happy smiling pug in backyard

How Can I Keep My Backyard Clean and Smelling Fresh?

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I know that it’s summertime at my house: the sun is shining, the days are long, and I’m frequently refilling pet water bowls! Being a dog-sitter, this is my busy season. People are going on vacation and they want their dogs to stay at my safe and fun home while they are away. With so many dogs in and out of my house, I’m spending much of my time this summer keeping my backyard clean and poop-free! So what is the best way to remove pet odor and what are some easily pet odor remover products to try?

For those of us who have multiple pets, keeping our yard clean can be a big issue, especially in the heat of summer. Hot poop starts to smell quickly and attracts lots of flies. No one wants a stinky or fly-infested yard, so I thought I’d pass along the tips and techniques I use to keep my yard clean.

Scoop Every Day to Remove Pet Odor

someone picking up dog poop with a pooper scooper.

Keeping my yard poop-free each and every day is super important. I use a small plastic bathroom-sized trash can lined with a plastic grocery bag and a Petcrest Dog Rake and Scooper to keep poop out of my yard. Scoop once or twice a day depending on how many dogs are at my house. I prefer to scoop after doggy breakfast and dinner, right after everyone has gone outside to do their business.

Scooping the poop right away every day has a couple of benefits. First, flies don’t have a chance to land on the poop and lay eggs. And second, dogs like to run around and play with each other right after they poop, and I don’t want them to step in the fresh pile they just dropped!

After scooping the yard, I end up with a bag full of poop. It is then important to double-bag this poop before putting it in my big outside garbage can. I love using my Petmate Scoop because I get to keep my hands clean and far away from all of the poop. I simply rinse out my garbage can and rinse off my pooper scooper with the backyard hose after I scoop, and then clean them with bleach every few weeks.

Perfume for My Yard

About once a week, after I scoop my yard, I also like to give it an extra fresh smell. Any Hollywood Feed New York Stain & Odor Remover scent is awesome as a pet odor remover in the yard or home. They all have nice scents, not a really strong or chemically smell. I simply spray it over my entire yard, even on my fences and lawn furniture. It also works on gravel and concrete! It’s fast, easy and not messy in the least. My yard smells nice afterward…not like I’m trying to remove pet odor, but just fresh. I think it’s a great product.

Trap Those Pesky Flies

No matter how quickly I scoop my yard, there are flies around. This may be a bigger issue for some people than for others. If you have a big yard and your dog poops by the back fence, you may not have a big fly issue. If you only have one dog, you may not have a fly issue. Certain pet foods (therefore certain poop) may attract flies more than other foods.

My backyard is on the smaller side, and I have lots of dogs eating lots of different foods coming and going all of the time. My big garbage can fills with bags of poop over the course of the week. There’s no way to prevent flies from coming to my house. But what I can do is trap them once they get here to keep them from crawling on the rim of my beer or bothering my husband (and our food) when he’s cooking out!

three flies on a stick outsideMy wonderful husband is responsible for fly-trapping at my house. It’s pretty easy (and a little gross). We found some amazing fly traps, called Rescue Fly Trap or the Spartan Pro Tech Mosquito repellant that’s safe to use around cats and dogs. The Rescue Fly Trap has a powder inside, that when mixed with water, flies love. He simply fills the bag with some water to mix with the powder, and then hangs the bag near our garbage can. Flies flock to it, crawl down inside the bag to get to the solution. Then, they cannot get back out. They are trapped and then they die without laying any more eggs in my yard and without pestering us anymore.

When the bag is full, my husband cuts it down into a plastic bag. Then double-bags it, and it goes in the trash can to await garbage pick-up. Then a new trap is hung. I have never found a more effective solution for ridding an area of flies. 

 

Ever Tried Lime as a Pet Odor Remover?

I haven’t personally used lime for pet odors, but I have been looking into it as an option. The first thing we should know is that there are two common kinds of lime. One is dangerous for pets and people and can cause burns. The other is safe.

DANGEROUS LIME: Hydrated Lime, also known as “burn lime”, “quicklime”, and “calcium oxide”

SAFE LIME: Agricultural Lime, also known as “aglime”, “biolime”, “dolomite”, “garden lime”, and “calcium carbonate”

yellow lab puppy playing in the green grass
Agricultural Lime is a soil additive and is made from pulverized limestone or chalk. The active ingredient is calcium carbonate (which I do use for my homemade dishwasher powder). We can sprinkle Agricultural Lime pellets wherever we are having an issue with pet odor, even in our flower beds, and then spray with water to wash it into the ground. Agricultural Lime helps with pet odors by creating a dry, arid and alkaline environment in which bacteria has trouble surviving and reproducing. It can also be an insect repellent!

It can be a bit of a chore to keep my backyard clean, but I think it’s much worse to not enjoy my backyard in the summer because of flies and pet odor. Doing just a few minutes of work every day makes the whole summer better, in my opinion!

What have you used to keep your backyard clean? Any tips or tricks to share? Let us know in the comment section below.

Related blogs: How to Clean Dog Toys, Keeping Your Dog Clean: Tips & Tricks from a Groomer, 5 Must-Have Products for Your Senior Pet, How to Budget for Your Pet, Can Pets Have Allergies?

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This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Karen

    Thanks for your words , I moved to the south 2 years ago & have never in my life seen bugs like this , lol. The tip on the lime dangerous & non was huge , thanks

    1. Sarah

      I completely agree! Would have never known about the line or that one’s dangerous and the other isn’t?‍♀️… I have a £125 American bulldog and and he poops a massive amount and never in one spot literally walks and makes it trail it’s a whole thing picking it up honestly seriously annoying ?

  2. Alicia

    This article gave me the exact info I needed!

  3. Lynn Cooper

    Thank you for sharing. Going to try both the order eliminator and the fly bags

  4. Erin R

    I like these ideas. I’ve been looking to add something in our can that we store our dog poop to help eliminate the odors, like some kind of neutralizer, that we would just sprinkle or shake on top of the feces, but I can’t find anything. I’m surprised that there isn’t anything out there. We have two retrievers and need something to help.

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