# Active Ingredient in "Fart Spray" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694 "2013-07-16T20:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CheeseDonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/1 "2013-07-16T20:04:36Z")
Does anyone know the active ingredient in fart spray that makes it smell so bad? I have some of this stuff: [http://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Ass-Mister/dp/B000OCEWGW](http://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Ass-Mister/dp/B000OCEWGW) and it is vile. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/2 "2013-07-16T20:27:20Z")
Probably a volatile sulfur-based derivative such as methanethiol or dimethyl trisulfide. The Wikipedia article on flatus lists some of these, as I recall. Or perhaps a distillate from a cheese-eating donkey stool. ETA from Wikipedia on flatulence: “_…hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methyl mercaptan (MM, methanethiol, MT), dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS) are present in flatus._” ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/3 "2013-07-16T21:18:49Z")
Pedant has it right. Just want to add a couple things: - The ratios of those compounds will vary depending on the flatus-emitter and his/her diet. - Flatulence may also contain carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon, and other gases normally found in normal air ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/4 "2013-07-17T05:20:25Z")
So how does this slop compare to the ol’ [Stink bombs](http://www.trueswords.com/images/prod/c/stink_bombs_540.jpg) we used in the 1970’s? Worse? The same? I cleared out an entire disco in '79 with just 2 viles. Heh, only a kid would appreciate one of [these](http://www.gagworks.com/Stink-Bag-5263-0X.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/5 "2013-07-17T07:54:56Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I cleared out an entire disco in '79 with just 2 viles. ISWYDT. (Or, in txt-speak, ICWUDT.) ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/6 "2013-07-17T10:50:55Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > So how does this slop compare to the ol’ [Stink bombs](http://www.trueswords.com/images/prod/c/stink_bombs_540.jpg) we used in the 1970’s? > > Worse? > > The same? > > I cleared out an entire disco in '79 with just 2 viles. > > Heh, only a kid would appreciate one of [these](http://www.gagworks.com/Stink-Bag-5263-0X.aspx) Looks like the vile vials in the link are ammonium sulfide. I think when it’s exposed to air, the water in the air reacts with it and creates hydrogen sulfide, which is pretty stinky, along with ammonia, which smells like…ammonia. (Or were those “viles” your own intestinal production and you were just linking to some commercial vials?) ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/7 "2013-07-17T17:34:58Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > (Or were those “viles” your own intestinal production and you were just linking to some commercial vials?) No, I used the commercial ones. They were available at places like Spencers. It may have been a dickhead thing to do but I was pissed off because my friends and I were getting tossed out because the manager realized we weren’t 21. We were all 18 which was the drinking age at the time but the disco had of policy of nobody under 21. I crushed a couple of those amulets on the floor as we were escorted out and a few minutes later a bunch of people came out waving their hands in front of their nose. I originally had a different reason for having some of them on me. I was going to bust one in my buddys car after he dropped me off at home to get even with him for always farting in mine. A guys real mature at that age, huh?😃 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-ingredient-in-fart-spray/663694/8 "2013-07-17T21:48:46Z")
[Skatole?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skatole)