CAUTION! Dead Rat In The House: Warnings and Tips for Cleaning

Rats are dangerous to your health. Rats are dangerous in general. Catch them in the act, and they will squint at you while revealing their two big front teeth! However, what is more, hair raising is not when you see live rats. It is when you catch a dead rat smell. Where is the smell coming from? It’s your next big worry. 

Raise the alarm and know how to give caution! Dead rats in the house! What to do and how to catch dead rodents ahead!

Warnings and Tips for cleaning after dead rodents at home

The University of California’s guide to pest management gives cautions to dispose of dead rats as soon as possible. You might successfully rid rats or mice by killing them with homemade rat poison or DIY rat bait and leaving them weak. A dying rat is as big a problem as the living one. 

What will you do, and how will you find it if it dies somewhere hidden? A stench of the dead is your only clue.

Heed these warnings when you smell a dead rat inside your properties!

• If you use rodenticide to kill rats, use bait stations to get them at o nce.
• Clean up leftover bait traps as these can attract new rodents and worsen the smell.
• A dead rat’s smell may remain even after weeks of throwing away the body.
• The area where you locate a dead rat will mix with urine and droppings.

How long does the dead rat smell go away?

The stench of a decomposing rodent lasts for weeks. Four weeks utmost. Here are different scenarios when catching the smelly dead rat.

• A dead rat smells for one to three weeks if they die in your basement under storage boxes.
• A rodent smells for the utmost four weeks, especially if you found it dead in your vents or wall gaps.
• A rodent may decompose faster and eliminate the strong smell if they die outdoors over fresh soil.
• A rat that died outdoors on the street will take longer days to decompose. If exposed to heat and rain, its smell disrupts the outdoor air for a few days to a week.

How to Rid of Dead Rats’ Smell After Elimination

You know a lifeless rat is lying around when a breeze of putrid air smudges your nose. The smell of decomposing rodents is a mix of sulfuric chemicals and fluids that fumes out of the body, blood, urine, and the last droppings from the rat.

Even if you removed the body once found, the compound and chemicals that trigger your olfactory nerves remain. 

This is how to get rid of the smell.

Tip 1: Find a Source

It frustrates you if you keep inhaling a nasty odor. It drives you nuts to keep looking around and see nothing. 

Find a source of a smell. To do this, first, you need to be armed with knowing what type of rodent you are after. Remember, the climbers are different from those who swim the sewerage. 

You can commonly find black rats or roof frats up the attic or stuck in the vent walls. The brown rats will frequent the ground floor, check the basement and think back if you have set up a bait station beneath.

Tip 2: Dead Pest Smell Removal

After you locate the final resting ground of the dead rat, begin cleaning the nearby areas. Follow these safety procedures to rid of the dead pest:

• Use gloves to pick up the dead rat
• Use protective gear like a face mask to shield the foul smell
• Wear a protective coat or coating with sleeves to prevent flies or other decomposing agents from contacting your skin
• Clean up the area or the surface with a disinfecting solution
• Wrap the body in a Ziploc, make sure that the container can be sealed so that the dead body will not leak smell and fluids
• Use paper towels to absorb the wet solution for disinfecting
• Repeat cleaning for the second time and spray disinfectant

Tip- 3 Proper Disposal

The next step and tip are to dispose of the body properly. A Ziploc is not enough. A decomposing pest will release body fluids and compounds that can leak into the garbage.

Sometimes the dead rat smell comes out from an improper way of throwing the remains. Use a paper towel or cloth to be put inside the plastic bag or Ziploc. The towel or pieces of paper will absorb any fluid that can escape from the sealed bag or box.

Tip 4: Eliminate 

Lastly, eliminate if you found a nest, clean and remove it. Cleaning a nest located in a small narrow wall or a subfloor may require you to demolish a part of your house. Also, if you found the body stuck between those walls, it is easier just to leave the rotting pest as it is.

You can demolish the smell with the following items:

• Odor neutralizer spray
• Air freshener
• Disinfecting solution of 90% water with 10% bleach
• Vinegar (DIY spray)
• Charcoal
• Baking Soda

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