Well, the day just KEEPS getting better (not)

[littlesista06]

So I've got this smell in the den. Dh can't smell it, but dd and I can. I'm searching and searching and cleaning, etc. I'm beginning to think it's a dead animal in the wall.

Has anyone ever had this happen? What do you do? Open the wall and get it OUT??!! YIKES. Or wait until it stops stinkin'? Ick. :\

[Amy]

Don't wait for the stink to go away if it's a dead animal. I think it will just permeate the rest of your house. Do you know where the smell is stemming from? Does this room have exterior walls? If so, you might want to check outside and see if there is a place for animals to get inside and close it off.

[vea29]

I have a question?

Is the den on the den on a Cement (ground) floor. I know with all this wet weather we had...the daycares basment was drenched and the carpent stunk so bad nobody would go do there. I believe her husband shop vac'd it out then the bought new dehumidifiers.

I'm not sure what else but you could try baking soda on the carpet...then vaccum it up....good luck.

[AnnW]

Is the den on the den on a Cement (ground) floor. .

is the den on the den?????


I thought I had a dead animal one time in dd's room and it turned out it was an easter egg she had hidden!

[vea29]

is the den on the den?????


I thought I had a dead animal one time in dd's room and it turned out it was an easter egg she had hidden!
ok....well I repeated myself in that sentence...I meant is the den on a cement floor....LOL.

[PamE]

I thought I had a dead animal one time in dd's room and it turned out it was an easter egg she had hidden!

ROFL!!! Eeeewwww!!! :lol: The kids are always finding Easter eggs hidden waaay after Easter. Luckily we do the hunt at mil's house, LOL!

[BevJ]

Ewww...reminds me of an episode of "Moving Up" I saw on the weekend. Poor sucker house-buyer bought a house with dead squirrels in the walls/ceiling. Then discovered there were also maggots, mice droppings and termites. She had to gut the whole inside of her house. Hope you find the cause soon, Jen.

[vea29]

ROFL!!! Eeeewwww!!! :lol: The kids are always finding Easter eggs hidden waaay after Easter. Luckily we do the hunt at mil's house, LOL!
My father had that happen one so after that he counted the eggs before and after they get hide

[JAK]

Ewww...reminds me of an episode of "Moving Up" I saw on the weekend. Poor sucker house-buyer bought a house with dead squirrels in the walls/ceiling. Then discovered there were also maggots, mice droppings and termites. She had to gut the whole inside of her house. Hope you find the cause soon, Jen.

I saw that one. It was SO nasty.

[Melody]

ROFL!!! Eeeewwww!!! :lol: The kids are always finding Easter eggs hidden waaay after Easter. Luckily we do the hunt at mil's house, LOL!

LOL And this is the very reason the Easter Bunny does not hide eggs at our house!

[Melody]

Ewww...reminds me of an episode of "Moving Up" I saw on the weekend. Poor sucker house-buyer bought a house with dead squirrels in the walls/ceiling. Then discovered there were also maggots, mice droppings and termites. She had to gut the whole inside of her house. Hope you find the cause soon, Jen.

Oh my! That's gross. Isn't there something that could be done and they get out of a contract in those conditions?

[Melody]

So I've got this smell in the den. Dh can't smell it, but dd and I can. I'm searching and searching and cleaning, etc. I'm beginning to think it's a dead animal in the wall.

Has anyone ever had this happen? What do you do? Open the wall and get it OUT??!! YIKES. Or wait until it stops stinkin'? Ick. :\

I had that happen once and never figured out what the smell was. It was right in the entrance to the house. It went away and that was the end of it. I checked everywhere and couldn't find a source. I later wondered if it was poop on someones shoe that someone didn't notice.
I hope it's not a dead animal in your walls. I don't know what would happen if it was?

[KarlaB]

LOL And this is the very reason the Easter Bunny does not hide eggs at our house!

And that is the very reason he hides plastic ones filled with candy and $$ here. LOL!

[KarlaB]

Jenn - Don't have any advice for you, but do hope you find the casue soon! :\

[Toby]

I absolutely have the answer to this one as we have lived through the animal in the wall situation. What a pain in the butt!
Here's what happened. We have happily lived in our home for many years but one early spring day we discovered a smell close to the front door, and living room area. We have hard wood floors and the living room has a fire place against the garage wall. I cleaned, and cleaned and went nuts trying to find the source of the smell, had the vents and everything professionally cleaned and still the smell wouldn't go away. it got to the point that i was the only one smelling the problem as everyone else got used to it or was sick of hearing me raving on about the situation.
I figured i was about to loose the battle over the smell when we noticed the flashing(metal edging around base of chimney),seemed to be pryed open, or lifted and up went my husband to inspect the then thought of winter damage. (ice damming).
My husband came down after an hour and with it a small hand full of feathers and a single blue egg. Finches had nested under the flashing, wintered in a cozy warm spot between the brick and flashing, the whole time keeping warm from exscaping warm air from the house up the chimney. The noise the birds would make was muffled and cushioned by the brick and the ingenious method of nesting material.(leaves, bits of paper,found insulation from a nieghbours renovation etc.) But i had to question, why the smell? Well finches are notorious for being flighty and very good breeders, so the finches at the first sign flew the coop and left behind any eggs (and a mound of guano) that could not fly with them. My husband concured and up the ladder he went and while replaced the flashing added to the story of smellyness. Just when we thought we had the problem solved a wrench was thrown in to cause us more concern. My husband is a handyman, so while doing his repairs he was taken aback when he started seeing fur and evidence of scratches around the chimneys base! Well we now know why the finches left, there was evidence of a raccoon trying to find its dinner, thus the finch's reason to fly the nest.
Great now what do we do? The best and most efficient thing we did was to call an animal control specialist, who systematically looked over the entire house and sealed, grated, repaired, and fixed any and all problems and potential problems that we as home owners were not even aware were there. Does the story end here?
The following two months of spring found us flagging questions and finding out that our nieghbours were all having a similar problem with birds and that a family of raccoons had found a home in the roof of my immediate neighbour. This nieghbour is a single mom, who had no clue as to fixing her problem thinking that if she ignored it it would go away! She soon realized that raccoons also like to have big families and she finally came to us for advise as to what to do. As the expense was beyond her means to fix the situation we as a street community pooled our money and back came the animal control specialist who with all of us looking on one Saturday morning, lifted from the neighbours roof a 40 pound female raccoon and 3 pups. The specialist then inspected the female raccoon and found that her nursing teats indicated that there should be more babies around (probably three others). this is common as the mother raccoon will have multiple nests of babies,hiding them separately so that surivival of at least some of her litter will be guaranteed. (Smart animal!)
Low and behold days later the rest of her litter was found in another neighbours garage roof. (these animals are collected and then released in the wild/it is eligal in our area to kill wild animals/so no animals suffered for this story)
So what did we learn after all this? If you smell it it is there! Don't think ignoring it is going sovle the problem. If you have a smell, your neighbours may very well have the same problem, ask around and find out what could be the source. Get an expert opinion as they can do the work needed to solve any future problems . An expert is money well spent. Don't think this can't happen to you as I live in a well appointed suburban nieghbourhood, and the houses are large and well maintained. Keep an eye out for changes to your nieghbourhoods environment as wild life if relocated , disturbed, will seek shelter in the most convinient and warm locations. (In our case a local forested area the year prior had been changed to soccer fields and thus disturbed the local fuana who found shelter in the presiding housing area.)
We also learned that helping your nieghbour financially, with chores, with information will keep the whole environment healthier and happier(single mom is fighting for her life to keep the family home for her two beautiful kids/keep her in your prayers!)
So ends my sad tale of birds and raccoons and the fun of home ownership. The best advice would be to call your local pest control company and get the job done right! (and right away!)
(Didn't mean to write a book but thought our story might help!)
cheers
Toby

[Melody]

OMG!!! I'm so glad dh saw the racoon go into the chimney last week and sealed it up after inspecting with a friend who has been there.
Thanks for sharing Toby.

[PamE]

Ugh! No advice at all, just (((HUGS)))