What's that smell? City officials offer insight

Residents in several areas of the city have noticed a foul smell permeating through the air over the past 24 hours — but what could it be?

Windsor’s city forester, Yemi Adeyeye, tells CTV News the Bradford Pear tree and other related trees may be culprit.

The source of the scent popped up in online conversations with residents saying they’ve been smelling a manure-like odor in various neighbourhoods including east Windsor, downtown, and Riverside.

Resident Lu-Anne Elwood said she first noticed the smell Thursday during an evening shopping trip.

“I went into Giant Tiger, I came out and the smell just hit me, it was horrible! I thought, ‘what could that be?’”

Elwood said the scent was so “retched” she became sick.

“I left and unfortunately when I got home and by 9:30 I was ill, I was vomiting,” she explained.

Another resident told CTV News she and her daughter, on separate ends of the city, both picked up on the foul odor.

“Out in South Windsor I picked up my daughter from school from Notre Dame and I could smell a funny smell, and she said that when they went out for recess her and her friends thought it smelled like donkeys,” Amy Renaud explained.

While she noticed it smelled a bit funky, she didn’t think it was that bad when she was there.

She then headed to a dentist appointment in east Windsor and really noticed what her daughter had been talking about.

“It smelled crazy, it was disgusting,” Renaud said. 

Adeyeye said this is a common characteristic of the pear tree and other Pyrus calleryana species around the city in early spring.

The Bradford Pear tree is native to areas in Asia and is widely used in landscaping. It has been regarded as an invasive species. 

“The City is starting to scale down the amount of Pear trees in our new tree planting stock in recognition of emerging arboriculture advice about their invasive tendency,” said Adeyeye.

Adeyeye adds this will encourage a more “robust and diverse” tree canopy cover in Windsor.  

- With files from CTV News Windsor's Sanjay Maru