Bath drain smells of rotten eggs

[JohnKettleyIsAWeathermanAndSoIsMichaelFish]

It's just the bathroom drain, not the sink (not that I've noticed). I've googled it and understand it's sulphur. Can I clear it myself or do I need to get someone in?

Sorry, too late to edit. It's only when I pull the plug out of the bath. It seems fine the rest of the time.

It could be that the trap had dried out. Do you use the bath regularly? If not, try pouring a large jug of water down it, to see if it helps. We had a shower with this problem.

Ignore me so!

It could be that. Draining the bath doesn't seem to help though. Do I need to put some drain unblocker down?

Edited to add: I do spend a lot of time at DPs so it's not used daily so could be drying out.

It will be a mucky overflow, when you pull the plug it pushes the air out of the overflow and along comes the smell.
You can try flushing it through with various bleach/disinfectant+warm water or whatever your favourite it to sanitise it. It's a common problem with kitchen sinks too due to food going down them a lot.
The nuclear option is to dismantle and clean it out.

Could be drain worms. Quite common. Even in the bathroom because of the dead skin cells!

From Google.

For smelly drains/drainworms, the first step would be to clean them out with a commercial drain cleaning solution, or a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. (Preferably white.) This will not only remove the organic material build up on the inside of the pipes, but can quickly kill any drain worms in the pipes as well.

And do this every 3 months to keep them at bay. Baking soda and vinegar (white) will shift them,

@SabreIsMyFave I’ve never even heard of drain worms. 🤢 This is nightmare fuel.

It could be the sewer outside starting to block up. Sometimes the first indication is when the smell starts to vent from plugholes and toilets.

Baking soda, or bicarbonate of soda, and vinegar cancel each other out. People think the fizzing is doing something, but it isn't really. I'd use soda crystals (not the same thing) poured down the plughole then put about a cup of boiling water down before you bed. Flush through with a kettle full of boiling water in the morning.

Well the things I've learnt on MN today...

Drain Worms & dead skin cells.
Baking soda and vinegar neutralise each other.
And it's only 08:15

Get a drain snake.... Sooo satisfying!!

Meant to add Tesco from the pound section.....

Drain worms sounds like a prank, how on earth are they going to get in there? And how are they going to survive? I think AI is pulling your leg, I've never seen anything like that in any drain.
Looking at Google it sounds like an American thing to be honest.

My bathroom sink goes a bit eggy once a year, I stick some mr muscle unblocker down there and it seems to clear the pipes. I'd certainly try that in the first instance before paying someone to come round.

Possibly the water in the u bend is getting syphoned out by a toilet flushing elsewhere.

We get this in the main bathroom after having a loft conversion above. A temp fix is run some water down the u bend to refill it. A better fix will be to replace the u bend with one which has a one way air vent to allow it to draw air in.

FFS, you have clearly not googled it.. (Or if you have you looked at ONE answer. (The fecking AI one!) Plenty of websites come up with drain worms and how to deal with them. More common in kitchens, but also sometimes appear in bathrooms.

How incredibly childish and narrow minded to assume I am chatting shite, because you have never heard of them!

It's not just an 'American thing.' 🙄

Pretty much anything can get in a drain. We had a tree growing up our drainpipe from the drain last summer. It was as tall as the 1st storey but very skinny and only a few leaves at the bottom in-between the drain and drain pipe. Must have been growing all winter for it to get so big.

And you must have heard about the dishwasher slugs!

Although I think I'm getting into spider willy territory now...

Ok ok maybe they are possible even if I wish they weren't a thing! 😫 but I still think it's just a mucky overflow, that's surely the most common issue and easy to resolve.

Fair enough, sorry for being salty. (And calling you immature and narrow minded!) That was a bit OTT of me. I just thought you were like 'ha ha you're making that up you silly mare!' Yeah drain worms are real! (Unfortunately!) 😬

That's ok apology is accepted and in turn sorry for being dismissive (dealing with 2 ill children is my excuse for shooting replies from the hip!

omg my kitchen sink smells eggy whenever I turn the washing machine on, now I’ve got drain worms in my head 🤢

Drain worms?!!! 😳😳😳

Awww, I'm sorry to hear that. Your apology accepted too. (Though I don't think you needed to apologise really. ) (I did.) I hope your children are better soon... 🤕

YES! 😆

They are not massively common but do occur sometimes, and live in kitchen sinks moreso, because of the 'food matter' down the plughole! With the best will in the world, it's hard to avoid bits of food going down the sink plughole now and again!

Sticking bleach or a mix of white vinegar and baking powder down the plughole every couple of months should keep them at bay though. You can get them in the bathroom too! (Occasionally.) As a pp said, anything can get in really, and they are attracted to peoples skin cells. vom.

As you have probably guessed, I have had them. 😬

Never before a couple of years ago though oddly. I noticed these tiny little worms wriggling on the kitchen floor, and I thought WTF? I picked them up (with kitchen roll,) and popped them outside. An hour later there was another FOUR on the frikkin' DISH-DRAINER, amongst the washing up!

Kill me now...💀

So I googled 'WTF is going on with these worms in and around my sink?' And discovered yep, it's chuffing drain worms!

I also had 2 spider plants (with saucers underneath them to catch the water when I watered them,) and when I moved them, both saucers had around 5-10 worms in them, some more chubby than others. I was like 😱 My poor plants! There were also some slithering about near the washing machine. (Seriously, kill me now!)😖

Long story short, I took the saucers out (with the worms on) and popped them onto the wheelie bin outside, and got the plants and repotted them with fresh compost. (3 or 4 worms were wriggling in the bottom of the compost too!) Then I went back to the bin and all 8-10 worms had GONE from the saucers in the top of the wheelie bin! Obviously wriggled away.

Anyway, I blitzed and bleached the whole kitchen... Sink, worktops, units, floor, dish drainer, bin, window ledge - everything. And popped some baking soda/white vinegar down the plughole. They were all gone.

I did get a small return of them about 6 months later. About 3 small ones. Got rid of them sharpish before they infested my kitchen (again!)

I have posted a couple of pics. They are generally 2-3 times smaller/thinner than 'earthworms' but they do get fatter/bigger if they're left to grow. A few of the ones in my spider plant saucers were much chunkier than the ones in the sink/on the floor/on the drainer. Haven't had them for about a year and a half now. (Thank God!)

Thanks, just can’t understand why it is just the bath plug.