The Big Stink

[kalypso]

I am in desparate need of either a cleaning product or laundry method to remove the very strong, very pungent odor of tuna from several pieces of clothing that fell victim to a punctured can of tuna packed in olive oil on the return flight home from Italy. Repeated trips through the washer with Tide, OxyClean and a couple of other products has been ineffective. The odor is impervious to everything I've tried thus far. In fact, it seems to have gotten strong with each washing.

Help? Anyone have any ideas - sure fire or not - for removing tuna odors from clothing, they pretty much smell like a tuna packing plant

(List mods, if this post is in the wrong place, please feel free to move it to whereever it shoud more appropriately be.)

[petite tête de chou]

I'd like to know, too. Months ago I splashed fish sauce on a towel. Good lord what a scent!! I threw out the towel. But I still have that bottle of fish sauce with it's difficult-to-close lid.

Edited May 19, 2006 by petite tête de chou (log)

[Sugarella]

A LOT of baking soda dissolved in warm water, then soak the clothes for an hour or so, then wash. If that doesn't do it, nothing will.

....Actually.... you can also try soaking the clothes in straight vinegar too. That works on cat pee...might work on fish.

Edited May 19, 2006 by Sugarella (log)

[mizducky]

Lessee ... Heloise doesn't have anything about stinky fish smell, but in the case of strong smoke odors (i.e. absorbed by clothing after a smoky house fire), she recommends taking the clothes to a drycleaner that has an ozone cleaner, so you might try that for your tuna-stricken clothing.

Edited May 19, 2006 by mizducky (log)

[Mistinguett]

Did you try Febreze?

[adegiulio]

I know this sounds crazy, but Simple Green will get it out. I use it on everything that has a strong smell and it has never let me down (it gets out diesel from clothing....diesel!!). Spray the stuff like crazy, let it soak in, and wash. It will work, much better than baking soda, which I think is hugely over-rated.

[ghostrider]

There's a product called Nature's Miracle, to be found in pet stores, which is the first thing I've found that actually gets rid of the odor of cat urine. It's designed to do that specifically (there are cat & dog versions), so I have no idea whether it'd work on tuna oil, but if nothing else works, maybe it's worth an experiment.

[Mayhaw Man]

Did you eat the Tuna anyway? What kind was it? Why was it so good that you smuggled it back? American Tuna? Not good enough for the likes of you? Something smells fishy.

Perhaps this spillage is just karma-

And, on a more serious note, I am crazy about Simple Green-you can clean your car engine with it or you can get stains and odors out of clothing with it. The stuff is magical, I tell you. Magical.

[kalypso]

Did you eat the Tuna anyway? What kind was it? Why was it so good that you smuggled it back? American Tuna? Not good enough for the likes of you? Something smells fishy.

Perhaps this spillage is just karma-

And, on a more serious note, I am crazy about Simple Green-you can clean your car engine with it or you can get stains and odors out of clothing with it. The stuff is magical, I tell you. Magical.

←

Of course, I ate the tuna. Yes, it was good. A little on the strong side, but tasty none the less and surprisingly tender. I've read some much about the virtues of ventresca tuna packed in olive oil that I wanted to give it a go. I wasn't smuggling, this was a legal import. I declared it an no one batted an eye clearing customs. If you're interested in some good tuna packed here in the U.S. try The Tuna Guys out of Gig Harbor, WA. Love their tuna.

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions, I can see I have a date with my washer and dryer this weekend. I've used Simple Green before, not had much luck, but will try again. Having bred and shown pedigree cats for 18 years I should have though of Nature's Miracle myself. Never had much luck with it either, but I can there are other similar products out there.

[Mayhaw Man]

Why was it so good that you smuggled it back?

←

I wasn't smuggling, this was a legal import. I declared it an no one batted an eye clearing customs.

←

I only used the term smuggling in the best possible way.

[MelissaH]

I'd go for the vinegar treatment myself. Most of the "fishy" smells are from amines (chemical compounds containing nitrogen), which are bases. If you treat bases with acids, you neutralize the two and make a salt. Since the salts are not volatile, you don't smell the amines anymore. Furthermore, the salts are likely to be water-soluble and relatively easy to wash away.

Chemistry at work!

MelissaH

[kalypso]

I'd go for the vinegar treatment myself. Most of the "fishy" smells are from amines (chemical compounds containing nitrogen), which are bases. If you treat bases with acids, you neutralize the two and make a salt. Since the salts are not volatile, you don't smell the amines anymore. Furthermore, the salts are likely to be water-soluble and relatively easy to wash away.

Chemistry at work!

MelissaH

←

Melissa, thanks for the suggestion. I tried Fabreze yesterday and while it made progress, my clothes now merely just smell rather than reek. I was going to try Simple Green this afternoon followed by another round of Fabreze. Maybe I'll give the vinegar treatment a try first and see what happens.

[adegiulio]

Simple Green!! I gotta know if it will work on tuna stank...