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Smelly White Powder Found In Barn??

E

eastexan

Member
When I first moved here, I found a small plastic barrel that was left here by the previous owners. When I cracked the lid, I found it was about half full of white powder that had a horrible smell. Not a rotten smell, but a strong chemical type smell.

Just to look at it, it looks like lime. But I don't remember powdered lime having much of a smell. At least the kind of lime that's put on lawns.

This place had been a goat farm before we bought it, and I've heard that some farmers put lime on animal carcasses to desolve them.
So I wonder if this could be a certain type of a very strong lime that's used for that purpose?

I don't mean to sound dumb here, but do any of you have any idea as to what it could be? Thanks
 
I can't help with your question.

Keep safety in mind though. Just popping open a container and sniffing it around a farm is never a good idea with chemicals around. No matter what is in there you probably don't want any of it in your eyes, mouth, etc. especially if you do not know what it is. Better to be safe than have a severe chemical burn runining your day.
 
I'd probably try to get it to someone else. It could be toxaphene or something for flies and lice. It could also be litharge (white lead) used to color white paint back in the day. Doesnt take much of that to kill a fellow grave yard dead. Its not green so thats a good sign its not Paris Green (arsenic). Guy who was renting the house on a farm we rented found some green powder that looked like sheet rock dust in bags. He threw it out in the cow pasture. 12 dead cows the next morning later he called me. That was Paris Green. There was a lead arsenate that was used for grasshoppers back in the 30s that I think was white too. They used to mix it with wheat seed and molasses and broadcast. Bottom line is, if you dont know what it is, treat it as dangerous and let someone else identify and deal with it.
 
LISTEN to the hayman; there's been lots of deadly chemicals used on farms thru the years. I've sprayed enough Guthion, Methyl Parathion, etc to kill everyone in the county, but always kept it in the (labeled) original bags, but everyone didn't.
 
i found a old barrel of this well cleaning out the old barn on the backside of the barrel it was labeled lead for painting
 
Could be alsack lime(sp) use to be used to dust on walkways in barn and to spread on Manure piles to keep down fly"s and oder. I know you could stir up a hornet nest but you might want to have Haz-mat check it and dispose of whatever it is. I bought a farm and we had a lot of unsavory looking individual stopping in and asking to see the former owmer. Later found some white powder stuff in paper sacks. Called the law and guess what? It was Drugs. They got rid of it for me.
gitrib
 
I think you best find someone who can identify it and deal with it appropriately. Once upon a time there were a lot of powdered chemicals... insecticides, etc.
I'd want to be pretty carefull with it until I knew what it was.

Rod
 
IF you have a larger fire department nearby they have a machine (name escapes me) that will ID the powder. Take about a ounce in a metal can with a lid to them. Explain the situation and I know they"ll help. Please don"t just bury it cause it could contaminate the ground water or kill animals that come in contact. Good Luck.
 
You definatly need to check it out with an expert but from your comment about the way it smells, it[i:3f79689840] might [/i:3f79689840]be Orthene tobbaco bug poison that was standard issue in SC for killing fire ants. Smells horrible but it works. You just sprinkle about a tablespoon of the power *around* the ant bed. Next day most of them are dead. Judging from your handle, you've probably got fire ants. No danger of dogs & cats bothering it - smells to bad!

....probably another good reason to quit smoking *anything* that's had that stuff near it, too!
 
Around here they have a collection program that has been making stops in various counties. I think it's called 'clean sweep' or something like that. You might want to see if your county has something like this.

Basically the organization sets up a collection for people to drop off their unwanted chemicals and pesticides at no charge. The idea is that it lets people get rid of chemicals that they don't want or are banned. This way they don't remain behind in someones barn or get dumped in a field.
 
About 1/4 century ago, I found a stockpile of DDT in one of my newly acquired sheds. I went to the County Agent but he said he could not take it from me for disposal.

All he said was "We go out for lunch at noon" I can take a hint and it was outside his door at 12:10.
 
Treat it as an unknown hazardous waste. Do not smell it, as it can possibly mess up your lungs of other body parts, sometimes years later.

I was doing carpentry work on an old farmhouse and found a couple of Mason quart jars of white powder. Fortunately the label was still readable, it said "arsenic". During the dustbowl days, arsenic was available by the barrel to farmers to halt the huge destruction of crop done by grasshoppers. I was lucky the label was still readable. I did not determine if it had a bad smell.

I do not trust any white powder!

Stay safe!

Paul in MN
 
Is that the stuff that smells like rotten cabbage? We used some Ortho stuff, one of the nastiest smells I can remember..
 
Maybe it's "carbide". put a spoonful in a cup
of water and see if it bubbles, Carbide, in water
make atceteline gas...it burns!
 
Thanks, everyone. You've given me some ideas.

I'm treating it as being hazardous. I could have thrown it in a dumpster, poured it out on the ground somewhere, or buried it. That would have been the easy thing to do. But I'm being conscientious about it and intend to dispose of it properly. That's why I posted here, to hear your ideas.

I don't know why I never thought of the county extention agent. I'll check with him first, and then go from there. I don't think any of our fire departments are sophisticated enought around here to have a machine that could ID the powder. :D
I think it's probably lice or fly powder. If I can't find out what it is, I'll check out if there's a possible hazmat collection program going on.

Thanks again. I appreciate all of your suggestions.
 
(quoted from post at 16:56:47 09/14/09) You definatly need to check it out with an expert but from your comment about the way it smells, it[i:75dcd18315] might [/i:75dcd18315]be Orthene tobbaco bug poison that was standard issue in SC for killing fire ants. Smells horrible but it works. You just sprinkle about a tablespoon of the power *around* the ant bed. Next day most of them are dead. Judging from your handle, you've probably got fire ants. No danger of dogs & cats bothering it - smells to bad!

....probably another good reason to quit smoking *anything* that's had that stuff near it, too!
Click to expand...


Yeah, unfortunately we have plenty of those rascially fire ants here in East Texas. But the silver lining to that black cloud is that we no longer have ticks & chiggers. I remember growing up in the 50's & 60's and getting covered with ticks & chiggers. So it's nice not having them anymore.

Bud, I agree with you and Davis about how badly Ortho Fire Ant Killer smells. I bought a can of it one time and it somehow got put in an old desk we had on the back porch, and forgotten about. It was there during the hot summer months, and we got to wondering what that horrible smell was on the back porch. It smelled like a cross between rotten eggs, cooked cabbage, and dirty socks. :D
We finally tracked it down to the can of Ortho in the desk.

After I got rid of it, the old wooden desk still smelled for a long time afterward.

Ronnie
 
> Sounds like the powder they used for lice.

Could be the powder that's still used for lice. It definitely sounds like a pesticide of some type to me. Treat it as highly dangerous and don't try to "dispose" of it by dumping it where it can runoff into the watershed. Most pesticides are extremely toxic to fish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin
 
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