The Watering Hole

... in the bathroom wall.  Smells like... umm... death... It's rendering one of our bathrooms completely unusable. Anybody has a good method for locating the corpse, please post it.  I know which wall it's in (removed some light switches to find out) but I can't localize it to a small area and I'd like to tear out no more than 2-3 feet of drywall.

Thanks!

You have to tear out some drywall and look you can probably do better from the room behind if there are sink/shower on that wall.

Don't cheap out on this, breathing that shit is very unhealthy, even in other rooms get'er done A.S.A.P. Replacing drywall is a walk in the park.

Good luck amigo.

Another option is to drill some small holes low down between the studs, and sniff it out that way. the holes can easily be filled with spackling compound.

if it turns out that you can't get to or find it, as happened to me just a few weeks ago, the smell goes away after a couple weeks.

effin mice.

really important part is finding out how they got in and securing those points. copper mesh is excellent for this, like this stuff: http://www.amazon.com/Copper-Mesh-Rats-Birds-Control/dp/B0001IMLTO/ref=pd_sbs_indust_1

in this recent case, it turned out that, when I had a new heat pump installed, the guy left a pretty big gap in the siding where the service lines enter the building. all it needed was a neon sign over it (in mouse scale) flashing "vacancy". :(

it's an real war here against mice... they're all over the place. they take advantage of every damned weak point. they even move in to my mower's engine housing during the winter. they're assholes.

price to pay for living rural-ish.

Rip out that dry wall.  It's so easy to replace and not really an expensive job.  Wouldn't bother me a bit.  

ironsheep — Jun 30, 2010it's an real war here against mice... they're all over the place. they take advantage of every damned weak point. they even move in to my mower's engine housing during the winter. they're assholes.

price to pay for living rural-ish.

I live in the sticks as well, major forest right behind my house. I also had a minor issue with mice the first few years I lived here because I had this thing about killing the snakes I saw. Once I stopped killing the snakes (and putting out mothballs which DOES run them off) I stopped seeing the mice. I figured the snakes never tried to enter the home, mice do, so the snakes can stick around, lol! I read that killing just one adult rat snake is like allowing 100 mice a year to thrive in your area (its not just what they can eat but also the prevention of mice hanging around and multiplying, etc)!  :o

It's tough to not grab the shovel when I spot these guys, HATE the fuckers, they can make your heart turn over when you're mowing, but yeah, mice are assholes and I've thankfully not seen one 'round these parts in years.  ;D

my backyard:

oh man, I hadn't thought of that! there were a couple really large rat snakes dead in the road the last two summers (one each summer) - like 4 or 5 foot guys... I bet that is a big part of the population increase these last couple years! I should put up a snake crossing sign! ha, wonder if they make those... oh nice, seems someone does:


the good news is... I've got a pair of nesting hawks that moved in last year (somewhere in the woods, not the house/attic or anything, thank god!! lol). so maybe some additional death from above action will help out (the owls must be overworked). heh.

and 10x YES, mowing over a snake freaks me out.. but even worse, when I'm cutting around trees... I'm 100% paranoid about snakes overhead - only took one snake in a tree 10 years ago (that I didn't see until I was close enough to be in "oops, landed on you! ssssry!!" range, and I'm perma-freaked when mowing under trees. your pic did not help one bit!! ;) :)

LMAO!! Thats what I'm sayin'!! I've never mowed over a snake, but I've had several 'near heart attacks' ala Fred Sanford when one would stick its big head out of a shrub that I'm mowing RIGHT BESIDE, lol....I mean like you say, a freak out, oh shit, vertical JUMP thing! ;D The one in the pic was longer than my shovel, over 5' (took the pic back in the day - before I waxed him).

Love the sign, classic.

Hawks are awesome! They do their part at nabbing the little shits I'm sure - I once saw a HARE getting pounced on by a red tail hawk in my front yard right while pulling in from work, couldn't believe it, thing was huge! I think snakes living nearby under bushes and what not probably go further in 'spooking' mice from setting up shop. I bet you got more rat snakes around then the two that got sqwashed.

Problem at this point is that I can't even go in that room... it makes my vomit reflex go nuts. So I'm going to have to do it with a mask on.  Although it smells so bad I'll probably be able to locate it, even with the mask.

I'm just going to take out the wall heater, and if I can't locate it from there, I'll start cutting holes in the likeliest spots.

Thanks all!

Dude, those snakes are awesome.  A couple that size and our gopher problems would be history.  Unfortunately, the biggest snakes I've ever seen around here are cute little garter snakes, that probably can't kill anything bigger than a frog.

maybe it's something bigger than a mouse...? hope not.

had an opossum (possum.. whatever) that decided to crawl under a palette in a shed to kick it a couple years ago - holy crap did that smell... u n r e a l. got the carcass out and it still reeked in there for a month! utter hell stench that defied even bleach. ugh.

dead mouse kinda smells like someone took a crap in your wall... that (o)possum though... jesus, just a reeking pile of nasty - definitely had the hurl reflex going. there was no way to approach the body with open nose... just no way. had the smell-memory of that for a long time, too. thinking about it now is even making me queasy! hah.

somewhat off-topic... but as evidence that there's plenty of carnage in these parts, these dudes like to hang out on the fences every now and then...



;D

Funny (as in coincidence)  - as in the last month I know two people who had the same problem,
In their case it seems (at least a plausible guess ) to be down to a big local works program on municipal drains that has displaced a rat population in the area the two houses. The rat problem  was probably managed with poison by the contractor and they went off to various places to hideout while dying.

Many years ago I went to Florida for a few weeks during the summer and came back to a phenominally nasty smell in our dining room...  No mistaking the smell of decaying carcass.  turns out a cat had (probably been hit by a car) decided to crawl under our house before dying.  May have even happened before we left, I had to crawl under the house with a trash bag lined box and shovel and scoop the maggot filled mess into the box with less than 2 feet of vertical space.  And of course the opening to the crawl space was completely on the other side of the house.

Not sure how I did that without puking.

4 holes in the wall, one very large dead rat removed. Oh, the joy.

Well thats done. Too bad about the holes. Now you gotta find out how the stinker got in there and shore it up.

charger — Jul 01, 20104 holes in the wall, one very large dead rat removed. Oh, the joy.

Good work.

grats on finding the bastid!

+1 re schills. especially if you now have open holes in the wall that his non-dead friends can come through...