Anyone ever gone through this? This is the most disgusting thing ever and pray you don't ever experience this. First, you get a horrible smell. You can't find the mouse or rat in the wall. At first, I thought it was a sewer gas smell and tore up behind my vanity. I've had other issues due to the house shifting where it snaps the drain vent pipe at the elbow or sanitary T fitting behind the wall. Had to rip up two walls to fix this when the first one leaked a/c drainage onto my carpet. This was a sanitary T fitting in the hall bathroom that actually snapped at the top of the fitting. Then, the same thing for an elbow behind a second vanity in the master bathroom. Fixed both of those. The latter...I had an outbreak of drain flies in the master bathroom escaping from the break. Nasty. The way they built this house...there is no give in the vent pipe because they attached it with metal ribbon tape to the studs. So, if the house settles a bit, then pressure snaps the fittings. No real signs of foundation issues before that happened. But, these damn clay soils they build these houses on in Texas are notorious for settling. Then, literally the day before I get new laminate and carpet...a bad smell in my master bathroom AGAIN!!! This time it smelled worse....like something dead but not sure. I tore up the wall behind the vanity looking for another broken drain pipe fitting or leak...or something dead. Nope. So, waited it out because I'm not tearing my wall up in multiple places after the first miss. It's about three weeks later and smell is dissipating. Great! Then, phase two arrives. Hundreds of large black flies that apparently began as maggots feasting on the dead rodent find their ways out of the wall seemingly all at once. I was in there spraying these mf-ers with Raid and my whole bathroom is one sticky dead fly mess. I'm not sure it's over at this point. I went to town in there like Rambo with a heavy machine gun. I've also had rats in the attic and that was treated...expensively I might add. After that treatment, my house was supposed to be critter proof. Nope. I'm so sick and tired of these damn problems. Sometimes, home ownership really bites the big one. I'm hoping I'm nearing the end of this nightmare. I can't take much more of this.
Yeah, have been through this and there is no remedy. The rotting takes forever... the stinking only stops when every molecule of rat is in your nose. Seriously take a week away from your house. ... hey, you could air-bnb it!
Not my house but my business, thats in a pretty old building. Its so hard to find those little fukkers by nose cause the damn smell seems so damn strong from everywhere. I tried usin scentsys to cover it up from customers but that became a strong scent masking a horrifying odor. I once found a nest with a fat, bloated, stinking mother rat that was feeding off the rat poison pellets I put out. The smell was horrible, the nest was worst with the babies still in it- hairless and screaming for rat mothers milk. Had to beat those little things with a broom until they stopped crying and died. That was probably the worse one besides one I found with a huge maggot eating out its eye. Best thing I did was call an exterminator to spread some poisonous dust around in the attic and let the rats run through it and carry it back to their nest upstairs. Rats like to clean themselves constantly and so with that dust it spread to their colony pretty quick and they would just lick it up while cleaning themselves. The outcome was elimination of most of the rats and the smell wasnt too bad since it was winter time and the odor and hot air rose instead of being stagnant in the store. Fuq rats.
Just got done cleaning up. It appears I got every last one of them. But, going to hang some fly trap tape around the bathroom in case they come back again. They were all adults and the smell is pretty much gone so whatever was dead in the wall they went to town on and had to leave to find food or die. Luckily, I had the master bathroom quarantined already so none escaped the room. Yea...the Fabreeze oils that you plug in did a pretty good job of covering the smell when it was bad. Also, had two bags of those natural rocks that absorb smell. And, a couple of more containers with scents opened. I'm so hoping no more flies show up. It started with a few in the morning. Then, it exploded with the whole gang when I checked it later in the afternoon. I did have the same company back out to look for how this critter might have gotten in. Found one opening that lead to the wall area that he sealed off. It may have opened up when the house shifted. But, everything everywhere has been critter-proofed. That was like the only place it could have gotten in. I assume it got in there and got stuck. No activity at all in the attic where I have traps and the insulation they hate and won't bed in or even make contact with. So, this dang critter must have circled around the master bedroom into the master bathroom strictly through the walls. I don't see another possibility but these critters can get in the smallest openings. I don't see how it could be a bird. I don't deserve this.
If you guys think rats are bad, try squirrels. They are like rats on steroids. Their rage and brute strength is quite amazing. Don't feel like typing the story here but they were a nightmare and very hard to deal with. One squirrel can easily do the damage of 10+ rats.
This thread is terrifying. I feel like I need to do something preventative to the house, but I don't know what.
a dead cat will take care of it. meanwhile ,spay some Clorox, use only cyclone dust vaccum to remove particles
Happened to me when i was a kid, had mice in the garage and my dad decided to put out poison. The mouse / mice died in the walls and stunk for months. Most of the stink was closest to my parents bedroom so, i'm sure most of the love in that room died along with the mouse
Wow, this sounds AWFUL. I had a rat in my apartment way back in college one time. I went into the kitchen one day and saw it scurrying into a drawer. That night, it somehow found it's way into my bedroom closet and started scratching on the door trying to get out in the middle of the night. That would have really freaked me out nowadays, but when you're just a dumb college kid....it didn't even faze me. Just made for a funny story to tell my friends. I bought some poison that said he would eat it then leave looking for water. I threw it in my closet before going to class and when I got back, it was all gone and I never saw him - dead or alive - again.
When I bought my current house, there was a smell in the living room from something dead in a wall or attic or something. It was a little embarrassing for the seller. But the smell want away in a couple of weeks. Nothing like the OP's story.
