I think it’s a mouse or a rat. (EGAD! I hope it’s not a rat–but I suppose it could be!).
Anyway, it’s dead and it stinks and it’s under my house.
How do I get the stink out of my house? Or how do I at least mask the smell effectively? I’m having a Halloween party Saturday night, and even though it could be argued that the stink would add to a creepy vibe… I just don’t think THAT is the atmosphere we are really going for.
Anyway, does anybody have any suggestions??
Ever read “A Rose for Emily”? I think lime works.
Seriously, can you get to it? If not, the only thing I can think of is maybe one of those ozone air filters as a temporary solution. (It works for cigarette smoke.)
Time is your best bet. Unfortunately, you don’t have that. So if you have access to the underside of the house, going after it is your best bet. Otherwise – air fresheners and lots of hot mulled cider boiling in the kitchen… You might also plug up any vents or cracks where you think the smell might be coming through.
check drugstores for odor-nullifying compounds. they’re usually in liquid form, and advertise that a drop or two will nullify offensive odors.
they really do work pretty well. it’s a pity i can’t call any of the brand names to mind at the moment. i think Nil-Odor might be one.
Well, my husband might be under the house but I’m not EVER going to be under the house.
Especially not in the presence of the dead thing. yuck.
Anyway, I hadn’t thought of plugging up the cracks, I’ll do that tonight. I haven’t heard of the liquid odor-nullifying compounds. I’ll try that too.
Last night we burned 3 sticks of incense in the house at a time, and it really covers it up, but as soon as they go out you can smell it again. Not to mention that while the smell IS better than dead-mouse, I don’t really like the scent of most incense.
Can a dead mouse or rat really reek up a house like that? I’ve seen plenty of dead animals (rabbits, birds, etc.) around the house, and they only seem to cause a nasty stink when the dog rolls in 'em. Am I missing something, or do you just have really pungeant rodents in your area?
i’ve run across a very-dead half mouse (well, only half of it was still there) in the stacks of hay bales in the barn. you’d be surprised how much stench one small dead animal can put out.
decaying flesh is an extraordinarily pungent odor. and there’s your Halloween TMI…
We had this problem a few years ago when a rat died under the floorboards in the living room. We couldn’t get at it. So we had to live with it for about 6 weeks till the stench died down.
We burned a lot of incense, used a lot of air freshner and basically stayed out of that room till it was all over.