HELP NEEDED!!

pmeek

Active member
:cussing: A rat or other small animal has died in the crawlspace under our house and we are gagging from the horrible smell! I have air freshners and potpourri going, but nothing seems to help. I have tried bottles of air neutralizers, disinfectants and even vinegar water to try to keep the smell down but it is only getting worse. It's worse at the back of the house and I have an air purifier on high speed.
We are having high winds and rain right now, so we can't even have the windows open.
Please if anyone has any ideas, your help will be most appreciated. Listening to my DH cuss about it is almost as bad as the smell! :cussing:
 
:scratch: wow I have heard of tomatoes getting rid of skunk smell but not sure what you do or mix with them to do that, possible answer may happen with a web search?
 
The only thing I have ever been told about something like this is to tear out the wall where you think it died. I know that does not help other that tearing out the wall you would just have to wait it out until it dried up gross I know. Sorry hope someone else can help.
 
Q. I had a dead rat in my attic. The smell was awful! How do I get that smell out? Secondly, as I removed the carcass using my wife's rubber gloves, these wormy looking things scattered in every direction. They were about a half-inch long and moved like a caterpillar. What were those things?

A: If I were to name the worst job in pest control, rodent removal would be No. 1 on my list for the very same reasons that you just described. Oil of wintergreen is a great deodorizer.
Of course, your house will smell like Ben-Gay for a few days, but that's a welcomed alternative to the odor of rotting flesh! You'll find that at smaller pharmacies. The big ones may special order it for you. Eventually the smell will dissipate soon after you have removed the carcass.
The "wormy" looking things you saw were maggots. Now I know this sounds completely disgusting, but it's nature's recycling program.
Eventually, the entire carcass would have been eaten by the maggots leaving only the skeleton behind.
You just get into town after being up north all winter. You go up in the attic and discover that one rat trap you forgot. You were successful and got your rat, but all you had left was the skeletal remains. Just a note of caution: thus far, no diseases like hantavirus or rhinovirus have been associated with our No. 1 rat, the Palm rat.
But I take no chances and wear at least a surgical mask when removing rodent carcasses. As I mentioned before - it's the lousiest job in pest control. I usually try to get someone else to do that task - a rookie!
By the way, most pest control companies will not do the removal, which makes no sense at all. Anyone can buy a rat trap at the hardware store and set and bait the thing! To not remove the trap or monitor it is not good pest management. I should mention that now comes the hard part, finding out where and how they are getting in.
All they need is a hole the size of a quarter to gain entry.
That's about all the room I have for this week. See you next time and as always, thank you for reading Ask the Bug Guy.

Peter Masi is the Florida Certified Operator for West Coast Pest Control. He welcomes your questions and comments.
Masi can be reached by e-mail at masi
pest@aol.com, by phone at 389-PEST. Visit his Web site at www.masipest.com
 
:crazytongue: Thanks for that visual Lee!! It's not bad enough I have to smell it, now I can visualize the rotting flesh! Luckily, I do have some wintergreen oil and since reading your post have put some on all the registers and on cottonballs throughout the house. The wintergreen smell is certainly better than the smell of rotting rat! I'm sure the smell is going to get alot stronger before it is over, so I may start putting some of that oil on the tip of my nose! :laughing:
 
:crazytongue: Thanks for that visual Lee!! It's not bad enough I have to smell it, now I can visualize the rotting flesh! Luckily, I do have some wintergreen oil and since reading your post have put some on all the registers and on cottonballs throughout the house. The wintergreen smell is certainly better than the smell of rotting rat! I'm sure the smell is going to get alot stronger before it is over, so I may start putting some of that oil on the tip of my nose! :laughing:
:laughing: that is a visual oil on the nose :tongue2: :hiding:
 
:headbang: The wintergreen really does seem to help. At least it smells better than the other alternative, dead rotting rat!
 
You may be able to get a cat to go in there and find the animal and eat it??? But then you have to get the cat out which shouldn't be that hard.

My sister had one die in a recliner a few years back ~ she ended up having to throw the thing away because she could not get the smell out for anything! Good luck!
 
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