Getting Rid of Dead Rat/Mouse Odor

You might be able to narrow down the possibilities by sniffing everything, and seeing where the bad smell is worst.

The dead rodent won't usually be in a visible place. You need to check every possible hiding place... under sofas, behind cupboards, in your clothing drawer. They only need a tiny space to hide. Much smaller than you probably think they need.

Some furniture has panelling that hides spaces, such as around baths and showers. Remove that and check behind it. After that, you're left with ripping up the floorboards, checking the roof space and removing walls. Hopefully they'll be in one of the easier to access places.

If you've had rodents in, washing the carpets and soft furnishings might help the smell. A colony of live rodents can smell pretty bad, and they've probably urinated on stuff.

Maybe try a few drops of a product called "Nil-O-Dor".

The little rascals are bloody hard to find, alive or dead. The good thing is that the smell won't last for too long. The bad thing is that you may stumble across a tiny skeleton one day in the future.

Once I found a dead mouse in my bookshelf. I had to take the books that smelled the worst out to the shed as the first step to eliminating the stench. I put them in plastic bags with baking soda to absorb most of the odor for a few weeks, then let them sit a month or two more to air out.

Once you find the carcass and remove it, you can spray the area with some of that neutralizer they use for cat and dog puddles.... Nature's Miracle is one brand that works.

Good luck finding it.

Andrea

Look in all your shoes,,, no kidding,,, found a little bugger in my snow boot, $200 pissed down the drain. Baking soda when you find the carcass, stay away from lysol, it just makes the stink smell fresh. Spread the backing soda heavy and leave it.. after a day or so clean it up then try murphy's woodsoap.. I doubt it's in a wall, but heating vents and such are a real possibility.

I have a friend who works for pest control (the girl isn't quite right in the head, but she's very smart about mice). I'm seeing her in the morning, I'll ask her advice and report back.

Didn't Jenna start a thread like this last summer?

I'd personally suggest one of those ozone machines; they seem to do well against generic smells, especially when you can't tell where it's coming from...

FR

Borrow a cat - preferably one that lives outdoors most of the time. They'll probably pinpoint the smell fairly quickly. Mine can find mice in places I would never think of.

Alvah said:

I have company coming next week, and I don't want them to smell this.

Click to expand...

It's an election year. Explain to your company that a politician had dropped by, moments before, to ask for your vote...

dehumidifying can help. The quicker it dries the sooner it stops smeller. Other than that you can get industrial strength anti-odor online, the stuff that is the active ingrediant in febreze et al. One drop of that clears a room for a day or so.

sissybaby said:

Borrow a cat - preferably one that lives outdoors most of the time. They'll probably pinpoint the smell fairly quickly. Mine can find mice in places I would never think of.

Click to expand...

In my experience, though, they're only interested in finding the mice if said mice are still alive. My cat is perfectly willing to catch a mouse, kill it, cache it in an obvious-to-her location, and forget about it. And then watch the silly humans tear up the bedroom looking for the source of the stink.

A dog might be less discriminating, but you might be able to track it down yourself. Find the place where the stink is worst, and go into a cleaning frenzy. That's what worked for us.

Izunya

Sorry kiddo. Just wait 3 days and the decomposition will complete and the smell will go away.
I run into this frequently on my properties and it's like finding a needle in a haystack. You have to cut holes in the wall.

In my house, I know how the wiring and plumbing is done so I found it a couple of times.

If it is around your stove I can help you, that's the path they usually take. But you still got to cut holes and cross fingers.

Me? I wait it out and let my wife do the cooking to see which smells worse.