dead rat Archives - Trapper Tails

“Mom! Mom! There’s a rat in the window!” Not exactly what a mother wants to hear while she’s busy cooking, feeding a baby in a high chair, and caller ID says her mother-in-law wants to chat. Once again, just when a parent feels everything’s under control, something happens to bring everything to a screeching halt and toss chaos back into the mix.

Sighing and slightly freaked, this busy mom turned off the burner, checked the oven, made sure baby was secure and had enough on the tray to keep her occupied for a moment, and headed outside to face whatever nature had in store. Sure enough, her three children and a couple of neighborhood kids she didn’t even know were in her backyard were gathered around the window well that led into her basement office. They weren’t just gathered, they were actively prodding whatever it was with sticks. Sticks were confiscated, and nerves were steeled as she looked down. A large rat lay dead in the window well, amongst the rocks and debris the children had tossed down there over the summer. It looked like it may have died of natural causes, and a while ago, judging by the degree of decay.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. A few years prior, a skunk had fallen in the window well and couldn’t get out. She had tried for a while to tempt it out, by putting a long piece of wood from the shed down in there, hoping it would climb back out. It just scared it and the skunk almost sprayed in the window well, which would surely have resulted in a horrible smell throughout the basement, if not the whole house. Fortunately, she ended up calling Allstate Animal Control, and they got the skunk out of the window well. That was the year they got the metal grate coverings. Apparently, the openings were wide enough to let a rat fall down in there and breathe its last.

Mom quickly assessed the situation and got everyone moving: dead rat in the window well should be removed as soon as possible so it wouldn’t bring smells and bugs into the yard and house, neighbor kids were sent home, her children were sent inside to wash up and finish feeding baby, while she finished cooking dinner and called for dead animal removal. She had enough to deal with. The thought of crawling down in the window well to remove a dead rat was just not on her to-do list, and she knew Allstate Animal Control would take care of it soon enough.

She allowed herself a quick, satisfied smile, knowing that once again she’d successfully dealt with yet another problem. Then, she heard a crash from the kitchen and knew it was going to be a long night.

“How long does a dead rat smell for?” I blinked when I read my brother’s Facebook status update. Who says that? He usually likes to have political discussions with his Facebook friends or put up pictures of his kids. But, this was random. I had to know what was going on, so I sent him a message.

“Is this a real rat or a political rat? LOL”

“Very funny,” came back his reply.

Now, my curiosity was piqued. What on earth was he talking about? I decided to email him instead. “Who asks that kind of question? How long does a dead rat smell?”

He replied pretty quickly. “I’m serious. I need to know how long a dead rat smells. We had some rats in the garage and I set out some poison, and now I’m stuck with this nasty smell, and I want to know how long I’m going to have to deal with it. Any ideas?”

Unfortunately, I did have a good idea, since I’d dealt with that same thing a few years ago. My son was poking around the attic one day and apparently found a dead rat. From what I understand, he’d gotten my work gloves out, put the dead rat in a box, and carried it down to his room with thoughts of using it for a science project. He got distracted with something else, the dead rat box got shoved under his bed, and two days later the entire family had to search the entire house in an attempt to discover the source of an awful stench. Eventually, my son remembered the dead rat from the attic. The box was retrieved and his room was cleaned and sanitized. So, how long does a dead rat smell? At least two days, and probably a lot longer than that!

This wasn’t the answer my brother needed, though. It was summer, and if the dead rat was in the garage, it would probably decompose fairly quickly, with a lot of flies and stench involved. My brother and his wife had taken to parking their cars outside instead of using their nice, big garage for its intended purpose, just to avoid having to smell the dead rat. Letting it decompose on its own, then, was really not a good solution. They had to get rid of the dead rat. His Facebook friends all agreed.

I suggested a good rodent removal company, and he got them out there pretty quickly. Good thing he did, too, because it turned out he had more than one dead rat rotting in his garage. There had been an entire rat nest. They found it in one of the boxes containing Halloween decorations. Appropriate, don’t you think? The whole box got tossed and rat traps were set. My brother’s family could go back to actually using their garage and my brother went back to his Facebook political discussions. We never did find out the answer to that question, though. How long does a dead rat smell? The answer is, no one wants to deal with the dead rat long enough to find out.

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Tag Archives: dead rat

Rat in Window Well

How long does dead rat smell?

by Allstate Animal Control