Dead mouse/rat in ceiling/floorboards

johnnykilo

Unfortunately we had a mouse or more likely by the sound of it, a rat running around the house for a number of weeks. It's quite an old house, which has been extended multiple times, so the floors ceilings are a bit of a hodge podge. My Father put down traps and poison, but unfortunately it looks like it's consumed the poison and is now dead somewhere between the ground and first floor and now it's starting to smell and emit flies.

Thankfully the weather has been reasonably mild recently and we've kept the windows open as much as possible, and obviously tried to use air fresheners as much as possible, but the smell is pretty bad, and getting worse.

Does anyone have any advice of what to do? Either to help with the smell or to help pinpoint the location?

We could probably bite the bullet and put a hole in the ceiling or take up a floorboard if we knew exactly where the dead rodent was, but unfortunately the way the house is built it's too much of a pain to do this in a few locations hoping to find it.

elperello

When the rodent dries out the smell will stop.

That should be about 10-14 days.

Very hard to pinpoint exactly so you could end up doing a lot of damage.

Scented candles, plug in air fresheners and hope the weather lasts so you can open windows during the day.

mondeoman72

Nothing you can do about it. The commercial pest guys put in industrial alcohol to mask the smell. You may also have an issue with flys for a couple of days. Unfortuntely, you have zero options unless you want to start demolishing the place.

boardlady

As above, the smell will diminish shortly. Tough it out! If you think you have a rat in future, put out a live trap in the house. That way, when you catch it you can release/kill/otherwise dispose if it yourself and not run the risk of a dead body in an inaccessible corner. An very unpleasant side effect of country living i'm afraid! No rats in our house thankfully, but we've been inundated with mice this year 🙈

Cerco

Look carefully over the ceiling to see if there are any signs of staining. There is an off chance that you might spot something depending on the ceiling material.

johnnykilo

Thanks all! To be honest, I didn't think there would be many options. I was asking more out of hope than expectation.

Surely there's a fortune there for someone who can invent a way to find a dead mouse in a ceiling/floorboard!

johnnykilo

Actually for anyone who's in the same situation in the future, I have to say those Febreze Air Fresheners that they're advertising on the TV currently, are actually doing an almost perfect job of masking the smell at the moment, unlike some of the other air fresheners we've tried which just seem to mix together and amplify the smell!

elperello

Another thing you could do is have a good look around outside the house to see if there are any places where they can get in.

Around gullies, water or other utility pipes, poorly fitting doors etc.

They can climb so any place where fences or walls join the house and also ivy growing can provide a way in.