How to find a dead mouse indoors

When it comes to rodent control, eliminating the mice and rats themselves is not always the only problem you may encounter in the process. Live or dead rodents can carry diseases and viruses. Once a rodent is in your home or any other premises, pathogenic bacteria can remain in its droppings. However, the stench that rodents leave behind after they die or die naturally can remain in the room for a long time if the problem is not corrected in a timely manner.

What does a dead mouse smell like when it starts to decompose? There was an episode in the American TV series Seinfeld in which the car of a character named Jerry was permeated with an unbearable smell. The stench was so terrible that he could not even stand in the car. It turned out that the mouse had slipped into the car's ventilation system and died in the vent. This terrible smell could not be eliminated with an air freshener and a vacuum cleaner. This “fragrance” comes from a mixture of methane, sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons and other chemicals that are emitted from the decomposed body of a rat or mouse. Although the smell attracts vultures and other predators that like to feed on carrion, people clearly do not like it. If you take care of this problem in time, your home will not suffer the same fate as Jerry's car.

How to find a dead mouse in your house?

If there is a terrible stench in your home or somewhere nearby, check: you will soon see the first signs of a mouse invasion. We are talking about tiny paw prints that are usually found along baseboards and walls, droppings, damaged items, etc.

If there is no direct evidence indicating where the dead mouse is, trust your sense of smell and find the source of the unpleasant odor. If this does not help, inspect the cavities in the walls, the attic, look for the carcass under the sink, behind cabinets and in other places.

How to get rid of the stench in your home?

The most effective way to eliminate the smell of a dead rodent is to remove the carcass, disinfect the area where it was found, and ventilate the area with a fan. You can also use aerosols. As soon as you find the corpse and traces of the mouse, follow these steps:

put on rubber gloves, disposable clothing and a special mask;
prepare a solution: 10% bleach / 90% water;
place the corpse in zip bags;
spray the solution;
Wipe the area with paper towels, removing all marks, prints and droppings;
place paper towels in a trash bag and close it tightly;
repeat steps 4-6;
throw away gloves and work clothes, wash your hands for five minutes with soap and shower.

Now that the source of the stench has been removed, get rid of the smell by opening the windows, turning on the fans and spraying deodorants.

Many owners of a house or apartment, when mice or rats appear, lay out poison to kill them and do not think at all about the fact that a dying rodent can crawl into inaccessible places inside the walls or into the underground. You will have to worry about how to get rid of the smell if a rat has died under the floor later, when a terrible “aroma” appears.

Folk remedies

If it is necessary to get rid of the amber left by rodents that have been in the house or a dead mouse, time-tested folk remedies are also used. Studying possible odor elimination options will allow you to choose the one that is most suitable for a particular case.

A common way to neutralize rodent stench is to treat surfaces where mice may have been present with vinegar. The acid contained in vinegar will eliminate traces of mice, and the vinegar smell itself will disappear after a few days.

Potassium permanganate used to treat surfaces is a disinfectant that not only removes traces of rats and mice, but also the harmful bacteria and unpleasant odors left by them.

Vinegar is great for removing strong stench.

Hydrogen peroxide is an inexpensive, readily available, and effective means of controlling rotting rodent odors and other foreign odors. It is recommended to use this product after thorough wet cleaning of the room using chlorine-containing detergents and disinfectants.
Independent use of solutions containing chlorine allows you not only to eliminate the unpleasant spirit in the room, but also to disinfect it.
Ventilation of places where rodents may be present is not so effective, but it is a necessary condition when combating odors that arise after mice are in the room.

When treating surfaces with any of the listed means, special attention must be paid to the junction of the skirting boards with walls, corners and other hard-to-reach places.

To prevent the appearance of mice in your home, it is necessary to carry out certain preventive measures at the frequency indicated in the table:

№	Preventive measures	Frequency of execution
1	Wet cleaning	Daily
2	Ventilation of premises	Daily
3	Treatment with mice repellents	Monthly
4	Sealing holes and cracks	Annually

Measures to eliminate mouse odor must necessarily include the removal or thorough treatment of those things or objects with which rodents have had prolonged contact. To learn how to get rid of unpleasant odors at home, watch this video:

If an unpleasant stench comes from the carcass of a dead rat or mouse, then first of all it is necessary to remove it, and only then deal with the smell remaining from it.

Signs of a dead rat under the floor

How a dead rat stinks and how unpleasant and disgusting it is is known only to those who have smelled it in their own home. The terrible sweetish smell of decomposition and decay permeates everything around and is very difficult to get rid of.

The length of time a rat decomposes depends on the ambient temperature and can be 6-10 weeks: the warmer it is, the more intensely the remains of the animal under the floor will rot and stink. Moreover, the stench spreads over a fairly large distance, almost 30 m from the place of death of the rodent. Because of this, it is very difficult to determine the exact location of his stay. Therefore, you need to get rid of the terrible smell of a dead rat faster.

Owners of country and suburban houses suffer the most from the smell of dead mice and rats, because... With the arrival of cold weather, all rodents look for warmer habitats and often settle in closed cottages or private buildings, eat the poison left by their owners for rats and mice and die. Arriving in the spring, the summer resident discovers that as a result of the fight against rats, the room stinks horribly, which means there is a dead animal lying somewhere under the floor.

In apartment buildings, rats are found in basements, and the stench as a result of the death of animals can spread throughout the entire entrance and nearby apartments. Having discovered that the room smells of decomposition, any owner will think about how to detect and remove its source and get rid of the smell.

Causes of odor

The mouse smell cannot be confused with anything else. Usually its source is: waste products, fur with sebaceous secretions, food debris from the habitats of mice. Also, the reason for the “incense” from living rodents is the secretions that the male produces to attract females.

A particularly strong, unpleasant “aroma” appears when their corpse decomposes. To get rid of it, you need to find the body of the pest and carry out a general cleaning of the house using chemicals. You won’t be able to get rid of a strong odor by just washing the floors with bleach; you need an integrated approach.

Removing a Dead Rat

The most important question in such a situation is how to find a dead rat and remove its remains. Driven to despair, some owners are even capable of tearing off floors or opening walls in search of sources of the terrible stench and getting rid of harmful miasmas.

Effective ways to solve this problem:

The best thing to do would be to find a decomposing corpse, put it in a trash bag and throw it away. During this procedure, it is necessary to wear protective gloves and a respirator. If the dead rat is in a hard-to-reach place, it is recommended to use a stick with a hook to pick it up and get it out, or a strong wire.
If a decomposed rat corpse lies on the ground, then it should be borne in mind that the soil well absorbs the fetid secretions from it and the smell itself, so the soil in this area will have to be dug up with a shovel and thrown into the trash.
The area under the floor where the dead rat lay should be sprinkled with soda, treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, and it is better to put lavender to neutralize the smell.
It is necessary to arrange long-term ventilation in the room, always with a draft, and clean or wash all fabric products (curtains, curtains, carpets and runners, bedspreads and pillows on sofas).
The furniture should be sprayed with a solution consisting of a quarter glass of soda, 1 tsp. soap and 1 liter of hydrogen peroxide. Spraying should be done from a spray bottle; after treatment, all surfaces should be wiped with a damp cloth. Chlorine-containing liquids can also be used for processing.

What to do if you can’t get a dead rat

Very often a rat crawls into a completely inaccessible place. In such a situation, the smell of the decomposing corpse of a rat under the floor is heard very strongly and for a long time, but it is impossible to detect and retrieve its corpse. Therefore, the only way out is to seal the place where it is located in the underground, for which it is necessary to completely close and seal all the cracks in the floor and walls.

Means for eliminating bad odor

Corpse miasma is not only unpleasant for humans, but also poses some danger: it can cause severe poisoning, and when decomposed, it also infects all nearby surfaces.

To remove an unpleasant odor, there are several ways to help interrupt or remove it:

Ventilation of the home is mandatory and takes the longest time. It is necessary to open all the windows for several days so that a draft “walks” through the rooms. The colder the air outside, the better, because... Rodents cannot tolerate cold, and therefore living individuals will quickly try to get away.
The easiest way, before purchasing special products, is to spread coffee beans or coffee grounds in the room, which absorb unpleasant fumes well.
Treating all surfaces with vinegar, especially furniture, corners, floors, etc. The acid contained in the vinegar essence will help quickly neutralize the smell of a dead rat and traces of rodents in the house. The vinegar smell itself usually dissipates within a few days.
The use of potassium permanganate in a solution will help disinfect all surfaces, destroying harmful bacteria and the “aroma” itself. To do this, you need to wash the floors with the solution, wipe the baseboards, and also spray it in cracks and other places under which the rat’s corpse is supposedly decomposing below.
Chlorine-containing liquids are used to disinfect and remove odor. Whiteness is ideal, with a solution of which you need to treat all floors, baseboards, and cracks near the place where the smell comes from.
A solution with hydrogen peroxide is used in a similar way, which helps remove the unpleasant “aroma”.
Stores sell odor neutralizers in the form of powder or liquid, which can effectively deal with harmful miasmas. The most effective is the Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator spray sorbent: it helps get rid of not only unpleasant odors, but also organic stains remaining from urine, feces, etc. The product is completely safe for children and animals. You can also find similar drugs on sale: German Biolife Safe @ Clean; American OdorGone, with lavender scent; South Korean Fr >

Dead rat under the floor

If, after several procedures, an unpleasant odor remains, then experts recommend using the disinfectants Alaminol or Veltosept, which break down protein compounds, thereby effectively removing residual odor. Such solutions are sold in pharmacies to sterilize medical instruments and destroy pathogenic bacteria.

When using various chemicals, such as vinegar and bleach, to avoid chemical burns to the skin or mucous membranes, you should wear protective gloves and a respirator.

Modern methods of getting rid of mouse odors

Even if it is known for sure that a mouse has died under the floor or in the wall, it is not always possible to get it out. In such situations, the dying rodent will smell disgustingly, poisoning the lives of all inhabitants of the home. The situation is even worse if the mouse died in the basement of an apartment building - then the unpleasant smell will be in the entire entrance. Let's look at the most effective ways to help get rid of this problem.

Adsorbents

Substances that remove all extraneous odors - adsorbents - will help you get rid of the smell of a dead rat qualitatively. This effect is achieved due to the fact that their porous surface perfectly captures and retains particles of gaseous compounds floating in the air. To remove odor using adsorbents, you must:

calculate in which room the mouse died;
fill small containers (plastic cups, bowls, containers) with an adsorbent, for example, baking soda or crushed activated carbon;
place containers around the entire perimeter of the room;
leave the room and close the door tightly.

After about seven to eight days, the smell from the dead mouse should completely disappear. If necessary, you can extend the period of the hygiene procedure for an unlimited amount of time.

Air ionizer

To get rid of the smell when a mouse has died under the floor, you can spend money on purchasing special devices that purify the air. The following can act as cleaners:

ionizers;
ozonizers;
household air purifiers.

The advantages of such household appliances include not only the ability to effectively remove foreign odors, but also to disinfect the room. Undoubtedly, you will need to spend from five to twenty thousand rubles on the purchase of cleaning devices, depending on the model. However, such a purchase will not make you wait long for a positive result.

Chemicals

If you need to get rid of the strong, persistent cadaverous odor of a dead mouse, you can use active chemical compounds, for example, organic acetic acid. To put the room in order, you will need to wipe the floors, corners and hard-to-reach places with an acid solution.

Important! Chemical compounds can be hazardous to health! They can leave behind burns to the skin or respiratory tract. Therefore, they can be used only in extreme cases, when other means have not helped get rid of the problem.

Calling specialists

Many people do not know what to do if a rat has died under the floor, so they want to solve the problem with the help of specialists. Most often, calling such a service is necessary when there are killed pests in the basements of apartment buildings. Information about such cases must be reported to the housing office or housing cooperative, because the fee for rodent control is often already included in the list of funds for maintaining the property of the house.

If a person does not know which services can find a dead rat and provide deratization of the premises, then information can be found on the Internet for a specific region of residence. If housing and communal services are unwilling to deal with this issue, you should contact Rospotrebnadzor or the SES authorities.

Modern rat poisons contain special substances that mummify the animal's corpse, and it does not emit an odor.

In many cities there are private companies that deal with the issues of deratization and searching for dead rats in premises. After concluding the necessary contract and payment, specialists will quickly solve this “stinking” problem.

If a rat or mouse has died under the floor of a room, it is very important to know how to get rid of the characteristic smell. The main problem is that the corpse of a rodent can be difficult to find, and then the miasma can only be disguised. There are many tricks that will help you cope with this not very pleasant task.

When does the smell go away?

It is definitely impossible to answer the question of how long it takes for a rat to decompose and how soon the stench will disappear. This depends on several factors:

Air temperature. The higher it is, the faster the process occurs.
Rodent size. The stench from the corpses of small mice will go away in a few days, but an adult large rat can smell up to 10-15 weeks.
If an animal passes into another world in an empty room, and the amber has managed to soak into the upholstery and furniture, then it is very difficult to get rid of it.

How to find the source

To eliminate an unpleasant odor, you must first find its source. This is easy to do if the mouse corpse lies on the floor and is visible to the naked eye. But very often rodents die in hard-to-reach places. How to find the source of the smell in this case?

In old furniture

Rodents can make a nest or simply hide in old furniture. If the smell comes from the sofa, you need to unfold it and carefully inspect it. A dead mouse may end up under removable parts of the body or under the upholstery; to find the corpse, the boards must be unscrewed and the upholstery removed or torn off.

Under the baseboard

Mice that run into an apartment can climb into the gap between the wall and the baseboard and die there. In order to find the corpse of a rodent in such a shelter, you need to dismantle the baseboards.

In the ventilation

A favorite place for mice to hide is ventilation. If the rodent died there, the smell will spread throughout the room.

In a bag of cereals or flour

Animals are attracted to food storage areas. If cereals or flour are not stored in sealed containers, but in bags or bags, mice gnaw through the fabric and get inside.

How to remove the smell from a dead rodent

In an attempt to get rid of a rodent in the house, many people begin to use pesticides, considering them the most effective way to get rid of harmful animals. To a large extent, this point of view is correct. But the consequences of these actions need to be thought through in advance, otherwise the mouse or rat may die in a place that will be difficult to immediately detect. And then the whole apartment will be filled with unpleasant odors. In some cases, you will have to incur considerable costs to remove the corpse of an animal from a wall or from under the floor.

What to do if you can't find it

In a private home, rodents can hide and die in a crack in the wall, under the floor, or in another hard-to-reach place. If the smell is felt, but the mouse corpse is not visible, experience-tested observations will help at least reduce the search area. What to pay attention to:

The smell intensifies as you approach the epicenter.
A decomposing dead rat can be found by tracking the trajectory of the flies.
The corpse can be found by drops of liquid released from it.
If you have a dog, it will become anxious around a dead mouse.

Potassium permangantsovka

Potassium permanganate is used almost everywhere: small children are bathed with it, they drink it for intestinal disorders, it is used for disinfection, and much more. In addition, potassium permanganate copes with the destruction of stench much better than some odor neutralizers . Therefore, if a rat died under the floor or behind a wall, and the corpse began to emit a stench, potassium permanganate is perfect.

To remove the smell, it will be enough to simply wash the floors and baseboards in those places where rats most often ran, and spray it into those places (cracks) where the corpse of a rodent may be located. In addition, potassium permanganate will also destroy most of the harmful bacteria that parasites might leave behind, so the risk of becoming infected with something in the future is reduced to zero.

Potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate)

Basic ways to eliminate odor

First of all, to eliminate the smell, you need to remove its source. But even after this, you can feel its remnants due to the fact that it has managed to be absorbed into the surfaces of walls, floors, furniture and textiles. How to get rid of the scent completely?

Vinegar

Vinegar perfectly eliminates mouse odor while disinfecting surfaces. The product is used to treat walls, floors, furniture, and textiles. A solution of 1 part vinegar and 5 parts water is sprayed with a spray bottle.

The pungent smell of vinegar disappears after some time; you can improve the aroma in the room with essential oils, most often lavender, mint or pine are used.

Manganese

Potassium permanganate is a widely used folk remedy for disinfection. Treating all washable surfaces with a sponge and a concentrated solution of potassium permanganate will not only help get rid of unpleasant odors and disinfect objects, but will also repel rodents, preventing their return.

Chlorine-containing preparations will not only help remove the odor, but also disinfect the room. To get rid of odors, use a sponge soaked in the product to treat all washable items. We must not forget that chlorine fumes are toxic, so it is not recommended to use the liquid in an apartment where there are small children or pets.

Hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide will remove odor not only from the room, but also from clothes:

Wet cleaning is carried out with a solution of hydrogen peroxide (800 ml), dishwashing liquid (100 ml), soda (120 g), prepared immediately before treatment.
The unpleasant smell will be removed from clothes if you soak them before washing for a couple of hours in water with the addition of hydrogen peroxide, the components are taken in a ratio of 6 to 1.
Surfaces in the room can be treated with hydrogen peroxide using a spray bottle. This measure is applied after cleaning with a chlorine-containing agent to eliminate the remaining pathogens.

Absorbents

Absorbents are good at removing the smell of dead mice. To be effective, they must be placed in close proximity to the source. The vast majority of purchased products in the form of powders, tablets and aerosols only mask the problem rather than eliminate it. Among the available means, good absorbents are salt, lime and soda.

Salt can be used in living areas to absorb unpleasant odors. It is enough to sprinkle the substance on the source or simply place a fabric bag with absorbent on a shelf. Salt has the ability to absorb moisture and unpleasant odors, and also lightly disinfect the air.

Lime

Lime is used to get rid of odors in non-residential premises. An even, dense layer of absorbent is applied to the site where the rodent dies. The substance eliminates aroma and also destroys bacteria, acting as a kind of filter.

Soda, like salt, can be used in living rooms. The absorbent absorbs the smell of a dead mouse, in addition, particles of organic tissue. This way the room is disinfected.

Aroma sticks

Incense sticks must be set on fire and carried through all the rooms. The smell is chosen to be pleasant, as it will be absorbed into the wallpaper and will be felt for some time after treatment.

Ozone installations

Ozone is used to clean the room from rats by professional services, for which they use special devices that generate ozone. The ozone unit not only expels rodents, but also eliminates unpleasant odors, and also purifies the air from harmful, toxic substances and impurities.

The big advantage of using ozone is that it does not leave any odors or marks on furniture, clothing, carpets or walls.

Professional products

To disinfect premises and eliminate unpleasant odors, you can use professional sprays, liquids and powders. When working with them, we must not forget about personal protective equipment.

"Lizafin"

"Lizafin" is a potent biocide. The product is concentrated and must be mixed with water before use. Incompatible with soap solutions and synthetic detergents. "Lizafin" is economically used, effectively disinfects surfaces, and does not cause skin irritation when diluted.

"Medifox Des"

The disinfectant liquid has an antimicrobial and cleaning effect. Retains its properties during freezing and subsequent thawing. "Mediafox Dez" kills germs and removes odors.

Neutralization of traces of urine and rotting odors

First you need to determine the place where the foul odors from mouse urine and droppings come from.

They, just like the odors from decomposing rodent carcasses, carry a certain danger.

Moreover, their extermination is carried out by the same aggressive means as in the fight against the mouse spirit.

Mice urine not only emits an odor, but also spreads viruses carried by rodents. Diseases caused by these viruses are extremely dangerous for humans.

What to do with the surface of possible or actual contact with rodents will be determined by the method of processing this surface, depending on the types of materials from which it is made:

Wooden surfaces should not be treated with liquid preparations, since urine along with the liquid can be absorbed deep into the wood, so in such cases it is better to use absorbents in powder form, and then use sprays to get rid of the odor.
Mouse marks are more difficult to remove from plasterboard surfaces. It is advisable to cut out a certain section of drywall or replace the entire sheet.
To treat a chipboard surface, you need to wipe it with alcohol and then with a neutralizing chemical composition.

After completing measures to treat areas with mouse urine and droppings, it is imperative to wet clean the premises using cleaning agents and disinfectants.

Essential oils

Aromatic herbs are a good help in the fight against both the mice themselves and the smell of dead animals, but the smell of dried plants is subtle and quickly disappears, so it is better to use essential oils. The most commonly used oils are peppermint, lavender, and coniferous trees. The product is applied to a cotton ball and left in the problem area.

Coffee beans

Coffee beans are an excellent absorbent. To neutralize the smell of a dead mouse, coffee beans are laid out near the source in bulk or placed in a cotton bag. Dry coffee grounds have the same effect.

Formalin

Formalin, or formaldehyde, is used by pathologists to neutralize cadaveric odor. The substance will also help to cope with the stench of a dead mouse. It should be remembered that the compound is quite toxic, and use it at home with great caution.

Ways to drive out mice

In order not to face the problem of eliminating the smell of a dead mouse under the floor, it is best to try to get rid of rodents in advance, as soon as signs of their vital activity are noticed. There are many ways to do this, both with the help of folk remedies and with the involvement of professionals.

Mousetraps

Mousetraps come in a variety of designs. Bait is placed inside, which is changed periodically, after which the trap is placed in the place where the mouse droppings were found. The disadvantage of mousetraps is that they provide only a single catch, without helping to massively solve the problem in the case of a large number of pests.

Poisons can help get rid of an entire mouse population. The poison is placed in a place accessible to mice, but inaccessible to pets and children, and left for some time. The disadvantage of mouse baiting is that the carcasses must be collected for disposal, and some rodents may end up in inaccessible areas. In addition, with this method of disposal, cats often suffer because they catch and eat poisoned prey.

Deratization service

Deratization specialists get rid of rodents using mechanical, biological, and chemical methods. The issues of deratization in urban apartment buildings are dealt with by the housing office and housing cooperatives; the need to carry out treatment against rodents can be reported to the SES and Rospotrebnadzor. To exterminate mice in a village or country house, they turn to the services of private companies.

Ultrasound

Ultrasonic repellers are one of the most modern methods of rodent control. The principle of operation of the device is based on the fact that it constantly emits ultrasound of a certain frequency, which is not perceived by the human ear, but causes great discomfort to mice and rats. Animals themselves leave the room in which the repeller is installed, obeying the instinct of self-preservation.

Features of processing various surfaces

The biggest problem arises when treating porous surfaces, as they tend to absorb odors. This feature is taken into account when disinfecting various materials.

Before processing, the chipboard must be freed from dust and dirt and degreased, and then a disinfectant must be applied on both sides. The final stage is to protect the surface with sealant or polish.

Drywall

If the drywall is soaked through, it is impossible to remove the smell from it. It will be easier to throw away the damaged sheet and replace it with a new one.

Natural wood

The wooden surface is cleaned in several stages:

First of all, use any absorbent to remove residual liquid; for this purpose, cover the surface with an even, dense layer for some time.
After removing the absorbent, the affected area is disinfected using folk remedies such as vinegar or potassium permanganate, or professional sprays.
Finally, the wood is treated with sealant or polish.

Application of products on different surfaces

Depending on the surface on which the mouse died, there are some nuances for cleaning it. Here are some examples:

If the corpse of a rodent was found under the floor, on the ground, the top layer of soil will have to be removed, since microorganisms involved in the decomposition of the mouse have already penetrated into it.
When cleaning wooden surfaces, you should not use methods based on the use of moisture. This is due to the fact that the liquid will soak the porous structure of the wood, and the smell will become even more firmly entrenched in it. In such situations, it is better to use adsorbents to get rid of the smell.
If you have any doubts about what product to apply to a particular surface, it is better to give preference to table vinegar. It is suitable for cleaning any materials from unwanted odors.

Prevention

To prevent the appearance of mice, it is necessary to perform a number of preventive measures:

First of all, you need to regularly carry out wet cleaning using disinfectants.
Food products should be stored in tightly closed containers.
Care must be taken to ensure that there are no crumbs or pieces of food left on the table or floor.
It is useful in a village household to get a cat or borrow one from neighbors for a while, so that the animal leaves an unpleasant odor for rodents.
Dried herbs are placed in the corners, the aroma of which mice do not like. Such plants include tansy, mint, wormwood, black root and chamomile.
It is necessary to hermetically seal all cracks and openings through which rodents can enter the house.
The use of ventilation grilles will prevent mice from climbing into the room through the ventilation shaft.

Mice are not the most pleasant neighbors, both in a private house and in an apartment. But it’s even more unpleasant to discover the corpse of a rodent in the neighborhood, emitting a pungent odor. To solve the problem, there are many methods, both folk and professional, that will help you quickly and easily get rid of unattractive aromas.

Author: Maria Sukhorukikh
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