Charnel Smell Update

[judifilksign]

Sparkle's room still smells as though zombies live there, rotting away.  I have yet to find the dead mouse in her room, although the cats have brought me at least one every day this week.  So, my suspicions of a dead creature somewhere in there remain high.

I asked Sparkle whether she'd tried to feed Furnace through the vents.  The answer was no, but also one of great excitement, as though I'd given her food for thought as to a new something she could do to appease Furnace.  A long conversation involving a lot of my list of NOs! ensued.  Sparkle seemed more bored than convinced by  my arguments. 

So, we had a theory that a mouse may have crawled in the heating ducts beyond where I can see, because the smell gets stronger when the vents blow.  However, when I put my face over it, I only get metallic heat, not rot.

Sparkle is sleeping in the living room, as her room is unlivable at the moment.  I am getting progressively more crazy about this.

And, the yearly visit from Children's Services is coming up, to check on Sparkle's well-being.  I really don't want the home visit to have this stench in her living area!

Comments

[pondside.livejournal.com]

Sympathies -- this is not a good thing and I have zero ideas about how to solve this. Cadaver dog?

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

You got anybody in the area who traps critters out from under houses? I know, your critter is dead, but a professional in the area of varmint removal might have some useful leads on specialists in dead varmints.

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

I hope my suggestion doesn't cause more harm than good. Good luck solving the odor mystery.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Check the furnace filter and see if it caught a bunch of mousie badness: hair and dander can roast and smell almost-but-not-quite as bad as a corpse. Sometime the scent goes everywhere, and sometimes just in selected directions down the ducts.

[jenrose]

If they do notice, tell them, "Please, if you can help me figure out where the smell is coming from, I'd be delighted, I've been searching for days."

If the place is visibly clean, it should not be a problem.

ETA: The last time my van smelled that way, it turned out someone had left a half-open ziplock bag with a single slice of roast beef in a cooler grocery bag in the back, that looked empty on first glance. The smell was FOUL.

[bedlamhouse]

Assuming that you have standard floor vents, you might consider pulling them up and affixing hardware cloth or metal screen material about 2" down in the ducts. They won't interfere much with the air flow but will catch any, shall we say, brilliant ideas.

I would also highly recommend one of the enzymatic odor products for your final stage - I've gotten cat smells out of hardwood floors and old milk smells out of car carpets very successfully.

These things always do seem to happen just before visits from a service agency, don't they? Have ladyat tell the story someday of the Social Services visit (when she and her ex- were fostering a special needs child) where her daughter decided running to the door shrieking while completely covered in grape jelly would be a good idea...

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Well, with all the pick up and cleaning I've been doing to LOOK for the rotten smell, It certainly is the neatest room in the house!

We've been getting a mouse a day either in the mousetraps or from the kitties, because we just got a cold snap, and the mousies from outside are seeking shelter from the cold.

It's my big use of peanut butter, baiting traps.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Screening the ducts seems like a good idea.

The enzyme stuff works much better than Febreeze, too.

I always get wound up before the FCCS visits anyway. This gives me something concrete to fuss about, though...

[thnidu]

Might the Ex-Mouse be on or next to the duct, rather than in it? Assuming there's not a perfect fit around the vent, that might explain it.

Or anywhere in the whole length of the duct.