A heavy, sweet, rotten smell that shows up in one room and gets stronger over a few days almost always means a rat, a mouse, a squirrel or another small animal died inside a wall, the attic or the space under the floor. Do not cover it up and wait. Find the spot where the smell is strongest, keep pets away from it, and call Cypress Critters & Pests at 713-775-8799. Michael finds the animal, takes it out, cleans and deodorizes the area, and closes the opening it used to get in.
How do you find a dead animal inside a wall?
By nose first, and then by the clues around the smell. Air moves through a house in ways that can fool you, so the room where you notice it is not always the room where the animal is. Michael follows the smell from room to room, then from floor to ceiling, and narrows it down to a section of wall or a few feet of attic. These are the signs he looks for, and you can look for them too:
- One spot where the smell is clearly stronger, often low on a wall or near a corner.
- Small flies gathering at an outlet, a light fixture, a vent or a baseboard.
- A damp stain or a discolored patch on the drywall or the ceiling.
- The smell getting worse in the afternoon heat or when the A/C kicks on.
- A place where you heard scratching or running a week or two earlier that has since gone quiet.
That last clue matters most. If you heard an animal in the wall and the noise stopped, the smell that follows tells you where it ended up.
Can I just wait for the smell to go away?
You can, but most people do not like how long it takes. How long depends on the size of the animal, the heat and where it is. A mouse in an outside wall fades sooner than a squirrel or a rat in a warm attic over a bedroom. While it breaks down, it draws flies, it can stain drywall and insulation, and the smell soaks into whatever is around it. Air freshener and bowls of coffee grounds only cover it for a while. Getting the animal out is what ends it.
Do you have to cut the wall open?
Not always, and never more than he needs to. Often the animal can be reached from the attic, from the crawl space, or through an opening that is already there, like an outlet box, a vent or the gap behind a baseboard. When the wall does have to be opened, he cuts a small, clean square where the animal is, not a long trench looking for it. That is why the finding comes first. Once the animal is out, he cleans the space, treats it for odor, and the opening can be patched.
Why did an animal die in my wall?
Two reasons come up again and again. The first is rat and mouse bait. Poison bait does kill rodents, but it does not choose where they die, and a rodent that eats bait in the attic often crawls into a wall or under the insulation before it dies. That is one of the reasons Michael’s rat and mouse control work relies on trapping and sealing instead of bait alone. The second is a way in with no easy way out. A young squirrel or a rat that drops down inside a wall from the attic cannot always climb back up, and it dies where it fell.
Call or text 713-775-8799 and tell Michael where the smell is strongest and when you first noticed it.
How do I keep it from happening again?
The dead animal is a sign that the house has an opening. Something found its way into the attic or the walls, and as long as that gap is open, the next animal can find it too and may end up in the same place. Taking out the carcass without closing the way in fixes the smell and leaves the problem. That is why the animal exclusion service is the second half of every dead animal job: Michael walks the roofline, the soffits, the vents and the places where pipes and A/C lines come through, and he seals each opening with material animals cannot chew through.
In the meantime, keep pets away from the spot and do not try to dig the animal out with bare hands. If you find a dead animal out in the open and need to pick it up, wear gloves or use a shovel, bag it, and wash your hands with soap and water afterward.
When should I call?
Call as soon as the smell is clear and you can point to a room. The sooner the animal comes out, the less there is to clean. The dead animal removal page explains the whole job, from finding the animal to sealing the house. If you are in Spring, close to Michael’s home base, the page on rat and mouse control in Spring covers the rodents that so often end up in the walls. For a smell in the wall right now, call 713-775-8799.
Questions people ask about a dead animal smell
How can I tell a dead animal smell from a plumbing smell?
A dead animal smell is heavy and sweet, gets stronger over a few days and then slowly fades. It sits in one area and often brings small flies. A sewer smell is sharper, comes and goes with running water, and is usually strongest at a drain or a toilet. If you heard an animal in the wall before the smell started, it is almost always the animal.
Is it all right to stay in the house with the smell?
For most people it is unpleasant more than anything. Keep pets away from the spot, keep children from poking at stains or openings, and do not handle the animal, or anything it has soaked into, with bare hands. Opening windows helps while you wait. Getting the animal out and cleaning the area is what ends the smell.
Can a dead animal in the attic draw other animals?
It draws flies first, and those are what most people notice. More important, the opening that let the first animal in is still open, and the scent of an animal that lived there can lead others to the same spot. That is why Michael does not stop at removal. He finds the way it got in and seals it.
What happens if you cannot find the animal right away?
Sometimes the animal is deep in a wall or under a floor where the smell spreads out. When that happens, he narrows it down with flies, stains and airflow, and he checks the attic and the crawl space above and below. If it truly cannot be reached without opening a large section, he tells you plainly and talks through the choices before anything is cut.
