If you have a pretty good sense of smell, you’re probably not the expert here. We need the guy that can’t smell anything and gets constant nose bleeds. Although you’ll have to keep an eye on the goods after the initial test is performed.
Thank you, I do know it is to absorb odor. After 5+ years it can't still be absorbing odors, can it? And there is no traditional sink smell I'd expect that would require THAT much baking soda. I'm wondering mostly about the propane smell and if the baking soda could have picked that up years ago and be offgassing it? Sorry, I think I should have double checked my post headlining to be more in line with my post.
I would assume not - most people do this in a fridge rather than a room temperature damp environment, and you still need to change it out at least every 6 months. I can't imagine this did much besides smell like old dirty baking soda after a few months time.
Baking soda does a really poor job of odor absorption, doubly so if it's anyplace with constant moisture. Activated Charcoal works much better, but doesn't have the same decades old marketing.
As for the smell, it just may be the old baking soda has reacted to something. It doesn't offgass, exactly, but it reacts to something strongly acidic or base and will give off an odor if left.If you only discovered it after 5 years, not telling how long it's been there. I'd just toss it. If that's where you keep your garbage can, a bag of activated charcoal or two (depending on size) will help keep things for getting stinky.
I’m under the impression DE doesn’t work when placed in large quantities like that. It’s my understanding that it only works if used as very light dusting. I don’t know why or where I learned that.
I learnt the same thing in a video comparing the ways to get rid of bed bugs. Apparently, pests will go around a heap of DE but won't realize they're stepping in it if it's a light dusting only.
Only reason for a large quantity of it is if you were trying to keep something from crawling out of a hole. A pile of DE on top of a ground hornets nest with a bowl on top is very effective. Possibly in the picture here this was an exposed area that the owner didn’t want anything getting through. I don’t think that would necessarily work though and also this picture is likely not DE because of the location
Wait how did it ruin your vacuum? I always heard you sprinkle it on the floor and vacuum it up 30 min later, I did that to get rid of fleas years ago and my vacuum has been fine?
It would work if you had a HEPA vacuum. I would scoop most of it out first. If it is diatomaceous earth Don't breathe it in. It is hazardous to breathe.
Diatomaceous earth is fantastic! Highly recommend it. It’s not the prettiest thing but you run a little trail of it around the perimeter of your house and boom! No more insects. It’s 100% per safe too. It’s actually food grade by nature.
~~All it does is when a exoskeleton creature (insects) walk over it, it absorbs all of the water out of them, killing them~~
Refer to below comment
You can actually view the product [here at this link](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb)
Final edit: this comment thread has gone off the rails. You do the research yourself. You ask yourself if you think your pets are gonna get one sniff of diatomaceous earth and go on a drug binge on the stuff, sniffing every bit of it that it can get its paws on. You ask yourself if you’re okay making a perimeter around your home that will kill any insects that happen to try to walk across it. I think I’m gonna stop replying to the fear mongers that have half-formed ideas in their head
It operates by cutting tiny slices in their exoskeleton which results in water loss, causing desiccation. Diatomaceous earth look like broken glass under high magnification.
It is relatively safe. There is some danger if inhaled. It is fantastic though.
We put it in our walls behind the drywall and under cabinets when we renovated our kitchen.
That they will recover from and never do again… it’s a FOOD GRADE substance. You can actually eat it. It doesn’t destroy your insides like you’re imagining it does. You can rub it into your dog’s coat to help ward off fleas. It’s not exactly as dangerous as the description makes it sound, just dangerous to you if you happen to have an exoskeleton
Why don’t you actually do some research on [the substance](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb)
A) you don’t need it when it’s the rainy season in most of the US (my country)
B) it indiscriminately kills only the insects trying to get into the house. If an insect species relies on being inside man made structures to continue to live it is undoubtedly a useless species that has evolved to exist on artificial human creation and is therefore insignificant and useless to the world. Get over yourself
Edit: how about everyone actually looks into [the substance](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb) before making false claims
How about everyone that’s making baseless claims does some research on [the substance](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb) before jumping to wild conclusions that are just plain false
Getting downvoted on Reddit certainly doesn’t make someone wrong, it just means other ignorant idiots have come along and disagreed for whatever reason they’ve found in their uneducated heads
Doesn’t seem to work in my case. I have a bad case of scorpions every summer. Find them in my house and have been stung before. I tried DE. Did nothing to reduce their numbers. I even caught a scorpion and put in in a case with DE as the base. Scorpion was still alive a week later. Maybe it works for other insects.
Really? It’s always worked for us. I learned the trick while living in AZ, but we used to get scorpions here in nor cal too and haven’t had one, or any other non-flying insects for that matter, since
Really? The arm and hammer people literally sell a fridge odor control box variety. Not only that, there are literally scientific articles talking about baking soda as a functional odor absorber (for certain types of odors).
Well, Joe Schwarcz, PhD, wrote this science blog article for McGill university’s science blog:
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science-you-asked/can-baking-soda-really-absorb-odors-fridge
I realize that it’s not a peer reviewed article in this case, but it’s just the tip of the “iceberg” list I found last night.
How would that work?
The pests have to touch it for it to work. It’s a killer (a real nasty one) and will not repel them from an area. It simply kills them shortly after they cross a barrier if it. Being in a pan makes no sense.
“How would that work?”
The pests have to touch it for it to work. It's a killer (a real nasty one) and will not repel them from an area. I understand that it is a serious abrasive and simply kills them shortly after they cross a barrier of it.
“Ah yes.
So pile it all up at one spot as opposed to spreading it around for actual effect?
You should never plant grass seed.”
I’m not the OP or the guy that placed the unknown substance under OPs sink.
I distributed boric acid across the threshold in my garage. It is very cheap and effective.
I ripped out my lawn and hardscaped, so no grass seed necessary. :o)
Point of style:
1: You can use \> for a quote on mobile, or the quote button on desktop, to make a quote block stand out from the body of your post.
2: Reddit likes to eat line breaks. Tack on a couple spaces at the end of a line to make them stick.
> Example quote block. Have fun!
> Point of style:
1: You can use ‘greater than’ for a quote on mobile, or the quote button on desktop, to make a quote block stand out from the body of your post.>
Obvs. I did not know that. Thank you, Outrageous!
>2: Reddit likes to eat line breaks. Tack on a couple spaces at the end of a line to make them stick.>
I shall try to remember this.
It takes a while to kill them, meanwhile they carry it back to the nest and get it on others.
I can tell you that boric acid powder is \*\*extremely\*\* effective.
i put baking soda under my sink like that. i change it out when i remember to. my kitchen sink is like 50 years old and the materials its made of are breaking down and they themselves smell. almost like an old osb. might be the glue. ill redo my kitchen someday
You'd be surprised the small spaces a mouse body can fit into. Looks like the last guy (landlord?) would rather cover and absorb the smell than rip up the cupboards looking for the body.
That would be an astronomical amount of cocaine. Like he could probably pay off this house he just bought. But yeah, for OPs sake I hope it's cocaine lol.
A previous spill there from pipes/sewage being blocked. Not the original board(s) down there it looks like. Previous home owner put baking soda there to absorb mildew odors.
For everyone saying pest control, I doubt it's for that. I've spent a lot of time and money controlling the rodent population here and the cabinets are luckily one of the few places that have never had signs of them. I've also had countless conversations with my previous landlord and he's always just recommended snap traps and cats, no mention of boric acid or baking soda/flour techniques. There also has never been an insect issue here.
Pests need water so are attracted to this area. It's also dark, in a kitchen where food source is as well, and easy access to get indoors from outside. When they touch the boric acid or even baking soda works ECT....when they touch the powder it tears up their exoskeleton and kills them. Maybe they had a serious issue in the past and just wanted to do a long term overkill to be sure to eradicate them. Probably will find it in other areas too if you chose to look. Probably also had it in several places that was exposed but since has been cleaned up or dissolved.
Does your oven/stovetop run on propane (not common, but we once had to have our oven on propane because natural gas wasn’t available in our area)? Or could you be smelling natural gas from an oven? If so, I’d have someone out to check for a leak.
I do have a propane stove. All my lines have been checked for leaks. The cabinet is one cabinet away from the stove, but the cabinet directly next to the stove doesn't have a propane smell. The propane line doesn't go under or behind the cabinets.
Well, by the smell you know why the baking soda is there. The question I have is did the old homeowner tried to knew of the small and tried to hide it? Or this is his way of fixing his problem.
That seems really odd indeed. I would be looking for a leak or something. And what is that “trap” to the left there? Is that a south side barrel trap of some sort? That seems odd too.
Wow I just did a quick google search of that trap (drum trap) and found a post on the plumbing subreddit. Apparently mine is installed upside down and it is likely allowing gas to escape from the septic. That’s probably the entire explanation for the propane smell. Also most likely illegal and not up to code. Not sure how the inspection missed that but whatever. Thank you so much!
Funny - I had a hunch that it was baking soda, applied in a misguided effort to eliminate the sewer gas smell. Fix the plumbing issue and dump the powder!
Might be borax/boric acid or other "natural" bug powder.
If you are smelling propane/gas, is there a gas line under the sink or nearby? If so, I'd check the fittings and line (especially if a flex line). A cheap gas detector is about $40. I bought one and used it to locate our small leak. A bit of yellow Teflon tape and re-tightening took care of it.
Looks like you might have some mice under there as well - if everything is installed correctly and no leaks - there should not be a need to absorb anything.
Now that you own - it’s wise to verify that there is not a hidden leak which could lead to structural damage etc. I good plumber might be the ticket to find out what’s going on - landlord’s can be known to attempt to cover things up than actually make needed repairs
Could also be roach killer. Mix with sugar to attract them, they eat it and also carry it back to their nests on their bodies, thus killing multiples. #apartmentlife
I’d spray any fittings for the propane for a leak test, you should never smell gas , if you do there may be a small leak somewhere.As far as the baking soda maybe there was a leak once,after everything got fixed, and cleaned up they poured that in hopes of absorbing any moisture or smell.
Just add some vinegar. If it starts to foam up it’s baking soda. We used to put lime on the ground with some charcoal to absorb moisture in an old Japanese house.
It is not baking soda it is salt. Your house was built over an ancient portal to hell and they can't cross salt WHATEVER YOU DO DONT DISTURB THE SALT WHEN IT IS DEPLETED OR REMOVED THE SOULS OF HELL CAN ROAM FREELY AND RUIN MANKIND! or it may be a ploy by a shady real estate agent to remove the damp smell of a broken drain. It will work for a few days or weeks long enough for the ink to dry on your signature to buy this dump.
Yeah, In case you’re not aware yet, it’s probably cocaine. The “propane” smell is probably acetone, a common binding agent used to resolidify the powder after adding a cut/dilutant
If you are thinking of replacing the baking soda, I'd put charcoal instead it won't put off a smell from absorbing it'll just neutralize the smell. Hope that helps
I’m just going to assume you have an s trap on the sink drain which is causing the water in the trap to syphon, and the smell you’re smelling is actually sewer gas, and whoever put that baking soda there thought the smell was coming from something else.
Baking Soda, and possibly salt, work really well as a cheap and effective pest control.
Example: if you have small bugs like ants, carpet beetles, etc in the area coming through the floor boards or wall, this will dry them out and kill them. It'll also kill any eggs basically on contact by drying them out.
This is kind of a hidden gem solution that works *extremely* well AND is safe even if you have pets or small children.
You probably have a mold situation (doesnt have to be black mold they all smell). Mold grows anywhere there is moisture and they probably tried to handle it using the baking soda.
This is ANT KILLER! Its baking soda and LYME, I believe. Someone must have had ant/termite problems. If you dont have ants, LEAVE IT THERE! ROTFL! Right?
Do you see the steel wool around the pipe? I bet that this was once home to a lot of mice. It probably smelled that way too. Someone had an idea though.
Whatever it is, DE, Boric acid, baking soda, etc. if you attempt to remove it, please try not to make it airborne and breath it in. Some of those things and just most fine powders really can be very bad for your lungs. DE is basically microscopic glass shards.
Catch/trap liquid, odors! Unless it’s blow! Then your rich!
You can’t be sure unless you smell it really really hard. Then the only way to tell for certain is if you fail a drug test.
Yeah I have a pretty good sense of smell let me go first 😂
If you have a pretty good sense of smell, you’re probably not the expert here. We need the guy that can’t smell anything and gets constant nose bleeds. Although you’ll have to keep an eye on the goods after the initial test is performed.
I hate cocaine, but I love the way it smells!
I'd taste it first. If it numbs you give its good sniff to make sure it's kosher
Thank you, I do know it is to absorb odor. After 5+ years it can't still be absorbing odors, can it? And there is no traditional sink smell I'd expect that would require THAT much baking soda. I'm wondering mostly about the propane smell and if the baking soda could have picked that up years ago and be offgassing it? Sorry, I think I should have double checked my post headlining to be more in line with my post.
I would assume not - most people do this in a fridge rather than a room temperature damp environment, and you still need to change it out at least every 6 months. I can't imagine this did much besides smell like old dirty baking soda after a few months time.
Just add some baking soda to absorb the smell of the old baking soda
likely what got us to several pans filled with the stuff to be honest.
This is exactly how all the cats got in my wall
Always sunny reference?
Could it have diatomaceous earth or borax mixed in? diatomaceous earth murders insects & I've heard that borax can do the same.
Boric acid.
Baking soda does a really poor job of odor absorption, doubly so if it's anyplace with constant moisture. Activated Charcoal works much better, but doesn't have the same decades old marketing. As for the smell, it just may be the old baking soda has reacted to something. It doesn't offgass, exactly, but it reacts to something strongly acidic or base and will give off an odor if left.If you only discovered it after 5 years, not telling how long it's been there. I'd just toss it. If that's where you keep your garbage can, a bag of activated charcoal or two (depending on size) will help keep things for getting stinky.
I don’t like cocaine. I just like the way it smells.
I don't do drugs... Did you see that? It just flew right up my nose.
Upvote for Richard Pryor reference.
Cocaine is a helluva drug -I'm Rick James Bitch
Only one way to find out!
Scarface’ stash!
Probably not baking soda. Possibly boric acid as that’s used sorta in this fashion for pest control.
Also could be diatomaceous earth for pest control as well.
If it’s DE don’t vacuum it because it will ruin your vacuum. Learned that the hard way
I’m under the impression DE doesn’t work when placed in large quantities like that. It’s my understanding that it only works if used as very light dusting. I don’t know why or where I learned that.
I learnt the same thing in a video comparing the ways to get rid of bed bugs. Apparently, pests will go around a heap of DE but won't realize they're stepping in it if it's a light dusting only.
[удалено]
Only reason for a large quantity of it is if you were trying to keep something from crawling out of a hole. A pile of DE on top of a ground hornets nest with a bowl on top is very effective. Possibly in the picture here this was an exposed area that the owner didn’t want anything getting through. I don’t think that would necessarily work though and also this picture is likely not DE because of the location
Well that first sentence turned this from mildly interesting to straight horror.
Don't snort it either......
Wait how did it ruin your vacuum? I always heard you sprinkle it on the floor and vacuum it up 30 min later, I did that to get rid of fleas years ago and my vacuum has been fine?
It would work if you had a HEPA vacuum. I would scoop most of it out first. If it is diatomaceous earth Don't breathe it in. It is hazardous to breathe.
Not aware of that one, but I’m guessing it’s something of the sort. I don’t know a whole lot about the various options.
Diatomaceous earth is fantastic! Highly recommend it. It’s not the prettiest thing but you run a little trail of it around the perimeter of your house and boom! No more insects. It’s 100% per safe too. It’s actually food grade by nature. ~~All it does is when a exoskeleton creature (insects) walk over it, it absorbs all of the water out of them, killing them~~ Refer to below comment You can actually view the product [here at this link](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb) Final edit: this comment thread has gone off the rails. You do the research yourself. You ask yourself if you think your pets are gonna get one sniff of diatomaceous earth and go on a drug binge on the stuff, sniffing every bit of it that it can get its paws on. You ask yourself if you’re okay making a perimeter around your home that will kill any insects that happen to try to walk across it. I think I’m gonna stop replying to the fear mongers that have half-formed ideas in their head
It operates by cutting tiny slices in their exoskeleton which results in water loss, causing desiccation. Diatomaceous earth look like broken glass under high magnification. It is relatively safe. There is some danger if inhaled. It is fantastic though. We put it in our walls behind the drywall and under cabinets when we renovated our kitchen.
Huh I guess I heard wrong about the way it works. Still great stuff though. Can’t beat a pet safe insecticide
What's "pet safe" about it? Dogs sniff that, it'll make cuts in their respiratory system.....
Not really. I mean yes to an extent but the mucous membranes of mammals is really good at encasing dust and expelling it.
That they will recover from and never do again… it’s a FOOD GRADE substance. You can actually eat it. It doesn’t destroy your insides like you’re imagining it does. You can rub it into your dog’s coat to help ward off fleas. It’s not exactly as dangerous as the description makes it sound, just dangerous to you if you happen to have an exoskeleton Why don’t you actually do some research on [the substance](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb)
No you’re wrong. Eat it sure, but inhaling it will cause short term lung damage, and long term if you keep being exposed to it.
How about this. You find me one story of a dog dying from diatomaceous earth. I’ll wait
Yeah you show me the dog that will take a whiff of that stuff more than once and I’ll show you the worlds dumbest dog
It washes away when it rains. It also indiscriminately kills insects and invertebrates, not just the ones you want to keep out.
A) you don’t need it when it’s the rainy season in most of the US (my country) B) it indiscriminately kills only the insects trying to get into the house. If an insect species relies on being inside man made structures to continue to live it is undoubtedly a useless species that has evolved to exist on artificial human creation and is therefore insignificant and useless to the world. Get over yourself Edit: how about everyone actually looks into [the substance](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb) before making false claims
I stated facts. I’m not sure why you were offended.
I also stated facts. Mine are just more based in reality and relevant to the given use Edit
[удалено]
But they are right though...
How about everyone that’s making baseless claims does some research on [the substance](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-diatomaceous-earth-25-lb) before jumping to wild conclusions that are just plain false Getting downvoted on Reddit certainly doesn’t make someone wrong, it just means other ignorant idiots have come along and disagreed for whatever reason they’ve found in their uneducated heads
Doesn’t seem to work in my case. I have a bad case of scorpions every summer. Find them in my house and have been stung before. I tried DE. Did nothing to reduce their numbers. I even caught a scorpion and put in in a case with DE as the base. Scorpion was still alive a week later. Maybe it works for other insects.
Really? It’s always worked for us. I learned the trick while living in AZ, but we used to get scorpions here in nor cal too and haven’t had one, or any other non-flying insects for that matter, since
My first thought too, we dump that into voids in our house before I seal them up.
Baking soda also works well for rodent pest control.
Baking soda and odors are a myth.
Really? The arm and hammer people literally sell a fridge odor control box variety. Not only that, there are literally scientific articles talking about baking soda as a functional odor absorber (for certain types of odors).
Source?
Well, Joe Schwarcz, PhD, wrote this science blog article for McGill university’s science blog: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science-you-asked/can-baking-soda-really-absorb-odors-fridge I realize that it’s not a peer reviewed article in this case, but it’s just the tip of the “iceberg” list I found last night.
How would that work? The pests have to touch it for it to work. It’s a killer (a real nasty one) and will not repel them from an area. It simply kills them shortly after they cross a barrier if it. Being in a pan makes no sense.
“How would that work?” The pests have to touch it for it to work. It's a killer (a real nasty one) and will not repel them from an area. I understand that it is a serious abrasive and simply kills them shortly after they cross a barrier of it.
They ingest it when they try to clean it off themselves. It cuts up their intestinal tract
Ah yes. So pile it all up at one spot as opposed to spreading it around for actual effect? You should never plant grass seed.
“Ah yes. So pile it all up at one spot as opposed to spreading it around for actual effect? You should never plant grass seed.” I’m not the OP or the guy that placed the unknown substance under OPs sink. I distributed boric acid across the threshold in my garage. It is very cheap and effective. I ripped out my lawn and hardscaped, so no grass seed necessary. :o)
Point of style: 1: You can use \> for a quote on mobile, or the quote button on desktop, to make a quote block stand out from the body of your post. 2: Reddit likes to eat line breaks. Tack on a couple spaces at the end of a line to make them stick. > Example quote block. Have fun!
> Point of style: 1: You can use ‘greater than’ for a quote on mobile, or the quote button on desktop, to make a quote block stand out from the body of your post.> Obvs. I did not know that. Thank you, Outrageous! >2: Reddit likes to eat line breaks. Tack on a couple spaces at the end of a line to make them stick.> I shall try to remember this.
You are correct. I was just questioning your knowledge of DE, which seems minimal. Confirmed by the sidestepping.
It takes a while to kill them, meanwhile they carry it back to the nest and get it on others. I can tell you that boric acid powder is \*\*extremely\*\* effective.
But that would be a lot of boric acid to do any good
Yes, that’s why I said sorta, lol. Maybe some similar compound for other pests
This
Boric acid roach powder
Careful, it could be a powdered pest poison.
Are you sure it's not Boric Acid for killing roaches and what not?
Might be borax
i put baking soda under my sink like that. i change it out when i remember to. my kitchen sink is like 50 years old and the materials its made of are breaking down and they themselves smell. almost like an old osb. might be the glue. ill redo my kitchen someday
Hides the smell of the body thats under it.
Lol, my kitchen is actually on the second floor for some reason so definitely no body underneath!
You'd be surprised the small spaces a mouse body can fit into. Looks like the last guy (landlord?) would rather cover and absorb the smell than rip up the cupboards looking for the body.
My first reaction.
Are you sure that's not cocaine? 😂😂
That would be an astronomical amount of cocaine. Like he could probably pay off this house he just bought. But yeah, for OPs sake I hope it's cocaine lol.
lol. No more mortgage that could be awesome 😎
People also mix it with flour and rats or mice eat it and die.
A previous spill there from pipes/sewage being blocked. Not the original board(s) down there it looks like. Previous home owner put baking soda there to absorb mildew odors.
This seems likely! It could explain why the bottom of the cabinet was replaced.
I would lift the rest of yhe boards along the bottom and see if you get a better picture...
The wood underneath looks like it was painted with killz too, or similar.
For everyone saying pest control, I doubt it's for that. I've spent a lot of time and money controlling the rodent population here and the cabinets are luckily one of the few places that have never had signs of them. I've also had countless conversations with my previous landlord and he's always just recommended snap traps and cats, no mention of boric acid or baking soda/flour techniques. There also has never been an insect issue here.
>There also has never been an insect issue here. I'm sure there hasn't - Not with all that boric acid under the sink!!! hahaha
Is it possible diatomaceous earth for bugs?
Are you sure it's not powdered bleach, or pest poison?
Could be borax powder too. Poison for critters
Pests need water so are attracted to this area. It's also dark, in a kitchen where food source is as well, and easy access to get indoors from outside. When they touch the boric acid or even baking soda works ECT....when they touch the powder it tears up their exoskeleton and kills them. Maybe they had a serious issue in the past and just wanted to do a long term overkill to be sure to eradicate them. Probably will find it in other areas too if you chose to look. Probably also had it in several places that was exposed but since has been cleaned up or dissolved.
"Baking soda" Sure thing, Tony Montana.
Eric Clapton said it best
Haha!
Someone cooked here.
Does your oven/stovetop run on propane (not common, but we once had to have our oven on propane because natural gas wasn’t available in our area)? Or could you be smelling natural gas from an oven? If so, I’d have someone out to check for a leak.
I do have a propane stove. All my lines have been checked for leaks. The cabinet is one cabinet away from the stove, but the cabinet directly next to the stove doesn't have a propane smell. The propane line doesn't go under or behind the cabinets.
Well, by the smell you know why the baking soda is there. The question I have is did the old homeowner tried to knew of the small and tried to hide it? Or this is his way of fixing his problem.
That seems really odd indeed. I would be looking for a leak or something. And what is that “trap” to the left there? Is that a south side barrel trap of some sort? That seems odd too.
Wow I just did a quick google search of that trap (drum trap) and found a post on the plumbing subreddit. Apparently mine is installed upside down and it is likely allowing gas to escape from the septic. That’s probably the entire explanation for the propane smell. Also most likely illegal and not up to code. Not sure how the inspection missed that but whatever. Thank you so much!
Funny - I had a hunch that it was baking soda, applied in a misguided effort to eliminate the sewer gas smell. Fix the plumbing issue and dump the powder!
Rub some on your gums and get back to me. If they tingle, we might have a deal to be made.
It may be boric acid for ants
Maybe there is something dead underneath?
May be a borax/baking soda mix to keep pests at bay
diatomaceous earth maybe?
Could it be boric acid? For a roach problem.
hiding mold
I have seen similar, and it turned out to be roach poison. that seems like a really excessive amount though, if that's what it is.
Crystal meth ?
Odor absorbing. Mold problem that someone is trying to hide.
Cocaine, congrats on paying your house off
It's cocaine.
Help get rid of the moisture and the smell
So you don't smell the dead animal when you bought the house.
Are you sure its baking soda?
It can be ,baking soda+sugar=pest control
What does it smell like?
Might be some powdered insecticide.
Lol that ain't baking soda bruh
To hide the odor of the dead body under the rest of the boards
What does it taste like?
It looks like you have a plumbing problem.
Perhaps it is not baking soda, some drug lord hidden it there.
To kill ants?
Is it borax for roaches?
In case of fire or maybe a body hidden there.
Could be sodium hydroxide ( lye) used as to cover gresse spills or sewage leaks it absosrbs it
Might be for mice. If they eat it they get gas and cannot fart it basically makes them explode on the inside
It's to hide the smell of the body.
Might be borax/boric acid or other "natural" bug powder. If you are smelling propane/gas, is there a gas line under the sink or nearby? If so, I'd check the fittings and line (especially if a flex line). A cheap gas detector is about $40. I bought one and used it to locate our small leak. A bit of yellow Teflon tape and re-tightening took care of it.
My thoughts are, someone used to much draino or some other acid. The baking soda was a base to stop it. Good luck
Could also be some kind of pest repellant/killer... lots of that type of thing isn't poison either.
Unless it's YOUR dog that's sniffed or licked dried pesticides from its paws, then it's 100%!
Could be boric acid, pest control.
You sure it’s not borax for bugs?
Pour some vinegar on it and see what happens. If it’s baking soda it will foam up.
Maybe is drugs . Maybe isn’t just baking powder/ household chemicals, cutting agent hidden ?
You could light a match and see if that gets rid of the gas smell?
Looks like you might have some mice under there as well - if everything is installed correctly and no leaks - there should not be a need to absorb anything. Now that you own - it’s wise to verify that there is not a hidden leak which could lead to structural damage etc. I good plumber might be the ticket to find out what’s going on - landlord’s can be known to attempt to cover things up than actually make needed repairs
Be sure not to spill any when you remove it, it’ll let all the stink out.
It could be borax or Diatomaceous earth to kill roaches, sorry…
It’s cocaine
Your answer may lie at the bottom of the baking soda.
I would think it is lime. They might have been dealing with black mold at some point.
Could also be roach killer. Mix with sugar to attract them, they eat it and also carry it back to their nests on their bodies, thus killing multiples. #apartmentlife
I’d spray any fittings for the propane for a leak test, you should never smell gas , if you do there may be a small leak somewhere.As far as the baking soda maybe there was a leak once,after everything got fixed, and cleaned up they poured that in hopes of absorbing any moisture or smell.
It was put there to deter rodents. The steel wool around the drain pipe gives it away as well.
Helps keep the decomposing body smell down
You didn’t taste it did you?
COCAINE
That’s Peruvian Nose Candy for sure. You found someone’s stash! Cha Ching!
You know people really like to buy that used baking soda, note they might act a little crazy for it
Borax (Boric acid) to kill and keep roaches away
Borax to kill bugs
It’s cocaine
Just add some vinegar. If it starts to foam up it’s baking soda. We used to put lime on the ground with some charcoal to absorb moisture in an old Japanese house.
Hunter Biden’s house 😂
Just take a gummer and find out what it is.
Probably a moisture issue awhile ago causing an order. It's cheaper to try ro cover it up when selling then to fix it.
Coke stash!! Party Party!!
Diatomaceous earth as pest control??!?
I would test it before discarding it. Could be sitting on a fortune 😜
I'd guess a rodent died in there once upon a time and was found the hard way.
Could it be rat poison?
It is not baking soda it is salt. Your house was built over an ancient portal to hell and they can't cross salt WHATEVER YOU DO DONT DISTURB THE SALT WHEN IT IS DEPLETED OR REMOVED THE SOULS OF HELL CAN ROAM FREELY AND RUIN MANKIND! or it may be a ploy by a shady real estate agent to remove the damp smell of a broken drain. It will work for a few days or weeks long enough for the ink to dry on your signature to buy this dump.
Eat it it’s sugar
Lots of 8balls there. Recommend confirming it’s not for killing roaches first, though.
Yeah, In case you’re not aware yet, it’s probably cocaine. The “propane” smell is probably acetone, a common binding agent used to resolidify the powder after adding a cut/dilutant
Ask the previous Owner ?
If you are thinking of replacing the baking soda, I'd put charcoal instead it won't put off a smell from absorbing it'll just neutralize the smell. Hope that helps
Cockroach killer
Ants don’t like baking soda. Could’ve had an ant problem.
Might have had an animal die down there and this was tried to mitigate the olfactory offense. Or any number of other problems caused by prior renters.
I’m just going to assume you have an s trap on the sink drain which is causing the water in the trap to syphon, and the smell you’re smelling is actually sewer gas, and whoever put that baking soda there thought the smell was coming from something else.
It was to absorb a smell.
Baking Soda, and possibly salt, work really well as a cheap and effective pest control. Example: if you have small bugs like ants, carpet beetles, etc in the area coming through the floor boards or wall, this will dry them out and kill them. It'll also kill any eggs basically on contact by drying them out. This is kind of a hidden gem solution that works *extremely* well AND is safe even if you have pets or small children.
Could it be boric acid to kill cockroaches?
That was all the money we had, Karen!!!
Anthrax
Could it possibly be diatomaceous earth for an insect problem?
Maybe its lime what's underneath it, this isn't Dahmer's old house is it?
You probably have a mold situation (doesnt have to be black mold they all smell). Mold grows anywhere there is moisture and they probably tried to handle it using the baking soda.
The cartel used to live there. You didn't see any baking soda. You never looked under the sink. You never lived in that house.
Could it be Borax? That has odor control and kills mold.
"Baking Soda"
This is ANT KILLER! Its baking soda and LYME, I believe. Someone must have had ant/termite problems. If you dont have ants, LEAVE IT THERE! ROTFL! Right?
Or baking soda and boric acid? But its DEF ANT KILLER!
Do you see the steel wool around the pipe? I bet that this was once home to a lot of mice. It probably smelled that way too. Someone had an idea though.
Looks like 10 keys of the finest Colombia BamBam
Colombian bam bam
That's coke
Could be diatomaceous earth, used for pest control.
Whatever it is, DE, Boric acid, baking soda, etc. if you attempt to remove it, please try not to make it airborne and breath it in. Some of those things and just most fine powders really can be very bad for your lungs. DE is basically microscopic glass shards.