So, how do you know if what you smell is mold and not just the occasional odd smell in your home? Stachybotrys and its mycotoxins have been described as smelling like:Īspergillus and its mycotoxins have been described as smelling like:Ĭhaetomium and its mycotoxins have been described as smelling likeĪs you can see, mold can emit many different types of odor, just like it can come in many different colors and textures. Let’s look at some specific mold smells first and then dive into the “all-inclusive” odors.
Some mycotoxins are known to produce a specific smell but there are quite a few “common” smells that can be attributed to any type of mold and mycotoxin. I wrote it off to our house holding onto cooking odors until I actually began to smell like grease all the time. Super odd odor that never went away and something I could never find the source of. That is literally the only way I can describe it. But mainly, our house smelled like burnt chorizo. I personally got a whiff of cat urine in my moldy home from time to time. For example, stachybotrus which produces trichothecene has been described as smelling like cat urine. Mycotoxins typically produce rather pungent odors that range from everyday odors that are out of place to nearly indescribable odors.
(If you aren’t sure what mycotoxins are all about, I suggest you read my post on Mycotoxins before finishing up this post.) What you are actually smelling are the mycotoxins produced by mold. If you were to ask a stranger on the street what mold smells like you likely will get a response akin to “a damp basement,” “musty,” or “an old house.” While these descriptions can be accurate, they only really scratch the surface of what mold can smell like. What does mold smell like in a bathroom?Ĭlearly the topic of how mold smells is a confusing one since it doesn’t smell the same from person to person.If you were to run a query right now, you would see the following questions Great question and one that is very popular in search engine results.