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Original poster

Dead animal under floorboard smell???

26 replies

Pinkysunset · 19/01/2023 19:07

Hi,
there’s a terrible smell in our house. We’ve had a plumber over as we were afraid it was a drain problem- but they couldn’t find a problem. They didn’t think it was damp- couldn’t see any evidence of it. To be honest- it’s not a completely drain like desert smell anymore. I’m worried it might be a dead animal under the floor boards. We haven’t had any flies or maggots found- does this mean it can’t be that? Will the smell eventually go if it is that? How long does it take, if you have any experience of this? The smell is almost unbearable. It’s only downstairs and under the kitchen. There’s only so long I can have the windows open this time of year!

OP posts:
TimeForMeToF1y · 19/01/2023 19:10

What kind of smell is it?

Does it smell like anything else ?

SeasonsBleatings · 19/01/2023 19:14

Which room is it in? We had similar years ago and it turned out that mice the cats brought in had tucked themselves under the fridge to die.

Original poster
Pinkysunset · 19/01/2023 19:17

Kitchen and utility. We do have cats- but usually if they get a mouse they gift us the head and gizzards 🤢they could have brought in a live one. Sort of a mix of drain/ old kale and rotten potato sort of smell. Greenish kind of smell- but pungent

OP posts:
meetmeatmidnights · 19/01/2023 19:18

Have you checked behind kickboards? Small animals can get anywhere!

EezyOozy · 19/01/2023 19:21

You aren’t pregnant are you Op?!

Original poster
Pinkysunset · 19/01/2023 19:29

I’ve had all the kick boards off and no corpses. I did find a hole in floor boards though. Not a rat made one- a regular square one. Don’t know why it’s there. As soon as I took that kick board off the car rushed in to stick her head in it. Although, tbh, she’s a nosy thing and would do that regardless. It’s definitely worse at floor level.
100% not pregnant. If I were I’d be demanding a refund on the husband’s vasectomy op!

OP posts:
TroubleOverBridgedWater · 19/01/2023 19:37

We had this in our kitchen. Have you checked the drip tray underneath your fridge and freezer?
If you don't regularly empty it out, it begins to grow mould and the smell is like... a dead rat being cooked.

Bemyclementine · 19/01/2023 19:39

I had a mouse nest in my cooked after the cat let a live one go. The snell us unmistakable, but difficult to describe.

Have you looked under cooker/fridge etc? My mum had one under the computer tower. They don't take up much space.

TimeForMeToF1y · 19/01/2023 19:41

Pinkysunset · 19/01/2023 19:17

Kitchen and utility. We do have cats- but usually if they get a mouse they gift us the head and gizzards 🤢they could have brought in a live one. Sort of a mix of drain/ old kale and rotten potato sort of smell. Greenish kind of smell- but pungent

A cabbagey type smell could definitely be a dead mouse, I know someone that happened to, some how it got stuck inside a gap in the wall. I think they had to cut a hole to get it out.

Gingernuttie · 19/01/2023 19:46

Cabbagey smell is exactly what rotting mice smell like. Stone houses often get them in the walls. You can't get to them (without stripping plasterboard) so you just have to wait for them to go. Usually takes a couple of weeks or so. We find scented candles really helpful in the meantime.

Original poster
Pinkysunset · 19/01/2023 19:46

TroubleOverBridgedWater · 19/01/2023 19:37

We had this in our kitchen. Have you checked the drip tray underneath your fridge and freezer?
If you don't regularly empty it out, it begins to grow mould and the smell is like... a dead rat being cooked.

Hmmm- it doesn’t smell in the fridge. That smells ok. I had everything out the The other day just in case. I wasn’t even aware of drip trays…..going to investigate

OP posts:
Twentynone21 · 19/01/2023 19:49

i live in a semi rural area and dead rodents are the bane of my life. I wondered why there were rat traps around the garden and under the bath when I moved in. My previous cat was a terrible hunter and I’ve had several rats decaying under the floorboards. My current feline friends are a pair of killers and regularly gift their sacrifices to me but I’m a bit slow and they’ve usually crawled under the fridge to die. Dead rodent is quite a distinct smell, it’s sort of gassy, earthy, stale smell. It’s a bit like a build up of gas when you have a gas leak. If it’s dead rodent then it will eventually fade but it might be a week or two.

tillytoodles1 · 19/01/2023 19:53

My relative had a dreadful smell in the kitchen. Only to find a dead rat in the grid behind the fridge freezer that they'd moved as a last resort after emptying and cleaning everywhere else.

Original poster
Pinkysunset · 19/01/2023 19:58

of those who have suffered a dead mouse stink- were there flies and maggots? We’ve found neither.

OP posts:
Twentynone21 · 19/01/2023 20:00

Not always flies and maggots, it depends on the time of year.

Gingernuttie · 19/01/2023 20:05

No, never flies or maggots because the mice are always dead behind the walls.

justasking111 · 19/01/2023 20:09

OH that fridge drip tray smell is evil. Worse than the dead mouse decomposing under the bed that I had to remove

quickbathroombreak · 19/01/2023 20:14

During the summer heat wave we came back from holiday to a hideous smell. Turned out to be a packet of bacon, which had been opened and put in a zip bag...and then put away in drawer where we keep the zip bags 🤢

Alexandra2001 · 19/01/2023 20:15

Drip tray is number one cause, i had this at the back of a fridge, it took ages to track down... the smell was unbelievable, google how to remove specific model drip tray if it isn't obvious, ours was a round bowl type thing, with a weird clip holding it in plce... and the contents might spill when you try and remove it with force!!! oh and clean it outside by a drain and not down your sink.!!!

Number two is a dead Rat, which will take 3 or 4 weeks to decompose

ILoveYouMoreTheEnd · 19/01/2023 21:09

It's a mouse, we've had this smell numerous times. The last mouse was found decomposing under the carpet! We had to pull the carpet up to get it gads. No flies or maggots, the mouse was tiny, the smell was huge lol 😆

PeterPipersPepper · 19/01/2023 21:16

OP - is the smell anything like how your house smells after someone has cooked an egg? We have that smell at the moment in our kitchen/hallway and I thought it was our drains but from the other answers I’m wondering if it might be a rodent or the drip tray (that I didn’t know I had…!)

underwear · 19/01/2023 21:20

Approx 21 days from death to completely gone. Probably 7-10s of very noticeably bad smell.

underwear · 19/01/2023 21:20

*7- 10 days

GhostOrchid · 19/01/2023 21:22

Our cat brings in live mice quite regularly which she often can’t be bothered to kill so they hide out in crevices or behind furniture for days. I recently found two mouses corpses. One under the door mat by the front door and one in the corner of the living room among a pile of junk we needed to sort. In both cases they were kind of desiccated and no smell. Although this thread has be worried there was a smell I just didn’t notice!

LegodOut · 19/01/2023 21:23

We've had dead mice in our cavity walls. I describe the smell the way you have but with a distinct metalically top note.

The smell stops once the creature has dissolved away/dried out. About 2 weeks for us (no maggots/flies). It would take longer for a big rat.