Dead rat smell

[BettyBi0]

Not sure if this is the best place for this thread but I'm desperate and hoping someone might be able to help.

Any advice on getting rid of the smell of a dead rat or how long it will last? Also does anyone know how long the time period usually is from dead rat smell until invasion of flies?

We can occasionally hear rats (or very hefty and boisterous loud mice) under the floor boards on the ground floor of our terraced house. Nothing has ever made it above the floorboards and we have a beautiful layer of sealed solid oak on top of the ply on top of the actual floor boards which I am loath to pull up. There are a couple of places where air comes up from underneath where we have some concealed sliding doors that go into a partition wall but otherwise there is no opening to the yucky bit below where I think the rats might be. Unfortunately this area is completely inaccessible and impossible to seal off.

For the last few days there has been an awful awful smell in the house like a dead rat. This has happened once before in the middle of summer years ago. I remember that a while after the awful rat smell we had a horror movie style invasion of flies. Literally hundreds and hundreds of them suddenly appeared one morning like something from a gruesome murder scene. It was absolutely disgusting.

We had about 3 days of all the door and windows open, constantly hoovering them all up and then a massive deep clean of every surface. I'm dreading it happening again now :( I can't remember what the time lag was from smell to invasion but we have lots of guests planned over the next month and I'd be mortified if it happened at the wrong time.

Help!

[SecretSquirr3ls]

It's happened to me a few times over the years. We live on the edge of fields and mice or rats get into the roof. The smell usually peaks after about three days so I think you may be over the worst.
The fact is that there is a way in under your floor, albeit only a rat size hole. Last time we had them I called the council pest control.
Two lovely men came and tracked down the entry point which was just below ground level (we are on a slope). It was easy to block once we knew it was there and they inserted poison to kill off the rats. These guys were really knowledge and enthusiastic about their job and clearly enjoyed it. Well worth the £20

[originalmavis]

Use those oil sticks. I always know when my sister has a dead ratty in the eaves/attic when the farm is full of sticks and lavendar smells. It works though.

Therea nothing quite like the smell of decomposing rat is there?

[juliarpawlowski]

It's really hard to get rid of the awful smell of dead rats. I think you should take help from a good rodent extermination expert. I can understand your situation. A few months ago I saw some rats in my house. I placed traps for them. After some days there had been an awful smell in my house. I was pretty sure it was dead rat smell. But I didn't know from where it is coming. We tried sprays and other things but nothing worked. Finally, my husband called rodent control team. They did a proper inspection of the house. My house was infested by rats. They provided rodent prevention services and odor elimination bags. It helped us a lot. You can read about them here- californiarodentcontrol.com/ .