Tag Archives: dead rat removal

How long does dead rat smell?

rat removal

“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.

Smell Dead Rat In Wall

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!”