How to get rid of the smell of a dead rat yourself: 5 proven remedies

You can determine the presence of rats in the house by smell. They smell like an uncleaned hamster cage. Mice smell similar (the smell of mice is described in detail here). However, the real problem begins when these parasites die. And quite often they do this behind walls, under floors or in the attic. It is almost impossible to get their corpses, and the house is enveloped in a cadaverous stench, which is dangerous not only because of its unpleasant odor, but also because it can cause severe poisoning. In this article you will learn about how corpses smell, what to do if a rodent has died in the house, how to find a dead rat, how much a cold corpse of a parasite will stink, how to remove the smell and much more.

Common ways to get rid of odor

What does a room smell like when someone dies? This smell cannot be confused with anything. The strong stench of a corpse has a sweetish and pungent odor, somewhat reminiscent of cheap cologne and burnt sugar , so if the house smells strongly of such a range of shades, then there is no doubt that someone has died somewhere.

To neutralize odor, there is a whole list of different methods that you can use at home. Below you can see the most common ones:

• The rodent's corpse should be handled with gloves and placed in a bag, then thrown away. If the rat lies in an accessible place, then good, but if somewhere behind the wall, then you can use a wire to hook the body;
• If a rat died on damp soil, then after a while the body will begin to exude cadaveric poison, which poisons the soil. Therefore, it is recommended to dig up the soil under the rat and throw it away;
• If the smell remains after the treatments, you can use alaminol or veltosept . These substances break down proteins, making it easier to get rid of odor residues;
• Oddly enough, the smell of burning wood can also drown out the smell of a decomposing corpse. To do this, just walk a little around the room with a burning torch;
• In stores you can purchase special odor neutralizers, which are sold in powder or liquid form.

Lavender works well among folk remedies . It can be laid out around the perimeter of the room or hung in small bouquets in the corners; it quickly neutralizes the smell of corpses.

Duration of decomposition

Everyone wonders how long it takes for a rat to decompose. Because no one can tolerate the terrifying smell for long. The situation is complicated by the fact that the corpse of a rat takes from 6 to 10 weeks to decompose. The process depends on temperature conditions. The hotter the room, the faster this will all end.

Mummifying substances are added to modern rat poison for such cases. The body does not rot and dries slowly. The situation may develop differently. If a rat eats an insufficient dose of rat poison to trigger the mummification process. In this case, the remains rot for up to 2 months; the decomposition process is long.

What to do if a rat died under the floor is an individual decision. You can try to solve the problem yourself or entrust it all to specialists.

Vinegar

The main impact of the rat invasion falls on summer residents and owners of large country houses. In winter, in search of warmth and food, rats run into houses where not all survive until spring. And a fairly common way to combat the smell of dead rodents is vinegar.

In order to remove the smell, it is enough to simply treat all horizontal surfaces of the house with vinegar: countertops, window sills, floors next to baseboards, furniture, in general, all the places where rats could run. Acetic acid quickly neutralizes cadaveric poison and odor, after which it evaporates after a while.

Treating furniture in your apartment with a vinegar solution will help get rid of the cadaverous smell of dead rats

Search for the body

How to find a dead rat under the floor is not an easy question. The smell quickly spreads throughout the room; it is difficult to determine exactly where the stench is coming from. It’s worth preparing yourself for the fact that you will have to tear off the floor boards, since there is no other way to get the rat’s corpse.

• in the room where the rat was lucky enough to die under the floor, the smell will be felt stronger;
• remove carpets, rugs from the floor, tear off linoleum;
• It is best to tear off the board in the center of the room if it was not possible to determine the place of death of the rodent by smell;
• you will need a stick, a metal rod, a mop - something with which you can check the space under the floor;
• move the stick in different directions. The obstacle in the way of movement is the dead body of a rat.

You need to prepare a plastic bag in advance, where you should put the discovered corpse. The search operation must be carried out wearing a respirator and rubber gloves. It must be remembered that a rat is a carrier of dangerous infections even when dead. Immediately prepare yourself that the sight will not be pleasant. It is better not to participate in this for the faint of heart.

Searching for a rat under the floor

The rat's corpse must be buried deep in the ground. If it is not possible, throw it in a landfill or trash can. Dispose of rubber gloves there. Wash your hands well with soap.

The ground under the decomposing body absorbs the stench and will emit it for a long time. To neutralize the smell, you need to rake the soil with a shovel and throw it in the trash.

The next step is getting rid of the smell of a dead rat. You can buy special products and use folk advice.

Chlorine

Chlorine, as you know, has an interesting property: it removes any odors, and at the same time disinfects the surface being treated . The most famous representative of chlorine-containing products is “Belizna”.

Using bleach is similar to using vinegar. It is also necessary to treat horizontal surfaces, especially carefully around the baseboard and in all cracks in the walls. In addition to the smell, whiteness can destroy various microorganisms that can be harmful to health and pose a risk of poisoning. Quite often, after treating a house with bleach, the risk of contracting a serious illness is sharply reduced, as is the likelihood that large populations of rats will re-enter the house or apartment.

White (bleach) removes unpleasant odors well

Elimination of consequences

The body was thrown away, but the smell remained. This situation happens if the stench has been present in the room for a long time. Materials were saturated - paper, fabric, wood. You will have to carry out a whole range of measures to put the house in order.

• open windows, doors, make a draft in the room so that the stinking aroma disappears faster;
• put the torn board back in place;
• send curtains, bedspreads, napkins - all fabric products for washing;
• Apply cleaning agent to carpets and vacuum thoroughly;
• Sprinkle a thick layer of soda on the floor, it draws out the smell from the wood well - leave for 1-2 hours, vacuum;
• add chlorine or a detergent containing it to the water, wash the floor - whiteness is excellent;
• A special composition is prepared for processing furniture. Add 1 teaspoon of liquid soap and 50 g of soda to 0.95 liters of hydrogen peroxide. Mix thoroughly and pour into a spray bottle or spray bottle. Treat the hard surface of furniture. After 60 minutes, remove the composition with a damp cloth.

At the final stage, you need to use an air freshener.

Gets rid of the dead rat smell

Traditional methods of neutralizing the unpleasant odor of rats

Rats often die under the floor; people have come up with many ways to kill the smell or eliminate it completely after removing the body.

• Fire. Light a torch and walk around the room with it, especially in the room where there was a rat under the floor. Instead of a torch, you can use incense sticks.
• Vinegar. Moisten a cloth generously and leave for 10-12 hours. Ventilate the room well.
• Potassium permanganate. Prepare a solution, treat the floor, furniture, walls.
• Lavender. If the house smells strongly, the aroma of lavender can cover the smell. You can use a plant, air freshener, essential oils.

Potassium permangantsovka

Potassium permanganate is used almost everywhere: small children are bathed with it, they drink it for intestinal disorders, it is used for disinfection, and much more. In addition, potassium permanganate copes with the destruction of stench much better than some odor neutralizers . Therefore, if a rat died under the floor or behind a wall, and the corpse began to emit a stench, potassium permanganate is perfect.

To remove the smell, it will be enough to simply wash the floors and baseboards in those places where rats most often ran, and spray it into those places (cracks) where the corpse of a rodent may be located. In addition, potassium permanganate will also destroy most of the harmful bacteria that parasites might leave behind, so the risk of becoming infected with something in the future is reduced to zero.

Potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate)

Help from professionals

When your own efforts are unsuccessful, or there is no desire to do all this, you should turn to specialists. You can find out which services can find a dead rat in a particular region via the Internet by entering a phrase in a search engine.

If a rat died in the entrance, or there are pests in the basement, you must provide information to the housing office or housing cooperative. The payment for the maintenance of the common property of the MKT includes a fee for rodent control. Housing and communal services are required to carry out the work. Contact Rospotrebnadzor if other authorities do not respond. Inform the government agency - SES.

Special pest control companies deal with dead rats in a private house or apartment. They enter into a pest control agreement with the specialists and make a payment. Private specialized rodent extermination services will respond to requests much faster than bureaucratic government agencies.

To get rid of a dead rat or an unpleasant smell in the house, you need to carry out search work yourself or enter into an agreement with private pest control companies. You can neutralize the smell with folk remedies or professional preparations.

Many owners of a house or apartment, when mice or rats appear, lay out poison to kill them and do not think at all about the fact that a dying rodent can crawl into inaccessible places inside the walls or into the underground. You will have to worry about how to get rid of the smell if a rat has died under the floor later, when a terrible “aroma” appears.

Ventilation

During disinfection and deratization, the premises are always ventilated, but this method can also be used to remove the unpleasant smell of decomposing corpses from the apartment. But in order for this to have any benefit, you need to be patient and have spare housing, since it will take a very long time to ventilate and preferably during the cold season.

Rats, although they have high resistance to absolutely everything, do not tolerate drafts quite well . If you often open windows wide for several hours in winter, there is a chance that rodents will escape. And along with them, domestic insects, for example, bedbugs, can also die. These parasites cannot tolerate low temperatures at all, and as soon as the thermometer drops below twenty or twenty-five degrees Celsius, they freeze to death.

Calling specialists

Many people do not know what to do if a rat has died under the floor, so they want to solve the problem with the help of specialists. Most often, calling such a service is necessary when there are killed pests in the basements of apartment buildings. Information about such cases must be reported to the housing office or housing cooperative, because the fee for rodent control is often already included in the list of funds for maintaining the property of the house.

If a person does not know which services can find a dead rat and provide deratization of the premises, then information can be found on the Internet for a specific region of residence. If housing and communal services are unwilling to deal with this issue, you should contact Rospotrebnadzor or the SES authorities.

Modern rat poisons contain special substances that mummify the animal's corpse, and it does not emit an odor.

In many cities there are private companies that deal with the issues of deratization and searching for dead rats in premises. After concluding the necessary contract and payment, specialists will quickly solve this “stinking” problem.

You can determine the presence of rats in the house by smell. They smell like an uncleaned hamster cage. Mice smell similar (the smell of mice is described in detail here). However, the real problem begins when these parasites die. And quite often they do this behind walls, under floors or in the attic. It is almost impossible to get their corpses, and the house is enveloped in a cadaverous stench, which is dangerous not only because of its unpleasant odor, but also because it can cause severe poisoning. In this article you will learn about how corpses smell, what to do if a rodent has died in the house, how to find a dead rat, how much a cold corpse of a parasite will stink, how to remove the smell and much more.

Mummifying poisons

Getting rid of the smell of corpses is one thing. But how can you make sure that after deratization of the room the chance of getting a “bouquet of aromas” is sharply reduced? Many people poison rats with conventional poisons, from which the rodent dies where death overtakes it. Great luck if he died in a visible place or right in the middle of the room so that he could be removed. But most often it goes into another world precisely under the floor or behind the walls, where there is no way to get it. After a certain time passes after this, the corpse decomposes and begins to stink.

To prevent this from happening, you need to use special mummifying poisons . We wrote about them in this article. After death, the dead rodents begin to gradually dry out, turning into a real mummy, and do not emit unpleasant odors at all. These poisons have different effects: they can accumulate in the body, or they can kill immediately. Therefore, you can choose exactly the one that suits your situation.

There are also ways to eliminate indoor stench. Watch a video on this topic:

Signs of a dead rat under the floor

How a dead rat stinks and how unpleasant and disgusting it is is known only to those who have smelled it in their own home. The terrible sweetish smell of decomposition and decay permeates everything around and is very difficult to get rid of.

The length of time a rat decomposes depends on the ambient temperature and can be 6-10 weeks: the warmer it is, the more intensely the remains of the animal under the floor will rot and stink. Moreover, the stench spreads over a fairly large distance, almost 30 m from the place of death of the rodent. Because of this, it is very difficult to determine the exact location of his stay. Therefore, you need to get rid of the terrible smell of a dead rat faster.

On a note!

Owners of country and suburban houses suffer the most from the smell of dead mice and rats, because... With the arrival of cold weather, all rodents look for warmer habitats and often settle in closed cottages or private buildings, eat the poison left by their owners for rats and mice and die. Arriving in the spring, the summer resident discovers that as a result of the fight against rats, the room stinks horribly, which means there is a dead animal lying somewhere under the floor.

In apartment buildings, rats are found in basements, and the stench as a result of the death of animals can spread throughout the entire entrance and nearby apartments. Having discovered that the room smells of decomposition, any owner will think about how to detect and remove its source and get rid of the smell.

Why is he dangerous?

It is especially dangerous for allergy sufferers and people with bronchial asthma. Mice are carriers of various diseases (for example, typhoid fever). Pathogenic microorganisms are present in their excrement. This smell attracts flies, which contribute to the spread of pathogenic microbes. If you do not begin to solve the problem, the situation may worsen.

Important! Mouse odor is easily absorbed into wooden surfaces.

Essential oils

Aromatic herbs are a good help in the fight against both the mice themselves and the smell of dead animals, but the smell of dried plants is subtle and quickly disappears, so it is better to use essential oils. The most commonly used oils are peppermint, lavender, and coniferous trees. The product is applied to a cotton ball and left in the problem area.

Coffee beans

Coffee beans are an excellent absorbent. To neutralize the smell of a dead mouse, coffee beans are laid out near the source in bulk or placed in a cotton bag. Dry coffee grounds have the same effect.

Formalin

Formalin, or formaldehyde, is used by pathologists to neutralize cadaveric odor. The substance will also help to cope with the stench of a dead mouse. It should be remembered that the compound is quite toxic, and use it at home with great caution.

Features of processing various surfaces

The biggest problem arises when treating porous surfaces, as they tend to absorb odors. This feature is taken into account when disinfecting various materials.

Before processing, the chipboard must be freed from dust and dirt and degreased, and then a disinfectant must be applied on both sides. The final stage is to protect the surface with sealant or polish.

Drywall

If the drywall is soaked through, it is impossible to remove the smell from it. It will be easier to throw away the damaged sheet and replace it with a new one.

Natural wood

The wooden surface is cleaned in several stages:

• First of all, use any absorbent to remove residual liquid; for this purpose, cover the surface with an even, dense layer for some time.
• After removing the absorbent, the affected area is disinfected using folk remedies such as vinegar or potassium permanganate, or professional sprays.
• Finally, the wood is treated with sealant or polish.

Prevention

To prevent the appearance of mice, it is necessary to perform a number of preventive measures:

• First of all, you need to regularly carry out wet cleaning using disinfectants.
• Food products should be stored in tightly closed containers.
• Care must be taken to ensure that there are no crumbs or pieces of food left on the table or floor.
• It is useful in a village household to get a cat or borrow one from neighbors for a while, so that the animal leaves an unpleasant odor for rodents.
• Dried herbs are placed in the corners, the aroma of which mice do not like. Such plants include tansy, mint, wormwood, black root and chamomile.
• It is necessary to hermetically seal all cracks and openings through which rodents can enter the house.
• The use of ventilation grilles will prevent mice from climbing into the room through the ventilation shaft.

Mice are not the most pleasant neighbors, both in a private house and in an apartment. But it’s even more unpleasant to discover the corpse of a rodent in the neighborhood, emitting a pungent odor. To solve the problem, there are many methods, both folk and professional, that will help you quickly and easily get rid of unattractive aromas.

Neutralization of traces of urine and rotting odors

First you need to determine the place where the foul odors from mouse urine and droppings come from.

They, just like the odors from decomposing rodent carcasses, carry a certain danger.

Moreover, their extermination is carried out by the same aggressive means as in the fight against the mouse spirit.

Mice urine not only emits an odor, but also spreads viruses carried by rodents. Diseases caused by these viruses are extremely dangerous for humans.

What to do with the surface of possible or actual contact with rodents will be determined by the method of processing this surface, depending on the types of materials from which it is made:

1. Wooden surfaces should not be treated with liquid preparations, since urine along with the liquid can be absorbed deep into the wood, so in such cases it is better to use absorbents in powder form, and then use sprays to get rid of the odor.
2. Mouse marks are more difficult to remove from plasterboard surfaces. It is advisable to cut out a certain section of drywall or replace the entire sheet.
3. To treat a chipboard surface, you need to wipe it with alcohol and then with a neutralizing chemical composition.

After completing measures to treat areas with mouse urine and droppings, it is imperative to wet clean the premises using cleaning agents and disinfectants.

Extraction procedure

To avoid tearing down floors and tearing off baseboards, it’s worth considering quieter ways to locate an object. These exist and do not lead to lengthy searches or major home repairs. Although it is worth considering that minor repair work will have to be carried out:

All work should be carried out wearing a protective mask and thick rubber gloves. This will protect against infection by bacteria and bacilli. Also, thick rubber can protect your hands from a possible attack by a surviving or half-dead individual.

What to do if you can't find it

In a private home, rodents can hide and die in a crack in the wall, under the floor, or in another hard-to-reach place. If the smell is felt, but the mouse corpse is not visible, experience-tested observations will help at least reduce the search area. What to pay attention to:

• The smell intensifies as you approach the epicenter.
• A decomposing dead rat can be found by tracking the trajectory of the flies.
• The corpse can be found by drops of liquid released from it.
• If you have a dog, it will become anxious around a dead mouse.

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How to find the source

To eliminate an unpleasant odor, you must first find its source. This is easy to do if the mouse corpse lies on the floor and is visible to the naked eye. But very often rodents die in hard-to-reach places. How to find the source of the smell in this case?

In old furniture

Rodents can make a nest or simply hide in old furniture. If the smell comes from the sofa, you need to unfold it and carefully inspect it. A dead mouse may end up under removable parts of the body or under the upholstery; to find the corpse, the boards must be unscrewed and the upholstery removed or torn off.

Under the baseboard

Mice that run into an apartment can climb into the gap between the wall and the baseboard and die there. In order to find the corpse of a rodent in such a shelter, you need to dismantle the baseboards.

In the ventilation

A favorite place for mice to hide is ventilation. If the rodent died there, the smell will spread throughout the room.

In a bag of cereals or flour

Animals are attracted to food storage areas. If cereals or flour are not stored in sealed containers, but in bags or bags, mice gnaw through the fabric and get inside.

Application of products on different surfaces

Depending on the surface on which the mouse died, there are some nuances for cleaning it. Here are some examples:

• If the corpse of a rodent was found under the floor, on the ground, the top layer of soil will have to be removed, since microorganisms involved in the decomposition of the mouse have already penetrated into it.
• When cleaning wooden surfaces, you should not use methods based on the use of moisture. This is due to the fact that the liquid will soak the porous structure of the wood, and the smell will become even more firmly entrenched in it. In such situations, it is better to use adsorbents to get rid of the smell.
• If you have any doubts about what product to apply to a particular surface, it is better to give preference to table vinegar. It is suitable for cleaning any materials from unwanted odors.

Absorbents

Absorbents are good at removing the smell of dead mice.
To be effective, they must be placed in close proximity to the source. The vast majority of purchased products in the form of powders, tablets and aerosols only mask the problem rather than eliminate it. Among the available means, good absorbents are salt, lime and soda. Salt can be used in living areas to absorb unpleasant odors. It is enough to sprinkle the substance on the source or simply place a fabric bag with absorbent on a shelf. Salt has the ability to absorb moisture and unpleasant odors, and also lightly disinfect the air.