Mice (mouse) in house - dead

I made the mistake of baiting mice. They have since died and there is a real bad odor. They seem to be in the ceiling area of my basement but am not 100% sure. I don't want to do a tear out. I removed one 4x8 sheet of drywall where I thought they might be - but no. Will the odor leave when they fully decompose? Any time frame on this? It's not an unbearable odor - just unpleasant.

Thanks

Reply to
robson
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Next time think cat.

Reply to
HeyBub

Thanks for the advice but it does not answer my question.

Reply to
robson

Surprised you smell it at all. A rat can stink for a month but a mouse should only last a few days.

Reply to
Dan Espen

Somehow, I knew that was coming ;-)

Reply to
Oren

The unpleasant odor will go away when he's completely "eaten" or dried out; which ever happens first.

Think "mass of dead body" there is only so much "food" there.

Depending on local weather conditions (your level of sensitively to smells) I'd guess a week (or two at the most.)

Mice are about 30g .... about an ounce, not much food there.

cheers Bob

Reply to
BobK207

Leave the 4X8 sheet rock down; until you cannot smell the dead mouse. Think cat next time.

Reply to
Oren

Rats tend to take 10- 14 days...hotter the temperature the fewer the days the more extreme the odor...the cooler the temp not as strong but can last longer. A single mouse should be a week or less. Cinnamon candles mask it as well as anything.

Lar

Reply to
Lar

I reside in a rural area with some feilds around. I baited the perimeter (sp) of the home outside. It's a fairly old home and I have sealed all areas (I think). The basement sump has a clay pipe for overflow if the power fails or the sump fails. Tracing the pipe by guesstimate it's opening some 30 feet from the house was unscreened. I figure they might have gotten in this way, perhaps or came in with the firewood.

Reply to
robson

Oh, okay. One mouse (depending on the weather), three days to a week.

But, you've put out bait. That means there could be a steady stream of rodents eating the bait and dying in your inaccessible places.

Reply to
HeyBub

Yes, the smell will go away. Eventually.

Look at Victor Tin Cats. A live trap that doesn't have the problem poison has caused you. I'm curious. What did you think would happen to them?

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow...... I'm thinking cat !!!!!!

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow .........

Reply to
meow

I sure wouldn't rip down a whole sheet of drywall because of a mouse. Yes, the smell will go away. In fact I just found a mouse trap behind my water heater with nothing but a skeleton and some fur. Probably has been there for at least a year. I did notice a foul odor once during the hot summer but thought it was sewer gas from the septic and I knew my wax ring on the toilet was bad. I replaced the ring and never smelled it after that. Maybe it was the mouse because the water heater is in a closet next to the bathroom.

In your case, if that ceiling is all drywall, replace that sheet and before you finish, spray a whole can of air freshner up there. Next time, drill a 1/2" hole and use that same air freshner. Better yet, use traps, or a cat and avoid the poison indoors.

Now here's something to think about. On a scale from 1 to 10, (10 is REAL DEAD), how dead is this mouse? What was his or her name. Was it a male or female? How old was it? Is it's family grieving? Was a proper funeral held? Did it's soul go to heaven or hell? Was it a smoker? Did it shop at Home Depot? Did it have an ebay account? Where did it work? How much money did it have in it's bank account? Who is the next of kin? Who inherited it's estate?

By the time you answer all these questions, the smell should be gone.

Reply to
alvinamorey

Ummmmmmmmm......... How do you dye a mouse????? :)

Reply to
alvinamorey
3 days for a dead mouse odor to disappear? I wish. My mice take about 2 weeks to de-odorfy. These are standard mice not rats. Maybe a air ionizer cleaner will destroy some of the odor during those 2 weeks.

I get at least 1 dead mouse/odor a year in the house. Usually just before the holidays. On the plus side, no one wants to come over for holiday meals and if they do, they dont stay long.

Get a cat? I have one and he's dragged in more mice than he's dragged out

Reply to
jmagerl

If a mouse can get his head through a hole, he can get the rest of his body, too. That's about the size of a dime. Unless a house is built today, and special attention and a lot of cash is spent on that aspect, it is impossible to keep mice out. Or they just chew a hole through somewhere.

They sound like a much larger animal when chewing through wood in the dark.

I'm tellin ya. Look at the Tin Cats. You won't keep them down in the fields, but you can get the ones that make it to the house. And if you're the humane type, just take them all for a five mile ride. I'd dye a few, though, just to find out if they make it back to their original home.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

And, more importantly, who is responsible for it's outstanding credit card balances?

You're not gonna tell us it lived in your house and didn't have at least one Amex, Visa and Mastercard!

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

Sounds like you cat was a defective model. There may be a recall notice for your model of cat. Check the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's website at

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Reply to
alvinamorey

Better than live ones running rampant. .....or dead zombie mice shuffling around.

Reply to
Stephen King

I bait but have never smelled a dead mouse. I've found some old dessicated mice in traps but they did not smell. I would imagine that if blow flies got to the dead mouse before it mummified, then there would be an odor as the maggots do their work. Eventually odor will clear as cadaverine and the odorants committed from a corpse are volatile organic compounds.

Reply to
Frank

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