It seems that an unpleasant smell has appeared in your house ... You know for sure (you could even see it with your own eyes), or you just think that somewhere there is a dead rat or mouse. You may have used poisonous baits that slowly kill these rodents ...
We have two news for you.
The first news is bad. If you have at least one mouse or rat, it means that there is a whole nest somewhere where the entire population is hiding. It would be too naive to believe that a lonely mouse is accidentally lost in your home, because rodents are social animals and always form colonies.
The problem is that in good conditions, rats can literally flood your home and property. They give birth 8-10 times a year, and each next litter is 8-10 small pests. This means that you will also have to get rid of the entire population - read our article on ways to get rid of rats in the house.
The solution to your problem consists of two stages, which are interrelated:
- You must neutralize the smell of animal corpses.
- You must get rid of the other members of the colony so that the question of how to find a dead rat in the house does not become relevant again.
Good news is that getting rid of the dead odor of a rat is real.
This is difficult to do, especially if you don't know exactly where the stinking corpse is (in the wall or between floors) and the only information about it is the eerie stench.
How to recognize the smell of a dead rat? It smells like propane gas or something rotten. Did you know that the stinking spirit exuded by the dead body of a rodent, when it swells and secretes fluid, can spread up to 300 meters from the corpse? This is why it is quite difficult to locate a rotting carcass. Moreover, the smell will not completely disappear until the corpse is mummified or decomposed into a skeletal state - but this will take months. That is why we will be taking various measures that complement each other to eliminate this stinking problem.
Is the smell of a dead rat dangerous?
Not everyone knows that the smell of a dead mouse or rat not only spoils the air, but can also cause serious harm to human health. The fact is that the decomposing corpses of rodents emit toxic substances into the air, which quickly spread throughout the entire area of the room and the area adjacent to the house. Therefore, in order to avoid negative health effects, it is necessary to get rid of the smell of a dead rat under the floor as soon as possible.
How to find and dispose of a dead rat
Before eliminating the smell coming from a dead mouse, you will first need to find its body. To determine the location of a dead animal, you must perform the following steps:
- First you need to understand which room smells the worst - it is there that you should look for the place where the rat or mouse died.
- Take out carpets and runners, and remove flooring in the room where the rodent happened to die.
- Take a good sniff in order to understand in which part of the room the unpleasant smell is concentrated - this is where you will need to rip the board off the floor.If it was not possible to identify a specific area in which the mouse died, it is best to remove the board located in the center.
- Using a thin long stick, try to find the rodent under the floor, and carefully remove it.
All of the above actions should be performed exclusively in a respirator or at least in a medical mask. In this case, you will need to protect your hands with rubber gloves.
What to do with a rat carcass
After finding a dead mouse under the floor, you need to place it in a plastic bag and take it out of the house. Then it is possible to dispose of the rodent in two ways:
- Bury away from the residential area. In this case, the pit should be deep enough.
- Pack the rodent tightly in several bags, and send it to the trash can.
Shine
Rats are nocturnal animals, and all other things being equal, they prefer to stay in dark places and go out in search of food at dusk and in the dark. However, they easily and quickly adapt to light, and if they do not meet any dangers in illuminated places and in bright rooms, they quickly cease to be afraid of light. Often, rats go to daytime activity and collect food in daylight.
This means that although in general rats are afraid of light, it will not work to use it for constant scaring away. If the light is left on in the room, then after a few days the animals will no longer pay attention to this.
How to get rid of under-floor odor
After the source of the stench has been removed, you will need to get rid of the cadaveric odor as soon as possible. Let's consider what will help to remove the smell from a dead mouse in the house.
Removal from surfaces of traces of urine and cadaveric rot
In addition to disposing of the animal's corpse, it will be necessary to completely get rid of traces left from its waste products, such as urine, excrement and particles of decomposed flesh. To get rid of the biomaterials of a mouse that has died, you can use both professional and proven home remedies. Each group will be discussed separately below.
Let's catch them ...
Part two - catching. We will not talk about cats, dogs, ferrets, weasels and other animals that hunt mice: everyone knows about them, and if desired, everyone can acquire any of the listed pets.
Mouser
Now I will tell you how to catch a mouse without causing it the slightest harm, without much hassle and material costs. I have been using this method for more than one year, it has proven itself to be excellent for capturing mice anywhere, including in a car.
Take a glass bottle, 0.5 or 0.7 liters, pour a little sunflower oil inside (2-3 tablespoons), cover the neck with your finger or a napkin and shake the bottle like a shaker to oil its entire inside. You need oil from the market, or rather from the oil mill - it is fragrant so that a mouse can smell it a mile away.
Trap Bottle Mice love the smell of beer, I don’t know why) Place the bottle at an angle, arrange a small step at the neck, place improvised stoppers on the sides. Everything.
This angle is enough If you have mice in your house, in the morning they will definitely be there in the bottle. Let not all at once, but they will definitely be caught! They will not be able to get out, they will slide on the oiled glass surface, it has been checked repeatedly! Having tried this method in practice, you will never want to use poisons, glue or mousetraps!
The bottle mousetrap does not harm the environment, it gives you the opportunity to sleep peacefully until the morning, without jumping up after the next pop of an ordinary trap, you protect your nervous system from the terrible pictures of victims of poison, glue, mousetraps (and you still have to clean up dead rodents!). Try a bottle-trap, this is a reliable protection against mice in the country, you will remember my advice with a kind word more than once, believe me!
Folk remedies will help get rid of the smell of a dead mouse
When mice die under the floor, you don't have to go to the store and buy special expensive items. Time-tested folk remedies will help get rid of the pungent smell. The most effective ones are listed below.
Vinegar treatment
When you need to process not only the floor, but also the furniture set, you should use nine percent table vinegar. This tool has several advantages. On the one hand, it allows you to effectively get rid of a specific smell, on the other hand, it will not harm home furnishings. Also, vinegar does not need to be rinsed off after application.
Potassium permanganate solution
In a situation where it is required to process dark flooring, a weak solution of potassium permanganate can be used. To prepare it, you need to dissolve three to four crystals of potassium permanganate in a liter of water. The pinkish liquid will not only help get rid of the smell of a dead mouse, but will also kill all pathogenic microorganisms.
Hydrogen peroxide treatment
If you have to wash the light surfaces on which the mouse died, it is better to use the product available in every first aid kit - peroxide. To eliminate the unpleasant odor, you will need to abundantly fill the problem area with active liquid. The procedure will have to be repeated the next day.
Chlorine treatment
If the mouse has recently died under the floor, and you want to get rid of a rather strong smell of decaying flesh, it is best to use caustic substances that contain chlorine. Such products are capable of removing even the most corrosive aromas. One of the most common chlorine cleaners is Whiteness. To get rid of the pungent smell with it, you need to do the following:
- pour a liter of clean cool water and Whiteness into a small basin, and stir the ingredients thoroughly;
- carefully treat the floor, baseboards, hard-to-reach places with the resulting liquid;
- leave the product for a deep effect for three to four days;
- after the specified time - to carry out general cleaning in the room.
Important! Whiteness is a rather corrosive liquid, therefore, when working with it, the skin and respiratory organs should be protected.
Airing
If the mouse dies under the floor in summer or spring, you can try to get rid of the intense smell by regular airing. To do this, you need to open wide all the doors and windows, making a real draft. The room should be in this state for at least a week. Of course, such a method is unlikely to be suitable in order to get rid of the mouse smell in the home. However, it may well be used to clean a summer cottage or a barn.
Getting rid of rodents in apartments
The poisonous grass, which we have given above, can also be used in living quarters, laid out in the corners, however, you must be completely sure that no one, except for rodents, will have access to it. Therefore, before you scare away rats from the house with the help of elderberry or wild rosemary, think about whether you can restrict the access of children and animals to them.
If there is a child, cats or dogs in the apartment, then it is better to give preference to plants that are no less effective, but safer.
- Peppermint - a person can be soothed by a mint aroma, but pests simply cannot stand this smell. Spread the mint bunches around your home, in corners, and in cupboards. If children or animals touch them, then nothing terrible will happen.
- Tansy and wormwood are effective remedies against many pests, from fleas to rodents. Place plants near the intended rodent habitat. However, keep in mind that the herb contains poison, although not as toxic as, for example, elderberry. Therefore, you should not lay out many bundles. An overabundance of plants in the home can cause headaches and nausea.
- Feverfew - the herb is completely safe for humans. You can use both stems with leaves and the flowers themselves.
- Pharmacy chamomile - creates a favorable aura of aromas in the house, without harming people and animals, but few people know that rats do not like him.
You can use either one plant to repel pests, or use an herbal collection. To prevent an invasion of rodents, plant the grass in a pot, then you do not have to constantly replace dry raw materials with fresh ones.
To enhance the concentration of aromas, you can use the essential oils of the above plants. You can use them in the following options:
- put a few drops of oil on napkins or rags and spread them in the corners;
- add ten drops to water for cleaning floors;
- drip a couple of drops into an aroma lamp or candle.
The main condition when using essential oils is not to overdo it with concentration, since the residents themselves will not be able to stay in the house.
There are many folk remedies for repelling and baiting rats. They are used when the use of poisons and other methods is impossible or undesirable. Here are some of the most popular techniques.
Application of funds 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, it will be necessary to remove the top layer of soil, since microorganisms participating in the decomposition of the mouse have already penetrated into it.
- When cleaning wooden surfaces, do 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 tree, and the smell will be fixed in it even more firmly. In such situations, it is better to use adsorbents to get rid of the smell.
- When in doubt, which 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.
Rat "screams of terror"
Like some other animals, rats can be scared away by reproducing their own danger signals. This method is sometimes used to scare away birds and to control monkeys on tropical farms. Once recorded, a cry of danger is enough to practically constantly and effectively use it.
However, some rules must be followed here:
- The sound should not be played regularly so that animals do not get used to it;
- The sound should be clearly audible throughout the room;
- There should be really screams of danger recorded, not just a squeak;
- Recording and reproducing equipment must capture the ultrasonic frequency range.
In everyday life, the implementation of this method will be ineffective in most cases. Firstly, to record a rat squeal, using a smartphone or a computer microphone is not the best option, since the ultrasonic component will not be recorded at all (even vibrations above 15-17 kHz will already be recorded with distortion).
The use of ultrasonic scarers of rats and mice in this regard would be more justified.
Professional help
When your own efforts have not been crowned with success, or there is no desire to do all this, it is worth contacting specialists. What services can find a dead rat in a particular region, you can inquire via the Internet by entering a phrase in a search engine.
If the rat dies in the entrance, or pests are found in the basement, you must inform the housing office, housing cooperative. The payment for the maintenance of the common property of the MKT includes a payment for deratization. Housing and communal services are obliged to carry out the work. Contact Rospotrebnadzor if other authorities do not respond. Inform the state body - SES.
Dead rats in a private house or apartment are dealt with by special pest control firms. They conclude an agreement on deratization with specialists, make a payment. Private specialized rodent control services will respond much faster to a request than bureaucratic government agencies.
Prevention
To prevent the appearance of mice, a number of preventive measures must be taken:
- First of all, it is necessary to regularly carry out wet cleaning using disinfectants.
- Store food in a tightly closed container.
- Care must be taken to ensure that no crumbs or pieces of food are left on the table or on the floor.
- It is useful in a rural economy to get a cat or to take it from neighbors for a while so that the animal leaves an odor unpleasant for rodents.
- Dried herbs are laid out 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 tightly close all cracks and openings through which rodents can enter the house.
- Using ventilation grilles will prevent mice from entering the room through the ventilation shaft.
Mice are not the most pleasant neighbors both in a private house and in an apartment. But it is even more unpleasant to find a rodent corpse in the neighborhood, exuding a pungent smell. To solve the problem, there are many methods, both folk and professional, that will help you quickly and easily cope with getting rid of unsympathetic aromas.
Chlorine
Chlorine, as you know, has an interesting property: it removes any odors, and at the same time disinfects the treated surface. The most famous representative of chlorine-containing products is "Whiteness".
The use of whiteness is similar to the use of vinegar. All horizontal surfaces also need to be processed, especially carefully around the baseboard and in all cracks in the walls. In addition to the smell, whiteness is capable of destroying various microorganisms that can be harmful to health and the danger of poisoning.
Whiteness (bleach) eliminates unpleasant odors well
Airing
During disinfection and deratization, rooms are always ventilated, but this method can also be used in order to erase the unpleasant smell of decomposing corpses from the apartment. But in order for this to be of any benefit, you need to be patient and have spare housing, since you will have to air it for a very long time and preferably in the cold season.
Rats, although they have high resistance to absolutely everything, are quite poorly tolerate drafts... If you often open windows wide for several hours in winter, there is a chance that the rodents will escape. And together with them, domestic insects, for example, bugs, can die. These parasites do not tolerate low temperatures at all, and as soon as the thermometer level drops to below twenty or twenty-five degrees Celsius, they freeze to death.
Hoatzin
Interestingly, in English, hoatzin is called nothing more than a "stinking bird". This tropical bird is native to South America, preferring marshlands and mangroves in the Amazon jungle. Adults of hoatzin reach about 65 centimeters in length. They are characterized by a burgundy eye color with blue skin around them, as well as a pointed crest at the crown of the head.
Hoatsins have a system of bacterial fermentation inside the stomach, which, in combination with the aromatic compounds of the leaves entering the stomach as food, produces a rather unpleasant aroma, reminiscent of the smell of rotted manure.
Of course, goatzin meat also exudes a dung smell, so the bird is not eaten even by the natives living in the jungle. Despite the fact that the hoatsin can fly, he practically does not use his skills, sitting all his life in trees and only occasionally descending to the ground.
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Duration of decomposition
How much the rat decomposes, everyone is interested. Because no one is able to endure the horrible smell for a long time. The situation is complicated by the fact that the corpse of a rat decomposes from 6 to 10 weeks. The process depends on temperature conditions. The hotter it is in the room, the sooner it will all be completed.
Mummifying substances are added to modern rat poison for such cases. The body is not subject to decay, it dries slowly. The situation is capable of developing in a different way. If the rat eats an insufficient dose of rat poison to trigger the mummification process. In this case, the remains rot for up to 2 months, the decomposition process is long.
What to do if a rat dies under the floor, the decision is individual. You can try to solve the problem yourself or entrust all this to specialists.
