Dead mouse/rat smell in home?

cuckoo

Whiile i may not be the tidiest of people, i know the smell is not due to a lost cheese sandwich behind the couch. This smell is very strong, and unlike anything i've ever come across before.

I think it's under the floorboards as it's at it's strongest whenever i walk across the floor, then it seems to fade away until the next time someone stands on the floorboards - it's as if the movement of the floorboards releases it.

I'm not exactly ecstatic at the thought of ripping up floorboards to get at this smell - does anyone have any experience on how long they usually last? i'm heading into day 8 now, if the end is in sight i'll put up with it, but if the smell is going to last much longer pass me the toolbox - those floorboards will be coming up.

Also, any tips on smell minimising would be appreciated - thanks!

bounty_hunter

The smell is gonna linger for ages, it's a rotting corpse. Just lift the floorboards and get rid of it now, save yourself the unpleasantness of enduring it any longer, rather than having to do it later in desperation.

delly

Forget about the smell, if you leave it much longer you'll may get bluebottles appearing in great numbers. I know someone who had a dead bird in there chimney which was meant to be blocked off. Came down one morning and about 7 or 8 flies were buzzing around the living room. It got worse after that.

Desmo

cuckoo wrote:

Whiile i may not be the tidiest of people, i know the smell is not due to a lost cheese sandwich behind the couch. This smell is very strong, and unlike anything i've ever come across before.

I think it's under the floorboards as it's at it's strongest whenever i walk across the floor, then it seems to fade away until the next time someone stands on the floorboards - it's as if the movement of the floorboards releases it.

I'm not exactly ecstatic at the thought of ripping up floorboards to get at this smell - does anyone have any experience on how long they usually last? i'm heading into day 8 now, if the end is in sight i'll put up with it, but if the smell is going to last much longer pass me the toolbox - those floorboards will be coming up.

Also, any tips on smell minimising would be appreciated - thanks!

This has happened me 3 times in two different houses. It is grim; the smell lasts about 4-8 weeks but does go away eventually.
In all 3 cases, it was caused by F***ING rat poison. I do not like rats and am quite happy to get rid of them and my dislike of rat poison is not on sentimenal grounds; it is because the company that put the poison down (famous well known pest control crowd) insisted that rats and mice conveniantly take themselves off to die over the back wall and never just dies inside the house. They lied. The first time, was when we had a rat inside the house and freaked and called them in and they recommended a long campaign of bait and poison. A trap would have been easier and we woudl not have ended up with two dead mice under floorboards. The second tim it was a neighbour who saw a mouse and freaked and called in the same crowd.
We got a dead one under our floor.

Sorry for rant; back to practicalities; floorboards are messy to lift. Getting the first one out is hardest. A chisel to cut a tongue will help or a jig saw with blade set very shallow (so as not to cut wires or pipes). Then a big claw hammer and a crowbar and a lot of grunting. Also if you cut one across, you need to cut over a joist (use a hand held circular saw set shallow but this will also cut neighbouring boards). Or ask someone who knows how to do it unlike me who just guessed. GOOD LUCK!

Desmo

Rew

Iv seen this twice. First time the smell was very dificult to track down but in the end the mouse turned out to be behind the fuse board!! Little fecker had electricuted himself. 2nd time was in an on suite thats no longer used as a toilet and is a storrage room instead. A mouse had fallen in to the toilet and drowned. Good luck finding him.I dont think it will be easy.

cuckoo

delly wrote:

Forget about the smell, if you leave it much longer you'll may get bluebottles appearing in great numbers. I know someone who had a dead bird in there chimney which was meant to be blocked off. Came down one morning and about 7 or 8 flies were buzzing around the living room. It got worse after that.

*looks suspiciously at my own blocked off fireplace and chimney*

the frustrating thing is trying to pinpoint the location of the smell, i think i'll have to have a 'find the smell' party and get some people over to see if they can find it.