# Dead rat in the wall.......



## Killdee (Jan 12, 2011)

One of my customers called me today and her idiot husband put rat poison in their attic after they heard some scurrying around up there. Now they have a dead rat either in the wall or between floors in there master closet. The odor is strongest near the ceiling but you cant smell it in the attic above and I raked back the insulation and checked the whole area above as well as the top plate all around for holes to get in the wall. The last customer with this problem we cut out small holes in sheet rock  where we thought it smelled strongest and it  ended up being in between the celing and floor upstairs. We rolled back the carpet and took up some of  the sub floor  to find the rat. I'm thinking I might pull the base tomorrow and drill a few  holes with an 1-1/2 bit to try to find it before I take up the floor. Anyone have any other suggestions or know how long a rat will stink,  they started noticing it around new years? I'm sure its a norway roof rat, they are bad in this neighborhood and can be as big as a small squirrel. Someone should invent a sniffer like the gas company uses to find leaks.


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## shakey gizzard (Jan 12, 2011)

The wall is one thing, the floor is a whole nudder can o worms! Try a dog first or maybe fiberoptic plumbing camera! Good luck!


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## Pat Tria (Jan 12, 2011)

That is a very, very annoying and frustrating problem. I had a similar situation in my garage a number of years ago. Fortunately I worked for a company that had a boroscope and on the 5th hole in the sheet rock, I found the dead rat.  I only had to remove an 18" x 18" piece of sheet rock to get the varment out and I could never figure how it got  there in the first place? 
One word of caution should you use a boroscope is that you have a very, very narrow field of view and it's really easy to miss a critter so be very slow and deliberate if you choose this method of detection.


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## Killdee (Jan 12, 2011)

shakey gizzard said:


> The wall is one thing, the floor is a whole nudder can o worms! Try a dog first or maybe fiberoptic plumbing camera! Good luck!



The floor here is 4 shore a can o snakes. We have done 4-5  projects for these folks and 1 was removing the carpet and pad to lay hardwood floors, the whole 2nd floor has from 3/4 to 2" of cement. The floors are way out of level and this appears to have been the leveling solution the builder used.We removed and re floored all the 2nd floor but these 3 rooms. The smell is pretty stout so I dont think he is under the cement. I may take a dog in tomorrow first, since I dont have a scope a few holes will have to do.


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## Resica (Jan 12, 2011)

Do you have a thermal imaging camera?


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## Dead Eye Eddy (Jan 12, 2011)

I'd just burn a candle for a few days.  It can't last much longer if they've been smelling it since New Year's.  I was of the understanding that rat poison had an additive to eliminate odor.


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## crokseti (Jan 13, 2011)

The smell will last at least 6 weeks. Bore a few holes descretely in the prime area and put some odor eliminator
 First time use alot, them add more as needed.
 Plug holes with dryer sheets while treating.


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## Georgia Hard Hunter (Jan 13, 2011)

I had the same problem mine was later discovered in the open space behind the tub when we did a bathroom remodel.  Mine was also in the summer so the smell was way more intense but ended in about 2 weeks thank god. Good luck on finding it


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## LEON MANLEY (Jan 13, 2011)

Go stay with the in-laws until it goes away.


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## Killdee (Jan 13, 2011)

Resica said:


> Do you have a thermal imaging camera?



No



Dead Eye Eddy said:


> I'd just burn a candle for a few days.  It can't last much longer if they've been smelling it since New Year's.  I was of the understanding that rat poison had an additive to eliminate odor.



I have heard that somewhere 2 and it might work on a mouse but this is not the first time we have had to tear up walls to find a stinking poisoned rat. I  never use poison in a house or attic to control rats. They say the rat will leave the house to find water then die outside also, but they just go to the gutter and back in to stink up your house.


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## Resica (Jan 13, 2011)

Killdee said:


> No



Too bad, that may have a chance of working.


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## jimbo4116 (Jan 13, 2011)

The smell will go away.  Had flying squirrels in my attic.  A couple got trapped in an area you could not get to.

About a week.  We burned scented candles.  You may want to move your clothes out of the closet.

Cold weather may prolong it, but I would give it a few days.


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## Mackey (Jan 13, 2011)

Killdee said:


> One of my customers called me today and her idiot husband put rat poison in their attic after they heard some scurrying around up there. Now they have a dead rat either in the wall or between floors in there master closet. The odor is strongest near the ceiling but you cant smell it in the attic above and I raked back the insulation and checked the whole area above as well as the top plate all around for holes to get in the wall. The last customer with this problem we cut out small holes in sheet rock  where we thought it smelled strongest and it  ended up being in between the celing and floor upstairs. We rolled back the carpet and took up some of  the sub floor  to find the rat. I'm thinking I might pull the base tomorrow and drill a few  holes with an 1-1/2 bit to try to find it before I take up the floor. Anyone have any other suggestions or know how long a rat will stink,  they started noticing it around new years? I'm sure its a norway roof rat, they are bad in this neighborhood and can be as big as a small squirrel. Someone should invent a sniffer like the gas company uses to find leaks.



Depending on the size of the critter, it will only stink for three to five days (if it is small), and it will disipate. May be easier to tough out the smell than drilling holes. If drilling is a must, a snake camera would definately be a necessity. Good luck.


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## Miguel Cervantes (Jan 13, 2011)

I believe if I were in your line of work I'd invest in one of these;

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...Flow=3&catalogId=10053&langId=-1&ddkey=Search


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## Killdee (Jan 13, 2011)

Guys a norway rat can be size of a gray squirrel and a big 1 will stink for 4-6 weeks, this 1 was 10 days and stinking worse every day. BUT I found it, I did pull the baseboard and drill 1-1/2 holes between the studs which allowed me to see from stud to stud and still be covered when the base gos back on, but it wasent there.While it stunk to high Heaven in the closet and hall way, I couldnt smell a thing in the attic yesterday, but today I could detect a whiff of rat when I went back up. I had to get down within inches of the insulation to sniff it out,but found it under 20" of insulation above the back corner of the closet ceiling. I guess the insulation holds in stink as well as the heat. David had raked all the insulation back from the whole closet a few days ago but missed him by a foot or less.

Miguel, if I had to look for rats more than once every 5-6 years I'd buy 1 of those.

Thanks for the replys


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## GONoob (Jan 14, 2011)

I did that once without even thinking about where it was going to die. Luckily it died in the middle of the garage floor lol.


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## CamoCop (Jan 17, 2011)

so how big was he?   lol


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## chairgunner (Jan 17, 2011)

Resica said:


> Too bad, that may have a chance of working.



no thermal imagining works off heat, dead things do not put off heat


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## Resica (Jan 17, 2011)

chairgunner said:


> no thermal imagining works off heat, dead things do not put off heat



A decaying animal may put off a detectable heat signature.


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## Mackey (Jan 17, 2011)

Resica said:


> A decaying animal may put off a detectable heat signature.




X2 heat of decomposition.


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## thomas the redneck (Jan 17, 2011)

a thermal camera will pic up nails in sheet rock if you have it set right i have used one in the past for instaling cabinets on top of wall paper and to locate water lines in walls and all kind of other things i would get in trouble for saying here


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