A friggin mouse enter a wall from underneath a crawlspace I haven’t sealed yet. Tunneled it’s way up into the roof intersection and died there somewhere.
I started to tear open the thing and can’t talk myself into it as to how much work I did sealing it with the idea of doing it again when other priorities have already lined up in waiting.
Any idea about how long until the smell dissipates?
Replies
A while.
Perhaps a defined time estimation?
Maybe you could downsize the scent on Irfanview!
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The makers of Jiffy-lite Mothballs want you to know that mices and meeses can't stand the odor any more than moths can. a bunch of mothballs are commonly used by the cleaning crews here to discourage winter habitation by the furry little fellas.
While i realize this is more preventive and less curative, if you can personally stand the smell, it might cover up the odor you are suffering from.
other absorbantmasking materials include activated charcoal, and citrus orange scent dispersants.
Good luck
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Lure in a skunk.
The smell from the mouse won't be at all noticable.
I'll see your "while" and raise you a "long" while
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The sooner it dries out the sooner it will stop smelling.
Mice that are still juicy stink. The maggots and liquefaction adding a visual insult to the olfactory nuisance. Once they turn into tiny little mouse mummies they loose all, unless you stick your nose real close and risk snorting the tiny earthy remains of our mousy friend, distinctive olfactory significance.
On the horrifying down side there is a less entertaining and wholesome side, unless your one of Those people, to Mickey mouse that Disney failed to fully illuminate. Mickey's habit of consuming sick, wounded or dead rodent companions, cannibalism, has been significantly less celebrated in the daily Main Street parades. The 'Mickey's Cavalcade of Cannibalism' ride where the weak riders are eaten by the stronger didn't go over really big. Even with the stiff drinks before and the memorial hosing off and dainty napkins at the end. Don't know why.
Once a mouse is unable to defend itself others enjoy inviting it over for lunch. It being the main course. A dead mouse can sometimes attract other mice. Generally these are beneficial in that they further speed the descecation and decomposition process that leads to a nice odor free corpse.
That is unless the first decedent had a belly full of poison. This poison now lovingly basted in essence of mouse gravy can be quite attractive to the celebrants. In this way a single dead mouse can lead to a half dozen or more. Usually involving a much greater involved area as the often wander off to sleep it off. Permanently.
That's it...
Heat...
add a bunch of it to the afflicted area and hurry dry that sucker out...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
The dead mouse smell in the truck lasted about 8 days.
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
mouse... week or so...
rat ... about forever...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
rat ... about forever...
Yup, finally found one on the inner fender of my truck. Apparently a present from my feline buddy. Thought I was repeatedly driving through something vile. Fortunately I bothered to check the oil level one day. What a relief!PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
all ya need now is a small hungry cat ...
that knows his way back out!
Jeff
You won't likely notice the smell of the mouse at all if you pour a little diesel fuel in the immediate area.
especially if you light up a match, right?
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Wouldn't even consider that for a mouse.
Rat, yes. Mouse, no. <G>
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
It gets worse.
The other day two traps were laid side by side down on the concrete floor of the crawl space near the focal traffic point where the original act of villiany took place.
Today a new dead mouse in one. The other trap was gone.
Flashlight search high and low. No trap. Sucker limped away with it. Sure hope he made it outside.
Well, I needed an excuse to go get a Remington but think the Hilti would probably be a better buy for the money. ;o)
In all seriousness, had one of those in the attic last winter. Smell lasted about 2 weeks. Then about 2 weeks more of intermittently noticing it.
move the traps to a new location and put them (traps) on a leash that can't be chewed thru...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
nope
buying a hilti .22cal power nailer. Those mice will not drag that sucker away then.
Unless it's a supermouse. I suppose a supermouse might be able to head bob and walk'er away a few feet.
be a sly
Exterminating companies sell jars of odor nuteralizer for dead meases.
Specifiacally for that.,,,or you could just smoke some stinky cigars ti block the smell.
Roaring like a mouse
a
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Have brocolli with limburger cheese sauce.
<g>
My recollection is that the worst of the smell is over in 1-2 weeks, but an "aura" remains for 6-12 months.
the aura.
my fear.
Note that I was recalling my parents' house, where they poisoned maybe 50 mice in the crawlspace under the house. One lousy mouse isn't going to be too bad.
to rez it is....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
One point is that, after the smell goes away this winter, it will "revisit" you on the first few warm days next spring. But that's kind of like the odor from a furnace starting up -- it doesn't last too long.
3 weeks max. The worse (outside of skunk) is cat pee.
Thing is, where it is located is up in a ceiling directly beneath a cold roof sealed with foilback celotex board cut to fit and caulked.
The rest is layered dow blueboard which is what he was chewing. I'm thinking it is pretty tight up there and without air getting to it seems it would extend the length of time.
swat all bees
Edited 11/2/2004 10:09 pm ET by rez
Add lots of heat and dry that sucker up / out to nothing...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
If air wasn't getting to it, you wouldn't be smelling it.
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
maybe rez gives a bkood hound a complex....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Hey, I've got this tore up house tryin' to put a degree of respectability into it with a million things to do and the one thing completed goes and gets an ugly stench coming out of it.
I want some of that Greek drink..
My mother, 75 at the time, was working in the kitchen at her summer cottage, chopping something, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw something running across the floor. Without missing a beat, she threw her butcher knife at it, then she laughed as she picked the knife up. You know, why bother trying to throw a knife at a mouse running across the floor.
Two days later, they had to pull out the fridge, because of the stench. You guessed it, that mouse was mortally wounded, and died in under the fridge.
Let's just say that I don't psis off my mother when she has a knife. I didn't know she was such a good aim.
Probably not more than a month...or so...
I certainly hope so, Ollie.
Hey, I've got this tore up house tryin' to put a degree of respectability into it with a million things to do and the one thing completed goes and gets an ugly stench coming out of it.
Rez - I'm sorry man.... if an animal can get into it and die, it ain't completed....
why don't ya go get one of those plug in air fresheners, and when it burns the house down, you can start over....
"there's enough for everyone"
ok, so sometimes I can be prone to exaggeration.
Well, a lot of exaggeration.
Presently digging out the old drywell I inadvertently placed my leg thru when walking a few years back. Not an exaggeration.
What a rush.
Lucky that one didn't end up "invertedly" for you.
Rez asked me if I smelled his dead mouse in the house....
I think he's having 60's flash backs.....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
really - if it's a problem, he needs a couple of dogs lounging around - that'll mask any smell..."there's enough for everyone"
wet 'em down 1st........
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
The final summary. I can't let this end without a finish.
A confession.
Well, I got these stacks of kitchen cabinets see. Someday they'll get put in. Gotta have a plan, ya know.
So ther they are, sitting, quietly awaiting the time.
Finally decided I had to get to the bottom of this nonsense and tore into everything moving it all around.
There he was. The stiffined form of what was once a goodsize chipmunk, stuck dried on the wall hidden away beside a cabinet.
The in-the-wall-foamboard eater had probably already dried up if he hadn't already left of his own accord at an earlier time.
So the villian wasn't the mouse in the wall all along.
It was a chipmunk. A dead chipmunk. A dead and drying chipmunk who had removed any enjoyment of revenge I might have had hunting him down.
So now you know,
The rest of the story.
be The End
Free Sancho!!!
murderer...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
hey - a chipmunk will stink a lot longer than a mouse -
glad I could help...
"there's enough for everyone"
might be the end of your story but one good line begetts another you know...
preliminary factoids -
We have a young cat who eaarns her keep as a good mouser and moler.
WE installed a dog door for the old mut that has since passed on.
Dog never did like the dog door, but this cat loves it, and she will go out instead of using the littter box too.
Life is good
So -
A few nights ago, I went to bed earlier than usuall. I left the light on for DW to find her way... while I was reading myself asleep, I noticed a strong odor. Thought to self, "Self - you really need to take a shower in the morning..."
When DW came in I was in that groggy almost asleep state when she asked if she should turn the light off.
"Sure thing Dear, I was thinking of you..."
So she turns the switch off at the door and goes paddling through the room in the dark. As I hear the footsteps approach her side of the bed, I hear this gasp and scream - I was no longer in that groggy half-asleep mode.
More like a groggy half assed mode...The cat had caught a squirrel and brought it inside thru the pet door to snack on. She apparantly thought her benefactor would like some too, and left the half carcass on the floor right there. I'm sure she was sharing and responding to all the kindness DW shows to her every time she opens a can...so I'm laying there groggily digesting all this new information, and thinking about how a short time before I had thought that I smelled like sh!t.I started laughing out loud.
At my own mis-interpretation of the source of smell.
She thought I was laughing at her misfortune to have stepped into a half squirrel...You know how when you get the giggles and can't stop???
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Life is good.
be good
Free Sancho!!!
Up in an attic area it will dry out fairly fast. If it's warm it'll bake, if it's cold it'll freeze dry.
What if it's like he's encased in a ziplock baggie with just a corner of the baggie torn off.
Letting just enough air in there to release the smell but not enough to dryout. That is until enough of what is exposed will dry, revealing the next layer to dry, moving on and on and on...
Man, I'm starting to talk myself into opening up that ceiling.
Cut it out guys, yer killin' me!
I once closed a soffit too soon (or too late) and it contained a clutch of eggs from some pigeons or teradactyls..man, ya want ta talk stink.
Yup, we tore it all out, a month later.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
IME about a week for the smell to dissipate, depending on heat and humidity. A dehumidifier up there will reduce noxious odor. Spraying bleach will kill the bacterial feast, but only for a while.
You guys ever notice how just a faint hint of a smell can trigger a memory, and visa versa? Amazing really.
Like, there will be some objectionable smell that FINALLY goes away, then, months (sometimes years) later, you'll catch just a whiff of reminder...or maybe the memory of tearing out that ceiling (or whatever) to get to the source of the original smell...and there you'll be, reliving that odor and all the frustration you associate with it?
They say smell has a very strong memory association. I believe it. Why, I've even heard of people having trouble sleeping years after dealing with a seemingly small problem with an objectionable smell...something about relaxing right before sleep, memories flooding back...
The human mind is truly amazing, huh?
Well, yeah.
JB, is it really possible to punch someone through a monitor? :o)
Rez,
I think yer going about this all wrong.
Instead of looking for a dead rat...
You should be getting rid of all the leftover bean burritos the live rat is living on....
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
Was wondering if anyone had a stats sheet for the estimated R-value of a mouse carcass?
2
yes...well...the 2004 Nobel in medicine was for work on the sense of smell -
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996477
many (most) can distinguish 10,000 different smells - so rez should be able to tell exactly what species died, just by the smell - -
"there's enough for everyone"
"many (most) can distinguish 10,000 different smells - so rez should be able to tell exactly what species died, just by the smell - -"
There! By cracky! That's taking the lemons life deals you and making lemonade if ever there was! Bravo! Keep the chin up, rez, look on the sunny side, you are developing uncommon dead rodent identification skills!
client back when I was in copier service had a mouse/rat die inside the walls twice or thrice every summer in warehouse office. Seemed like smell ran 1-3 weeks...but when it rained -- i.e. really humid -- you'd smell it when first going into the office. Quickly become accustomed to it since the odor was faint...but still a definate dead mammal smell.