Odors can be strong memory triggers. Open your hunting gear tote or the duffle bag where you stow your camo and you’ll likely get a snoot full of “That reminds me of …”

Some odors can be great for nostalgia, but over time, those peculiar scents can permanently embed themselves in things that you don’t want them to stick to.

“But I use scent eliminators before I go hunting,” you say.

Good. You should. The problem with long-term embedded odors picked up from storage environments such as closets, campers, plastic totes and the like is that they can get so infused in gear that it can minimize the effective duration of your scent-elimination treatments.

There are several commercial environmental scent-elimination solutions on the market today — products designed to put the smack-down on odor-causing chemicals and bacteria in large areas. But, there are several reasons why these aren’t the best solutions for the outdoorsman.

Take commercial scent eliminators and air fresheners, for example. We’re talking about products that you’ll find in large retail stores where you purchase your everyday household goods. While these often do a good job of killing some scents and masking others, 99 percent of the time they include “robust” fragrances that none of us want on our outdoor gear. That might not be so bad if you don’t mind smelling like a lavender bomb went off in your shorts, but I have serious doubts that deer would find it appealing. In the end, trading a “bad” odor for a strong odor that humans may find pleasing is simply bad mojo for outdoor paraphernalia.

One odor-eliminating technology that can remove some odors on a large scale is the ozone generator. These have become quite popular for outdoor sports applications, but what is rarely talked about are the potentially harmful side effects.

Did you know that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, high concentrations of ozone, that can be created from commercial “indoor-use” ozone generators, can be harmful to humans? High ozone concentrations can be especially harmful to the respiratory system, with several alarming effects, like throat irritation, inflammation of lung tissue, chest pain, decreased lung function and shortness of breath. Furthermore, peer-reviewed data concludes that for ozone generators to effectively destroy or minimize the growth of some bacteria or other biological organisms, ozone concentrations would have to exceed public health standards by five to 10 times.
Another potential problem with high concentrations of ozone is that exposure can damage certain materials. The California Air Resources Board lists plastics, rubber, metals, paint and fibers as being susceptible to ozone damage. Take a quick inventory of your hunting gear and consider what materials do not fall under those same categories. Not much, right?

Let’s face it, whether it’s our hunting rig, bedroom, camper, storage closet, basement, plastic bins or any other large area where we need to knock out odors to help keep our deer gear fresh, the conventional solutions just don’t fit the bill — until now.

Earlier this year, the folks at Wildlife Research Center took a hard look at the big picture of scent elimination and management as they apply not only to hunters, but active outdoor types in general. As a company with more than three decades of experience in producing topical scent-elimination products under their Scent Killer® brand, it only made sense for them to develop their technology for broader applications. The result is the new Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer.

As the name implies, Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer goes beyond topical application. Rather than requiring direct application (which you can do), Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer is designed for neutralizing odors in large areas. Think of cabins that have been closed up for months at a time, storage lockers, closets, RVs, duffel bags or any spaces where odors tend to accumulate and contaminate the items within them.

For sportsmen, trucks are prime candidates for treatment. Unless your vehicle has rolled off the lot during the last month, it probably has plenty of unwelcome odors in the carpet, seats, headliner and anywhere odors can seep in or provide a growth medium for bacteria. After a season of muddy boots, wet clothes and gas station food, our vehicles are always ready for a deep clean. Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer doesn’t clean, but it does knock out the bad odors that can work their way into our hunting gear regardless of the scent-management precautions that we may take before heading into the field.

Aside from its odor-eliminating (not odor-masking) performance, Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer contains no artificial scents. In fact, it is odorless, so it won’t leave behind floral scents or any other smells that we don’t want to drag into the field. Since it is unscented, we can be sure that the odors we’re no longer smelling in our gear bags and camps are gone and not simply being masked by some more pleasing aroma.

Another upside of the deodorizer is that unlike most scent-elimination products, this stuff doesn’t leave behind any residue. It does its job and afterward you don’t even know it is there except for the absence of foul odors.

Since the deodorizer isn’t an aroma mask, it works on the molecular level to change the chemical makeup of molecules that produce the odors that we can smell. Change the molecular structure of a scent and you change or eliminate the scent altogether. This is what Wildlife Research Center calls its NO ZONE™ technology.

Did you catch that play on words — NO ZONE™? It’s there for a reason.

Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer does not utilize ozone, therefore, it is completely safe to use. It also doesn’t have any of the harmful side effects that ozone generators can produce, and of serious consequence to sportsmen, it will not harm or damage the materials that make up our hunting gear.

So how well does it work? Among several other applications, we tried it in a musty basement, and after misting the area, the heavy mustiness was gone and the air smelled much more fresh. Another convincer of its effectiveness came when we had one of our young dogs in the office for the day. Yep, there was an “accident” and out came the spray bottle. A few squirts of the atomized deodorizer in the room and the puppy accident was no more.

Finally, one of the economical benefits of Scent Killer® Air & Space Deodorizer is that it is not a hunting-season-only product. Although it was developed for the broad needs of hunters and outdoors enthusiasts in general, the no-scent, no-residue, no-ozone formulation makes it ideal for year-round use in the home, the car or truck, or anywhere odors tend to develop and linger.

Would it work in our hunting camp’s 20-plus-year-old outhouse? Probably not (the only fix for that is going to be digging a new hole!), but for most enclosed areas, the deodorizer is a quick, easy solution to odor problems. Wildlife Research Center also stands behind the product with a 100 percent, money-back guarantee, so there’s nothing to lose except the stink.

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