# It Is Not a Dead Body...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 6, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317 "2001-12-06T22:45:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tevya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tevya)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/1 "2001-12-06T22:45:41Z")
but I don’t know what it \*_is_.
For the last week or two there has been an awful smell emanating from my basement that can also be smelled in the kitchen. It smells like a mix of skunk spray and old, dirty hamster cage. I could have sworn that something crawled down into our basement and died.
So, the other night I don the yellow, industrial strength, plastic cleaning gloves, grab a flashlight and head down into the basement. I peered in every corner and then headed to the most likely spot–the little space with the basement steps between the inner basement door and the **Wizard of Oz** looking, outside basement door. I noticed the smell was a bit stronger in this area. I warily shone the flashlight into every nook and cranny of that little space. Nothing! I can’t find anything to account for that nasty smell!
I really would like to do something about it but for now all I can do is burn Nag Champa in the kitchen (for those of you who didn’t smoke pot in college, Nag Champa is incense).
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### Author:  [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/2 "2001-12-06T23:40:09Z")
It most likely **is** a dead body of the rodent or snake kind that is currently decaying between the walls of your house or possibly in the ductwork.
You have a couple of choices.
1. Pinpoint the smell as best you can and then tear the walls apart to find the corpse and dispose of its stinky ass outside your house or
2. Live with it until it no longer stinks.
Till then keep burning the incense. Good luck.
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### Author:  [@tevya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tevya)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/3 "2001-12-06T23:47:49Z")
I think I’ll take what’s behind door number 2.
Of course you are right about it probably being a dead body of the animal variety. In my more melodramatic moments I was picturing a dead human body.
Good thing I like the smell of Nag Champa!
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### Author:  [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/4 "2001-12-06T23:50:17Z")
Do you have anyplace in the basement water could collect? Like a bathroom drain or laundry drain? Stagnant water can smell really bad.
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2001, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/5 "2001-12-07T00:57:27Z")
Just to check, you don’t have gas appliances do you?
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### Author:  [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2001, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/6 "2001-12-07T01:00:32Z")
**Tevya** come clean. You finally had enough of all those Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons and have been inviting them into your home for milk and cookies and disposing of the bodies behind the hot water heater in the basement. Personally, I think it works better if ya cut em up into little bitty bits and flush em down the septic tank and use lots and lots of RidX to hide the odor 😃
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### Author:  [@ejolen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ejolen)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2001, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/7 "2001-12-07T01:06:40Z")
You should start smoking pot again and you will either, a) forget about it, b) become totally complacent about it, or c) end up going out for pizza and thus not having to deal with it.
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/8 "2001-12-07T01:11:17Z")
If you have a drain in yoyr basement flor thet leads directly outside, there might be some dead thing in there. Dump some bleach down there, and it should take care of the smell, but your basement will smell like bleach.
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### Author:  [@Sophie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophie)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2001, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-a-dead-body/97317/9 "2001-12-07T05:55:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by tevya \*
> \*_but I don’t know what it is_.
>
> So, the other night I don the yellow, industrial strength, plastic cleaning gloves, grab a flashlight and head down into the basement. \*\*
Sweetheart! In my world, this is what we call “man’s work”. Call me sexist. I don’t care. I’ll call myself sexist. I am a sexist who does not like touching dead things (or getting freaked out when I stumble upon them).
You know, that’s kind of funny.
Anyway, the reason I’m posting is because I think that if you have a drain in your basement, then you probably have a rat caught up in that thang, and it probably drowned and is decomposing. Just a guess. It happened at my work not too long ago. The smell drove us all to distraction.
Good luck. Invest in Glade Plug-In’s. I like the Sunshine Stick-Up’s myself. Oh, and Lysol Fresh Linen. Yeah, we got some dirty diapers over here.