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Smell Dead Rat In Wall

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get rid of rats

“I smell a dead rat in the wall, help!!”  I sent my text to my husband at work, desperate.  It took a little longer than usual for him to respond to me, but soon his text came back.

“Be home at 6.”

I wasn’t sure I could wait all day long for him to come home at the normal time.  My son’s Boy Scout troop was scheduled to come over to our house that night at 6:30 for their troop meeting, and there was a horrible stench in the front room.

“How do you know it’s a dead rat?”  My husband texted.

My fingers flew over the tiny keyboard.  “Saw rat poop by baseboard on Monday.  Set out poison.  Pretty sure it’s a dead rat.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he questioned.

“Didn’t want to bother you.”  I responded, cringing.  This whole week was a busy week for him at work, and I’d wanted to take care of the rat problem myself without imposing any extra worry or work on him.  He’d do the same for me any day, so I thought I’d return the favor.  I knew the irony was that I was imposing on him on the busiest day of the week, but a dead rat smell was horrific, and I didn’t want to cancel on my son’s Scout troop.

“Smell of dead rat in wall is awful!” I sent, hoping he’d hear the desperation in my text.  It really was awful.  I had thought laying out rat poison at night, after the kids went to bed, would be safest.  I figured the rat would come out as usual, eat the poison, and disappear somewhere to die quietly.  I woke up before anyone else the next morning and had it all cleaned up before the kids got up.  I had thought it was the perfect solution.  Apparently, I had been wrong.

My cell rang.  It was my husband.  Texting wasn’t enough, apparently.

“Hon, even if I came home right now, I probably wouldn’t be able to get the dead rat out of the wall in time.  Can you tell by the smell where the dead rat is?”

“It’s in the front room somewhere, probably by the front wall, because that’s where I saw the rat droppings before.”

“So, I’d have to come home, smell where the dead rat is in the wall, cut out the dry wall and hope that I cut a hole in the right place.  Getting rid of a dead rat is pretty involved.”

“I figured it would be.  Is there any chance at all we can get rid of the dead rat in the wall before the kids come over tonight?”

“I really don’t think so.  Why don’t you call a service to remove the dead rat out of the wall?  They’ll give you an estimate on how long it would take and whether you can still have the meeting tonight or not.”

“Good idea.  Sorry to have bothered you, but this dead rat smell is just awful.”

“I bet.  Good luck, hon.  Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

I followed his advice and gave them a call.  “I smell a dead rat in the wall, help!” I told them.  They came out that afternoon, but I still had to postpone the meeting for another day.  No reason to subject poor, innocent Boy Scouts to that stench.

I sent a last text to my husband later.  “I was right, it was a dead rat.  What do you want for dinner?”

He responded, “Let’s go out.  Maybe do vegetarian tonight?”

“Good idea!”

Rats

Rodent Removal Service

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Working for a rodent removal service, I’ve heard it all.  I say I’ve heard it all, because my job is not removing rodents.  I work in the office as support staff.  I handle the incoming calls from people desperate for rodent removal service, I make appointments, I cut paychecks.  I’m essentially a one-woman show keeping the operation running smoothly so my guys can focus on their jobs, getting rid of rats, trapping mice, and removing all kinds of other rodents from people’s properties.

I get all the great and awful stories, though.  People who need rodent removal service tell me what’s been going on at their home, office or property.  The technicians tell me horror stories of rat swarms, mice nests, and all kinds of other critters.

One day, though, I got to see it all for myself, and really learned just how valuable rodent removal service is to our community.

A call came in from a woman who runs a small farm with her husband.  She told me, like most farmers in the area, rat problems come with the territory.  They’ve trapped rats, killed rats, poisoned rats and gotten rid of rats for as long as they’ve operated the farm.  But, this year the rat population just seemed to be exploding and they were overrun with rats.  They were desperate for our rodent removal services so they could spend more time on farm production and less on rodent removal.

The only technician we had available at the time couldn’t drive.  It was silly, really, because he’d forgotten to renew his license and let it expire, but until he got it renewed, he couldn’t drive out to the property.  It was at the end of the day, and I volunteered to drive him out there.

We pulled up, and the woman came out to show us where the biggest rat infestation was.  I was curious, because I’d never actually seen our technicians at work, so I hopped out of the truck and joined the two of them as they approached the large barn.  She led us to a back door, where they usually stored extra bags of feed and some tools.  She told us that’s where they needed rodent removal service the most, and then she high-tailed it back to the house, leaving us to open the door ourselves.  I was starting to get a little nervous, and my friend instructed me to stand off to the side of the door as he opened it.

When that door opened, it was like a scene from a nightmare.  Have you ever seen a cloud of gnats or an anthill that’s been disturbed?  Try multiplying that a hundred times and making it rats, and then you’ll have an idea of what I saw.  They literally poured out of the barn, running over each other, leaping, biting, scattering like roaches.  I couldn’t breathe as they swarmed over my boots before they ran off into the farmyard, seeking out any hole, door or ditch they could find.  No sound came out of my mouth, but inside I was screaming.  Eventually the rat flow slowed and I looked up at my friend, wondering how on earth he was going to get rid of these rats.  Even he looked shocked, and he admitted he’d never seen anything like this before.

I retreated to the truck and called some of our other technicians, making them promise to come out to the farm to help out just as soon as they were finished with their current appointments.  More than ever, I was proud I worked for a rodent removal service, proud of what we did for our community, proud that we were the ones people could call for help.

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Dead Rodent Removal

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rat removal

I should have listened to my brother, who told me that dead rodent removal would be more difficult than setting rat traps and getting rid of the trapped rats.

I’m living in my first apartment after moving out on my own at the ripe old age of eighteen.  I was so excited to get my own place, finally, and I chose a small, but nice apartment.  I now live only five minutes away from my work and ten minutes away from school, and even though the place is tiny, it’s perfect for me.  Sure, the sink’s in the bathtub and my bedroom is also my living room and kitchen, but for a first apartment, it’s awesome.

I found out one reason why it’s so cheap, though.  Rats in the walls.  I found some rat poop scattered on the little table that serves as my kitchen counter, and I’ve been hearing noises in the wall at night.  So, I did what I always do when I’m in trouble.  I called my big brother.

He gave me a bad time about choosing such a rat-infested apartment, but I really know he’s proud that I’m making it on my own, without making Mom and Dad pay for school or anything.  He suggested I set out rat traps, but I hated the thought of waking up in the middle of the night to a “SNAP!”, and then having to get rid of the dead rats in the morning before heading off to a long day of school and work.  So, I did the worst thing I could do.  I ignored my brother’s advice.

I bought some rat poison and set it out.  The rats eat the poisoned food, and since it takes them a while to feel the effects, they keep eating the poisoned food and then head off to their nest or wherever it is rats go.  I figured the rats would leave, go somewhere to die, and my rat problem would go away.

I didn’t figure on the rats dying in the walls.  They ate the poison, all right, and disappeared into the walls of my apartment, where they died.  Now, I have to deal with dead rodent removal.  I’d love to just ignore it, but, trust me, you cannot ignore the smell of dead rats in the walls.  There’s an awful stench of death, and my apartment is tiny and not well-ventilated.  There is only one small window, which doesn’t let in a lot of air.

One more problem.  Flies.  Stench of dead rats and the flies they attracted.  My apartment just got a whole lot worse!  The one good thing about flies is they show me where the bodies are.  So, now I’m spending my one day off, doing dead rodent removal.  I can think of a whole lot of other things I’d rather be doing this weekend.  I even tried to get my brother’s help getting rid of the dead rats, but he just said I should’ve listened to him in the first place.  Lesson learned.

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Effects of Rat Poisoning

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get rid of rats

In order to become licensed foster care parents in our state, my husband and I were forced to completely reevaluate the safety of our home, and learn all kinds of fun facts like the effects of rat poisoning in the body.  So, we put safety covers on all the electrical outlets, installed child safety gates on the stairs, and quickly locked up all the poisons in the home.

Learning about the effects of rat poisoning on the body left us particularly cold, thinking about all the awful things a child would go through if they get into anything poisonous, especially rat poison.  I thought the idea of having a rat in the house was bad enough, with all the diseases it carries, the parasites that can infest your home, its destructive capabilities, and the contamination from its droppings.  But, the products used to poison rats can do terrible things to humans and pets.

Rat poison is basically a blood thinner, because it reduces the levels of vitamin K in the blood.  Vitamin K affects the blood’s ability to clot, so when you seriously reduce it, the body bleeds abnormally.  This means whoever ingests it can bleed from their nose and mouth, they can have bad diarrhea or vomiting streaked with blood, they get extremely dizzy and lethargic because their blood is too thin, and death is most likely from hemorrhaging or heart complications.  It’s awful to think about any animal experiencing the effects of rat poisoning, but when it comes to a loved one, an innocent child or a pet, it’s horrific.

Incidentally, it can take days before a rat feels the effects of rat poisoning.  Rats are extremely intelligent, and quickly learn to avoid dangerous or harmful food or situations.  Since it can be days before they feel the poison’s effect, they continue to eat the poisoned food source, thereby ensuring they consume enough to finally kill them.

Unfortunately, it can also mean a child or pet may not experience the effects of rat poisoning in their body for days.  And, if the child is too young to communicate what they ate or how they’re feeling, it can mean the parent doesn’t know to get them help until it’s too late.  Or, a parent may discover a child has consumed some rat poison, but won’t do anything about it right away, because they don’t see any immediate symptoms.

The instant you suspect a child has ingested any amount of rat poison, get immediate emergency help.  You can also contact the National Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 anytime night or day.

My husband and I really looked forward to becoming licensed foster care workers, and we locked up things like paint and oil for the car.  But, we completely got rid of the rat poison.  It was too risky.  Instead, if we ever have a rat problem, we will get a professional exterminator out to our house.  I just couldn’t bear the thought of any child in our care accidentally consuming it.  Better to just let a professional handle a rat problem if and when we ever needed it.

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Rat Problem

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get rid of rats

It’s a rare sunny day in the middle of a long winter, and you decide to enjoy the break in the weather by relaxing a little in your backyard.  You take the cover off the deck chair, settle down with a hot cup of cocoa and watch the dog run around.  But, then, your frolicking dog changes his behavior.  He’s barking wildly at the gas grill, nose to the ground, running back and forth.  Curious, you approach, grab a large stick, thrust it under the grill, and leap back in shock as a huge Norway rat streaks out and runs under the fence, barely missing your dog’s snapping jaws.  You throw the stick down in disgust.  This isn’t the first rat you’ve seen on your property.  In fact, lately, there’s been a lot of them, more than normal.

How could you possibly have a rat problem?  You keep a clean yard, a clean home.  This is a nice neighborhood, so why are there so many rats?

Residents of an upscale neighborhood in Salt Lake City, Utah are asking themselves the same question, and some think they have the answer.  Recently, Chevron Oil cleaned up an oil spill in Red Butte Creek, running right through the neighborhood.  Some people believe the remediation displaced the rats and they fled to their backyards and homes.  Others believe this is just a natural cycle to rat populations.  A 1948 study found that undisturbed rats populations naturally fluctuate in numbers, but found no consistent trends.  In other words, it is normal for rat populations to surge from time to time, and no one knows why.

So, was the Chevron oil spill cleanup to blame for the upsurge of rats along Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City, Utah?  What about people all across the country who notice there are more rats than normal in their area?

Whether you have 20 rats or just one in your home, business, yard or commercial property, there are a few things you should know.  They are not just “socially unacceptable” creatures.  They can transmit diseases, such as rat-bite fever, to humans.  They often have parasites such as fleas, ticks, mites or worms, which then infest your home or business, and which can transmit other diseases, such as Lyme disease.  They can get into your building through a hole no bigger than a half quarter.  As rodents, they must continually chew things in order to keep their teeth filed down, so they’ll chew through plastic, soft metals and wiring, which damages your property and creates a fire hazard.  They can nest in vents, which contaminates the air you breathe.  They contaminate your food and water sources.  Outside, they’ll burrow up to 4 vertical feet under ground, and tunnel through yards and gardens, destroying grass and plants.  They’ll eat bulbs and vegetables out of the garden.  And they attract predators onto your property, which cause further damage or safety risk.

If there is a rat population upsurge caused by something like a new housing development or an oil spill clean up, you may be at a higher risk of finding one or more in your home or business.  Upsurge or not, though, it is important to get a professional wildlife removal service to get rid of the rats, safely clean up after them, seek out entry points and seal them up to prevent the rats from returning, and properly clean up the disease-bearing urine and feces out of your business or home.

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Get Rid of Rats

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rat removal

These people, these cats, dogs and stupid birds all think they know how to get rid of rats, but the only way I’m leaving my home is if a real professional rat trapper comes in here and drags me out, kicking and screaming.  I’ve been here long enough to have established my residency, so they can just kiss my little furry rat tail if they think they can run me out.

I was drawn to this place when I was a young rat.  There’s a feed mill nearby, and even though it was tough to get inside the mill itself, because it was protected against me and my friends like they harbored told inside, there was still enough grain that blew away in the wind, fell, or was left out long enough for us to feast like kings.  Our lean days were over.  Not only that, but there was a perfect little farm nearby, with lots of perfect places in which to nest.  While some of my bolder friends chose to dangerously nest inside of the barn, I preferred a tunnel and burrow in the ground, under a nut tree.  The people who own the place got rid of the rats inside the barn, but there are still a few of us around who remember what it was like to live in the fields, chased by the machines and cats, and merely hoping we could enjoy a meager meal each day.

The feed mill still operates, but the barn cats, the guard dogs, and the rat traps that people set out got rid of most of the rats long ago.  There are still a few of us that were wiser in our choice of home, and are more secure.  We feast, and I admit, I’ve gotten fatter than I’d like, but I’m still lightning fast and can strike quickly when I need to.

Recently, a huge flock of blackbirds discovered the feed mill, and realized there wasn’t as much competition for the food as exists in other places.    It started out with just a few birds, which didn’t bother me much.  But, birds talk and yammer more than any other creature I know, and before long, there were hundreds here, gossiping and cawing and taking over the place.  They acted like they discovered it first.

Until then, my little burrow under the tree had been a perfectly quiet spot.  Then, it was taken over by these bird pests, and they got increasingly more aggressive.  Before I knew it, they were eating all the feed before I had a chance to get to it, and they were guarding the entrance to my burrow to keep me from getting out.  What wild cats, guard dogs and rat traps had failed to do, these birds just might pull off.  They were going to get rid of rats just by being annoying.

Fine, I’m going to fight for it.  Show these birds who’s boss.  That’s why this morning, I crept up to the entrance of my burrow with all the stealth I could muster, and then pounced on one of those annoying birds!  Made the other ones think, I can assure you.  Like I said, it’ll take a professional trapper to get rid of this rat.

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Rat Control

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rat removal

“I’m calling my boyfriend, because he’ll know what to do about rat control!”  Tish, who was normally so sweet, nearly screeched this sentence.  I had come home late from working a long shift at the campus library, and had nothing but a couple of hours of study ahead of me.  But, when I walked in our front door, I nearly tripped over a pile of furniture and various belongings forming a maze throughout the small house we all rented together.

At first, I thought my roomies were playing a practical joke on me.  Last week, three of us had packed up all of Trish’s belongings, including her bedding, and left a note on her bare floor that read, “We’ll miss you.”  She’d walked in, taken one look at the empty room, and burst out laughing.  It was the kind of thing we all did to each other, so it was no wonder that I mistook my roomies’ maze of household items as a practical joke.

And, I have to admit, I didn’t believe them at first when they told me they were doing rat control.  I thought it was more of the joke.

But, when I saw the rat streaking across the room, leaping over the turned-over ironing board and a box that had once held file folders, I just about leaped out of my skin.  Over the course of the next hour and a half, the four of us tried unsuccessfully to perform rat control ourselves, but Trish was right.  It was time to bring in a guy, as much as we hated to admit it.

Once Trish’s boyfriend arrived, he couldn’t stop laughing at my roommates’ maze, and I have to admit, I was a little fuzzy as to why they thought they needed to make a maze.  Apparently, they had discovered a rat in the couch, and built a pathway to the front door, in hopes the rat would leave the couch, follow the path, and go outside.  Unfortunately, after they banged on the couch with a broom, that rat ran out and leaped up and over the walls of the maze.  So, instead of leading the rat safely outside, all the belongings scattered on the floor only served to add to the chaos as we all tripped over things trying to flush out the rat and then run away from it at the same time.

Rat control was not our strong point.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t something Trish’s boyfriend did, either.  I think he only made it worse, by laughing at us and making the rat even more frenzied than before.

After another forty-five minutes of fruitlessly chasing the rat and running away from it, we finally decided we had to call a professional rat control service.  After all, where there is one rat, there may be many more.  And, I didn’t want to live in a rat maze anymore than a rat did.

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Rodent Infestation

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I clean and repair foreclosed homes for a living, so I’ve seen my share of rodent infestations, but this home was so horrific I had to shower at least four times after I got home from work.

Cleaning foreclosed homes is not the dream job, I’ll admit, but at least it’s a job.  Like many people, I worked in the construction business for a long time until the housing market dropped.  When I’m not repairing foreclosed homes and cleaning them, I’m a flooring guy.  I lay carpet, hardwood floors, tile and vinyl.  I’m used to the muck and guck of ripping out old floors and finding everything from pet urine to bugs underneath.  So, you’d think I wouldn’t be as disgusted by the remnants of a rodent infestation as other guys.  Usually, that’s true, until I got to this house.

When I arrived, it was obvious from the exterior that the home had been abandoned for a while.  The lawn was seriously overgrown with weeds, the tree out front was dead, and untrimmed bushes practically hid the front door.  Abandoned homes don’t usually stay abandoned for long.  Wild animals nearly always move in, attracted by a warm, protected shelter and any food source they can find within.  Trash, old food, and bugs are plentiful inside some of these abandoned places, so I often have to deal with getting rid of a rodent infestation.

I think I actually gasped when I walked into this place, though.  The place was covered with hard little black pellets.  It looked like a raisin processing plant had exploded in there.

Rat eating a baby bird
Rat walking around with it’s prey.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

Most times, you can tell when a home is infested with rodents, because rat droppings or mouse droppings will follow a trail.  Rats like to stay up against walls, feeling their way along the wall with their whiskers, so they’ll leave rat droppings in a little trail.  The kitchen counters in this home had the tell-tale rat trail up against the wall, but that was just a small portion of what I saw.  The entire floor, all counter surfaces, the stove, the oven, the refrigerator and every cabinet was covered in rat droppings.

I moved through the home, investigating the living room area, the bedrooms and the bathrooms.  I could actually see little clouds of dust rise up as the nastiness crunched under my feet.  Fortunately, my training had kicked in before I had even walked into the home, and I’d put on my respirator and protective clothing and gloves.  I carried my camera with me and snapped pictures to send off to the bank that handled the foreclosure and their property management division.  I suspected this property would probably be condemned, and had to document everything carefully for insurance and everyone else who would have to get involved.

I have to admit, I was extremely relieved I didn’t actually see the rats.  I had no idea where they were hiding, but there had to be hoards of them.  Only a serious rodent infestation would do that to a house.  I ripped off my respirator as soon as I got back to the safety of my truck, and carefully removed the protective gloves and clothing, disposing of them safely in a plastic bag.  Then, I made the call to the property management company so they could decide what to do next.

No matter how many showers I took and how often I washed my hands, though, it was days before I felt clean again.

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Rat Droppings

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Rat droppings just do not belong in your office’s break room.  I work in a typical office, filled with cubicles littered with pictures that remind each employee why they’re working so hard to bring in a paycheck.  Some hours of the day are fairly quiet, the sound of keyboards clacking and phones ringing fill the air.  Some hours of the day are pretty noisy, as co-workers socialize briefly before passing files onto someone else and sit back down to a fresh stack of their own.  Occasionally, someone tells a pretty raucous joke, or a highly-entertaining story about the weekend, and laughter circulates.  Certain days of the month are more stressful, when business normally picks up and deadlines loom.  Those are the days when people are more likely to snap at each other or pick up an old bickering conversation.  But, most of the time, it’s not a bad way to spend the days, weeks and months in order to pay for homes, cars, groceries and occasional vacations.

Our office doesn’t have an office administrator or office manager.  We’re all expected to keep our workstations clean and pick up after ourselves.  But, when there’s something bigger that needs to be repaired or maintained, the unspoken rule of the office is:  The person who complains is the person who maintains.  So, everyone pretends they don’t notice the air conditioning is broken so they don’t have to be the one to contact the repairman, oversee the work, and submit the paperwork.  Eyes are averted when the office refrigerator is opened, because no one wants to be the one to admit it really needs to be cleaned out.

I just about gagged when I noticed rat droppings in the break room, though.  It was impossible that the three other people who previously occupied the room failed to notice the black, round pellets scattered across the floor and one of the countertops.  I faced a dilemma.  Do I turn a blind eye, and tell myself that someone must have spilled their raisins?  Do I break out the gloves and cleaner and pick up the mess, keeping silent about the problem?  Or, do I take the proverbial bull by the horns, and take on the responsibility for getting a rat exterminator out to the office, getting nothing but paperwork and hassle for my effort?  The boss would probably also make me send an email around to my co-workers letting them know we have now attracted rats to the building, and making them empty food out of their desk drawers.  Yeah, that’d make me real popular.

But, rat droppings!  You can’t just let that slide by and hope the problem goes away.  Rats could be scurrying all through the walls right now, waiting for us to turn off the light so they can scamper out and run all over our desks, spreading diseases and filth.

I sighed as I realized I couldn’t just leave rat droppings in the break room, nor could I ignore the rat problem.  I definitely needed a raise, though!

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Dead Rat

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rat removal

A dead rat was certainly not something I expected early in the morning as I stumbled through the house as quietly as I could to get to the gym and back before the kids woke up.

I had started a new exercise regime, hitting the gym or running on the nearby park trails.  With small children, a regular exercise routine was challenging, to say the least.  I’d tried popping in an exercise DVD or two, but the little ones thought it was a game.  They’d sit on my stomach as I tried to do sit-ups, run between my legs when I tried yoga, and I won’t even go into the trauma of kick-boxing.

Rat grin
Rat staring at you.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

Desperate, I was determined to get back in shape, whatever it took.  So, I went to bed pretty early each night, much to my husband’s chagrin, and woke up in the wee hours of the morning.  I snuck around the house, getting running shoes on, locating my MP3 player and filling my water bottle before tiptoeing out the front door and down the driveway.  For over three weeks, my new routine was working.  My husband was home, asleep but home, in case the children woke up early, but usually I was back just as everyone was waking up.  I’d then make breakfast, shower, and be ready for the day.  I was overjoyed and starting to see some success on the scale.

And then, the day of the dead rat.  I kept the house dark as I got ready to go running, because I knew every inch, every step of my home.  I skillfully remembered where toys had been carelessly left the night before and kept myself from loudly kicking toy cars and trains across the floor.  I would usually remember the last place the children were playing with my MP3 player, and could find it even in the darkness.  But, when my shoe-clad foot stepped on something unusual in the kitchen, I couldn’t figure out what it was.  It had some give, but there was a soft crack as my full body weight bore down on it.  I took two steps to the pantry, figuring I’d turn the pantry light on and partially close the door so I could determine what I’d stepped on without waking anyone up.

I turned on the light, stepped out of the pantry and closed the door half-way.  I looked down at the floor, and my mind couldn’t process what I was seeing.  Was this a child’s doll?  Some leftover food that had fallen on the floor during one of my husband’s late-night fridge raid?  In the partial shadows, I could see something glistening around it, but just couldn’t quite figure out the mysterious shape and substance.

Stepping closer, I stooped down and got really close.  My hand automatically reached out to scoop it up, but luckily my brain stopped my hand before contact was made.  “Dead Rat!” my brain screamed, and I jerked back.  My daily efforts of maintaining complete silence in the early morning hours paid off, and I’m proud to say I didn’t even shout out.  Instead, I yanked off my shoes, scooted back across the floor and sat there until my hands stopped shaking.  My mind raced, and I decided I would take care of calling in a professional rat exterminator, because where there’s one rat, there’s probably more.  I also decided to let my husband sleep in a little before making him clean up the mess.