Tag Archives: dead animal removal

Winter Storms and Wild Animal Problems

The winter storms that have pummeled the East coast have certainly disrupted life for all of us, from thousands of canceled flights, to having to shovel the driveway several times a day, to braving icy and snowy roads to get to work or school.  But, the harsh winter conditions have challenged some wildlife populations and made life easier for other wild animals. Long periods of deep snow mean death to the weak and sick among raccoons, skunks, opossums, deer, rabbits and birds, especially the weaker or sick animals. Food is more difficult to find, which provokes wild animals like raccoons, skunks, opossums, foxes and coyotes to wander through residential and commercial areas in search of easier food and water sources.  People are more likely to have run-ins with wild animals who seek out the warmth of spaces under homes and other buildings.  Raccoons, squirrels, pigeons and rodents get into warm attics or walls and hunker down from the cold.  Ground-dwelling animals, like voles, gophers, groundhogs or moles, enjoy deep snow since it insulates their burrows and protects them from being spotted by predatory animals like coyotes, skunks, raccoons or owls.  Deep snow right now might result in higher rodent populations, more vole problems in the spring, which will in turn attract their predators once the snows have melted.  So, between shoveling the driveway and de-icing your car, you might want to be proactive in taking care of the wild animal problem you might not even know you have until they start to damage your home, car or yard.  Contact Allstate Animal Control at 1-888-488-7720 or visit our home page at allstateanimalcontrol.com to schedule an appointment with a wild animal specialist.  Wildlife Trappers will visit your home or business; inspect your building for signs of wild animals, wild animal damage, or weaknesses in the structure that allow animals to enter your building.  They will remove wild animals and install materials to prevent them from getting into your walls, attic or crawlspace.  They can even remove the dead animals that have died under your home or outbuilding, or in the attic, or walls, chimney, basement or crawlspace.  They will clean and sanitize the area and make it safe for your family.  Violent winter storms are difficult enough to endure, you don’t want to deal with a wild animal problem on top of everything else.

How long does a dead animal smell?

get rid of rats

I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, but I have absolutely no idea how long a dead animal smells.  You might wonder why that would even come up, but unless you’re really into death, there’s really only one reason a person would need to know how long does a dead animal smell.  It’s because there’s a dead animal in my wall.

I’ve been extremely busy lately, finishing up my master’s program.  I’ve got my classes, my school work, my full-time job, and my internship, so I don’t spend a lot of time at home.  Pretty much, I’m just at home to study and sleep, and sometimes I’ll grab something out of the fridge to eat.  Otherwise, I’m at school or at work and eating in the car or with one of my friends in the same masters program.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I walked in the apartment and was knocked over by the most atrocious smell I’d ever had the displeasure of smelling in my short lifetime.  Now, I haven’t noticed anything like rats in the apartment or mouse droppings or anything else, so it took me a while to even consider the fact it might be a dead animal in the wall.  I scoured the apartment that evening, despite my desperate need to get more work done.  I just couldn’t focus on anything other than finding the source of the stench, and wondering how long does a dead animal smell.

I figured a dead animal will smell as it rots, so until it’s completely rotted or desiccated, it will stink up the place.  Of course, this happened in the early spring, which made me grateful for small favors.  What if this had happened in the summer?  Summers can get pretty intense around here, and if you added in humidity, I’m sure the smell would have been even worse.  As it was, it was awful, and I needed to do something fast.

I finally determined the smell was not food rotting in the kitchen or a forgotten sandwich in the bedroom, and that the smell was coming from the living room, which was a sparse room that was hardly ever used.  I noticed there were several flies in that room, too, which had completely ignored the forgotten  bedroom-sandwich and were focused instead on a patch of wall.  Sniffing warily, I convinced myself the smell was stronger there than anywhere else. That’s when I finally realized it must be a dead animal in the wall.

How long does a dead animal smell?  I wasn’t sure how long the smell had been there.  Obviously, it had gotten progressively worse, but I had been too busy, and  wasn’t home enough to notice before that night.

Well, it wasn’t too late to call up a friend and spend the night over there.  In the morning, I’d get the apartment manager to get someone to remove the dead animal out of the wall.  Hopefully, they’d do it fast enough that I wouldn’t have to find out the answer to the burning question, how long does a dead animal smell.

Dead Animal

“There’s a dead animal in the house.”  The thought hit Lindsey right after the smell did.

She’d struggled into the house, grocery bags draped 5 deep on each arm, purse slipping off her shoulder and one shoe threatening to slip off her foot.  With the talent many women possess, she had managed to get the correct key in the lock and shove the stubborn door open without breaking a single egg.  That’s when the smell hit her full in the face.

It was an odor the family had been gradually noticing.  At first, Lindsey made the rounds through the house, making sure no food was rotting in anyone’s bedroom and emptying every garbage can.  Then, her oldest thought it was a backed-up sewer, since the smell seemed stronger in the little hallway that led to the laundry room and half bath.  She’d asked her ex-husband to take a look at it, and he’d reluctantly come over, but he hadn’t found anything wrong with the sewer pipes.  He’d also suggested, rather grumpily, that she call a professional next time she needed help with the house.  That suited her just fine.

Her teenage daughter had brought a friend home, who had no reservations about expressing herself.  “Ew, your house stinks like garbage!”  Her humiliated daughter ended up going to her friend’s house to study.

Lindsey was frustrated.  The mystery stench was getting stronger and stronger as each day passed, and nearly 2 weeks had gone by.  They’d done spring-cleaning early in an effort to locate the odor’s source.  They’d invested in a simple black-light to see if they could find anything on the carpet or tile.  It was incredibly frustrating.  Lindsey considered herself an excellent homemaker, and was proud of keeping her home tidy and clean.  No matter what she did, though, the smell got more and more overpowering.

Nothing makes you more aware of a stench in the house than entering it after being away for the morning on errands.  Lindsey had been more than happy to have another excuse to leave the house, just to get away from the smell, but dreaded returning home.  When the odor hit her as she struggled inside, the thought had finally come to Lindsey that it must be a dead animal in the home.  What if a wild animal crawled inside the wall to die?  A dead animal would explain that awful stench that just wouldn’t go away.

The thought of crawling around the insides of her house and possibly coming face to face with a rotting raccoon, dead squirrels, or whatever wild animal had died in her house turned her stomach.  No, she decided to take her ex’s advice and call a professional to remove the dead animal.