Yesterday, while putting a plant in the ground, I was suddenly . . .assaulted by an unidentifiable, indescribable stench. It was unlike anything I’ve ever had the displeasure to experience; like Satan’s own belch. I honestly don’t know what to call it - it wasn’t a vapor, or dust flying up (the soil is kind of damp), nor can I recall it being precipitated by anything, such as my shovel striking the ground. I was just back filling the hole and without warning my nose, eyes and mouth were filled with molecules most foul
I immediately jumped back and ran into the house to flush it out. It lingered in my mucous membranes for a few hours but other than that I don’t seem to have suffered any harm. It *felt *like my eyes were liquefying in the sockets and my nose hairs were being singed but today I’m perfectly fine.
My first, WAG is that I dug into a spot where weed killer or insect repellent somehow collected. It’s been raining here all week so I don’t know if that makes that theory more or less likely.
Has anyone experienced this or have a guess as to what the heck it was? I have four more plants to put in and I’m wondering of I need to don a Hazmat suit.
The worst thing I ever smelled in my yard turned out to be a decomposing possum. But you could smell it as soon as you got close to the yard, and it didn’t stop stinking until it was removed, which was a lot of fun.
I occasionally spray Roundup on the weedy spots and Home Defense bug repellent around the perimeter of my property. Thing is, I’ve been doing both those things for the 16 years I’ve lived in my house so it seems weird this wouldn’t have happened before.
The stinkhorn fungus thing sounds plausible. I just looked up a picture of it and though I haven’t seen such a growth it would be easy for it to escape my notice. If that’s what it is, it’s a relief to know it isn’t deadly (though the smell could kill ya).
There is a plant that blooms and smells like rotting meat (maybe that’s the stinkhorn thing mentioned), or perhaps as suggested a yet to be found rotting carcus, even one that died in it’s borrow in a underground tunnel.
Perhaps you are thinking of the infamous (and widely reported) corpse flower? Its kinda big and would be hard to miss. I am sure that there are other types of plants that have nasty smell, but this is the kind that usually gets media attention, IME.
**WOOKINPANUB, **got any tunneling critters there such as moles or the like? I once was putting poison-pellets into a dug-out-w/-spoon underground ‘cavity’, and when I got through the walled-off area, I got a VERY bad odor from it that almost made puke then and there. I kept digging out the tunnel and found a gooey dead body of the tunneling critter.
I have lots of critters around - raccoons, possums, squirrels, mice-but they taunt me to my face, out in the open;) I’m not aware of any tunneling varmints but I know some of the aforementioned took up temporary (I think / hope) residence in the space under my house. Certainly possible that one of them ended up underground, I guess. God help me if I find a gooey dead critter . Now I’m really not looking forward to dealing with my other four plants.
Any small red ants in the ground? They emit formic acid which can be quite pungent. I can smell it as soon as the shovel turns over a clump with them in there, even before I see any ants. I’m in northern Ohio.
Not that I know of. I do occasionally get ant hills between the pavers but I didn’t notice any in the dirt. I did, however, come across a beetle looking kind of bug when I was digging. It even occurred to me later that it was some kind of stink bug but I don’t really know what a “stink bug” is; this just looked like a cross between a beetle and a roach. And now I’m making my own skin crawl.
My dog has occasionally rolled in some incredibly noxious smelling stuff. To the point you can’t believe how bad he smells, and can’t tell whether the fumes are organic, petroleum, or what. Sort of like the way skunk smells differently up close. We’ve taken him in to be cleaned more than once, and the groomer’s conclusion is that he rolled in decaying animal scat. Probably skunk or coon.
That’s another good possibility. It’s definitely the case that you can’t tell whether it’s organic or petroleum, which is the weirdest part. It sort of smells earthy but has undertones like battery acid. When your dog is smelly does he make your eyes water / nose burn?
I had some in my apartment a few years back. Then for a while I kept searching the area around it to find the cat pee stains, which weren’t there. Turned out it was the basil, reeking for all the world like cat urine.
We had an ornamental yew planted right beside our front door and for the first two winters there was a terrible stench as you waited for someone to let you into the house. We removed the yew our 3rd spring and, sure enough, there were dead things under it. Apparently every single part of the yew is poisonous. They have been known to kill elk, for goodness sake. Yet they grow those pretty little red berries during the winter to entice the starving wildlife to come die beside my front porch.
Also, be careful with babies and yews. Those pretty little red berries will kill a baby just as easily as it can kill a squirrel.
Rancid dead snakes. I find them more horrible than other rancid animals.
Rancid beer. Per common wisdom, I put out a bowl of beer for the slugs to come drown themselves in. I didn’t get any slugs, but my god, rancid beer is way nastier than I ever would have imagined.
Exactly what I was going to say. You have neatly described skunk. I wonder if you were hitting a skunk burrow and got sprayed. Skunk scat is also a possibility. A dead skunk is also a possibility, but those don’t usually smell unless the skunk is injured.
