that are completely gucked up with this mold and they will have to be removed. Be careful if you do this and clean them super good first. And protect your feet, toenails, and shoes from its spores as best you can, maybe work with some old shoes or boots that you will get rid of. Best off luck! –John Garcia"
    jgarc099's Avatar
    jgarc099 Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #7

    Mar 8, 2012, 11:19 AM
    Quote Originally Posted by measkman1 View Post
    A rotten onion-spices-dirt smell very strong would happen maybe once a week. It would waft around the room then suddenly go away, then return, even when the small garden style apt was empty all units, eliminating some sort of bad cook downstairs. Then came odd scratching noises and xtreme strong same smell. Went on for
    5 years, maybe once a week 10 or 15 minutes, always thought it was very odd, maybe supernatural. Moved down to d.c., after a month or so it started. It followed me...lasted a few years but slowly waned away. Strange...
    Please read my posting below. I have had the same noise, but I do believe that opossums, lizards, and skunks are attracted to the gosio gas coming from S. brevacaulis, as this to them signals that their kind of food (carrion and carrion eaters) are near by.

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