Gross Smell in Kids Room

Yes. A rat got into the attic and fell down between the walls and died. Do you have a dog? If not, do you have a friend who does? We had a dog and when we brought him in, he went straight to the spot in the room, lifted his leg and peed. We cut an opening in the wall, and there it was. Baking soda and charcoal are good odor eaters, and the hole wasn't hard to fix. Good Luck.

M.,

After reading the last post I realized I could actually have an advice for you... She was talking about odor absorbing thing.... Activated charcoal that you can find in pet stores (they use that to filter the water in fish tanks) absorbs lots of odors, more than baking powder in a refrigerator. The activated charcoal is the same thing they put in shoe inserts... you might even go down that road if you don't find any... buy activated charcoal shoe inserts and put them in the room. For a minimal fee, it might be worth the try... good luck!

Hi M.,
OMG! how awful- if it is a dead varmit- yep- you will just have to wait it out- but have you checked to see if you do not have a broken sewer line somewhere either near or under your home? That can also send unpleasant odors thro out the house- we had that happen one time and it was not pleasant.
blessings

i would call some one out it could be a dead rat one time we got a rat in my daughters room in the wall and it died well let me tell u we almost died from the smell lol.omg they stink when they die in a wall are under the floor are the air vent.they can get any where a die.so yea i would call some one out like soon lol.because it will get worse before it gets better. wish u well good luck

Hi M.,
Well when we were small children and lived at home we had a similar situation.Don't let what im fixing to write to freak you out but its true.We moved into a house that had some tragedy happen in it before we moved in.we found this out after we were allready moved in. Our room that me and my sisters shared was located in a hall way. And we noticed a foul odor in the hall way. it was so bad we couldn't even step out into the hallway. It smell like something dead.Litteraly! My mom called my uncle who was very spiritually connected in his faith that he came over and prayed over our house. We were kids and playing outside and my mom in the kitchen cooking dinner and all of a sudden there was a loud scream come out of our house.After that the smell disappeared and the other crazy things that were going on just stopped.
I only share this story cause if your husband can't find anything dead in the attic or in the walls you might want consider that it could be something else.Maybe consider to have that room blessed. Good-luck

The exact same thing happened to us several months ago. The smell was directly over my daughter's room. My husband eventually went and was able to find the dead animal in the attic, but if it is in the wall, you may just have to wait out the smell. My dad says it should be 2 to 3 weeks. He also said to block off any holes, like plugs. Ihope you get it out soon!

We recently had a skunk spray one of our neighbor's dogs and the smell permeated our house...it was disgusting. We do have an air cleaner, which helped tremendously, but we put a bowl of vinegar in the room that was hit the worst and it took the smell away. If you can find the dead animal, have it removed. Then, I would use vinegar and buy a really good air cleaner. Best wishes.

My husband and I own a pest control company and yes you can call an exterminator. They can remove the source of the oder if possible. If not they do make odor adsorbers that remove the odor from the room. We had a mouse die in the wall in the restroom out in our shop and couldn't get to it. I put an odor adsorber in the room and it made it way better.

Best of luck..

If it's a dead rat, it should only last a few days. A larger animal would be longer. Double check under the bed and in every corner, etc. Spilled milk can cause an awful smell as well. Spray down the mattress and carpet with vinegar to disinfect and help absorb odor, just in case it is something that spilled. You may want to move/remove all the furniture and inside drawers? Walk along the walls to see if the smell gets stronger at a certain place. That way you know where it is in the wall. Double check the attic and a/c vent. If you can afford to have someone remove the animal - then do so. If you can't, you will have to try and find it yourself or put up with the smell. Lime is supposed to help with smell as well - just keep the kids out of there if you are spreading lime. Put it on inside as well outside of the room or your neighbors might start complaining.

Have you looked into the vents, sometimes small animals can get into there. If necessary have someone come from the air-cond. company to check the vents also. Been there.

If you have boys one of them maybe masterbasting in the room and what happen they hide the sheet,plastic bags, or something they discard the semen somewhere under the bed or in the closet. So you would need to wash everything to bring the fresh smell back in the room.

So sorry about the smell...I know exactly what it's like, whew!
I literally used my nose along the wall and targeted the area. Ours(it was a dead mouse) happened to be in a shared bedroom and bathroom wall. The smell was more intense on the bathroom side. We decided to cut the dry wall(my husband is very handy)in between 2 studs. Luckily it was the correct place and voila there was a dead mouse! The shocking part is that he had a long way to go before he was completely decomposed and that he was very small but created such a horribly strong odor. We then had to replace the dry wall and had spare paint to finish the wall up. We also realized that the reason it didn't smell as bad on the bedroom side of the wall is that the paint was a higher quality and sealed the wall better.

I have also heard that some people choose to stick it out and let the creature decompose and eventually the odor will disappear. Again, by the looks of this tiny little mouse it would have taken an awfully long time for it to decompose. Hope this helps!

I had that problem when a roof rat died in the attic. My exterminator came and announced that he would try to locate it but, if he wasn't able to, we would have to live with the smell until the corpse dried up (Ugh!!). Luckily for us, he managed to find the corpse, which was in a corner of the attic, and remove it, and our life was back to normal! I think it is worth having your exterminator have a look... Good luck!
K. T

when I was growing up my parents wanted me to be a doctor. We also kept Kosher and my dad used to butcher the animals we ate. He would show me the parts and explain their functions to me (This started when I was about 3).

My parents smelled something dead in my room and it turned out to be a cow's heart which I had sequestered and stored in paper towels in my sock drawer.

No, I'm not a doctor, but my mom loves to tell this story.

M., this exact thing just happened to us during the Christmas holiday. Imagine how horrible it was to want to smell the pine tree and all the nice smells that come with Christmas and we are having to smell a dead animal. Unfortunately it was in our dining room next to our kitchen, so that made things worst. I could not have any company over because I was to embarrassed. I did call an exterminator to see what to do and he advised that there is really nothing you can do but to wait it out. He also said that when its cold outside, then the smell will linger longer because the body fluids or whatever (yuk) dont dry up as fast as it does when its hot outside. We actually asked him if he would just come and cut a hole where we thought it was and take it out and he said that he could but he did not recommend that because they have found that you might think you know where it is, but then when they have made this huge hole in your sheetrock, it turns out that it is not there. Anyway to make a long story short, he said it would be too costly and if we could jut wait it out for about a month, then the smell will go away. I have to say that it was a little over a month and now the smell is completely gone. I feel sorry for you and I know what your going thru, but buy some candles and mask the odor the best you can. BTW dont put the glade plug in fans in the wall where you think it is because I did that and it made it worst. Good luck!!

The same thing happened to us. It was a rotten odor. I too thought it was a rodent. I later realized the a/c and heater units were above the room. I called out a repair man and he repaired a leak of some kind. The smell immediately left. It turned out to not be an animal. Good luck.

Oh Yes! We had this one last year. Rats in the garage and I put out poison. Of course, one crawled into the house and died in the wall of my daughter's room. And it smelled like DEATH. Horrible. I kept her windows open and the door closed and put odor absorbers in there -but it still took about a week. I made her sleep in the game room for a few nights just because it smelled so bad. I called my exterminator and he just laughed- unless I wanted the wall taken apart, he couldn't do anything. Do check up in the attic- you might find the body up there- but otherwise- it WILL go away. And then about a month to 6 weeks later (guess it depends on how warm it is and how large your dead thing is) your house will suddenly have swarms of enormous slow moving flies. I killed over 200 in one afternoon. They would just appear every day about 3pm and be on the windows- I never really saw them fly from anywhere or to anywhere- they just appeared. That lasted another 3 or 4 days and then- gone. At that point all you have in your wall is a skeleton that won't bother anyone. I know this is all too gross- but it will go away.

Have you considered the possibility it may be a snake? They usually give off a 'musk' scent when it's mating season & it really WREAKES! It has that "roadkill smell". You can try tossing mothballs or mothcakes in openings down from the attic that may penetrate down through the walls. That usually chases the snakes away for some reason. It could be anything but I just thought I'd mention the snake just in case. It happened to us at work, found 3 black rat snakes (harmless); one was in the attic at work which caused the horrible smell which lasted for at LEAST 2-3 wks, one (7 feet long! no kidding. I have photos!) trying to crawl up the outside & the other was out on the lawn area & this was all in one day. Last year about this time, I found one on the outside of our doorjam to our apartment crawling up the bricks around the door so just keep that in mind, black snakes like to crawl up into attics, barns, trees, etc. so if you live near a wooded area it may be a snake so use caution. Best of luck!

This happened at our house. I called a pest control company just to come and verify what the smell was, and he said likely a rat or other small animal had died and fell into the wall. The only thing we could do was wait it out, and it took a long time. He said it would go faster in the summer time because the heat would speed up the decomposition process, but unfortunately, we had it happen in the winter, just like you are having happen. It happened in my daughter's room and she just slept on a mattress in the hall until the smell lessoned. Horrible to deal with, I know, but you'll just have to wait it out.

Yes this has happened to me! You probably have rodents living in your attic, you do need to put out traps up there for them. they are hard to get rid of,. an exterminator is a good idea if you can afford it, but they probably can't extract the one that's dead now as he is most likely in the wall. the smell will last about a week. with it tappering off towards the end. where there is one dead rodent there are maybe 10 live ones! eventually they can get in the house from the attic too! they onl;y need a very small opening to get in! just big enough to sqeeze their skull threw! Good luck! S.

Good Morning, M..
I can only imagine! I'm sorry you have to live with this for awile! I would get an air purifier. They rid oders! If you know anyone who has one you can borrow. OR, it is a terrific investment to have anyways, with the "Not so clean air" in Texas here. Using chemicals to cover the smell will effect your family's health, so try this.
If you need to borrow one, just call, I have you can borrow, depending how close you are.
www.yourhealthyalternatives.com

L.