What's That Funky Smell????

[SerendipityCrafts]

DH removed the plug outlet plates to paint our hallway and we noticed a funky smell coming from one of the outlets. The smell isn't coming from the other outlet at the opposite end of the hallway.

We can best describe the smell as a propane-y smell ie not pleasant! We can't trace the source and we don't know what it is. We don't have propane in the house.

So I am wondering .... does anyone know what does dead mouse smells like? *fearing we might have one stuck in the wall*

[BarceloMayaPalaceBride]

A dead mouse smells ROTTEN! That's the best way to describe it. Maybe call your gas company and have them take a look just in case :)

[SerendipityCrafts]

A dead mouse smells ROTTEN! That's the best way to describe it. Maybe call your gas company and have them take a look just in case :)

Our house is heated with hot water which is heated by oil. There is no gas coming into our house. We've checked the oil tank room .... nope ... no smell. The smell is only coming from this one power outlet LOL

I have never smelled dead mouse so I wasn't sure if this could be it but an exterminator did come into the house before we moved in. Since, I don't see any evidence of mouse traps, I can only assume he set out poison. Poison is supposed to dehydrate them so that they go outside to seek water but sometimes .... they don't make it outside LOL

[vicky_vicky]

I am thinking now that it maybe a misplaced wire causing electrocution which is occasionally burning the wires.

Any recent electrical work in the house?

[WebLady]

I would think something dead in your walls would be a distinct rotting smell. Whatever it is, I hope you find it and get rid of it soon!

[mitch]

I asked DH and He said a Dead Mouse would smell like rotten flesh.

He works in drains and sewers sometimes and i've worked in a Hospital Mortuary. Rotten flesh is a very distinct smell.

A bit like leaving meat out in the sun for two weeks then having a sniff EWWWW. :urgh:

[SerendipityCrafts]

He works in drains and sewers sometimes and i've worked in a Hospital Mortuary. Rotten flesh is a very distinct smell.


Neither of us think we have ever smelled rotten flesh and I say, that I think this is a good thing! :rofl:

[SerendipityCrafts]

Neither of us think we have ever smelled rotten flesh and I say, that I think this is a good thing! :rofl:

Well .... I guess we can't say that ^^^^^ any longer. DH decided to investigate when he saw me typing my reply above.

He turned off the power to the switch ... and had a look in there with a mini flashlight.

DH - Oh oh
Me - oh oh what?
DH - There is mouse poop in there.
Me - guess we know what dead mouse smells like now.

So he removes the outlet boxes from the wall while I make myself scarce :ooh: I get brave enough to peek around the corner.

Me - so?
DH - so what?
Me - so did you find a corpse?
DH - not telling you
Me - you certainly are going to tell me! Either you got it out or I should know that our wall is still a mousey graveyard.
DH - He's gone

He's my hero! :)

[bichonlvr]

So it WAS a dead mouse....GROSS!!! Welcome back to home ownership!!!!! HA HA!!!

[Whitewater]

Well, at least now you know what dead smells like!

Sometimes on the highway we'll pass dead animals and they haven't gone all mummified . . . and the dead smell is absolutely foul. I have to try hard not to puke.

A dead mouse isn't all that bad. MANY dead mice, on the other hand . . . yeah.

The poison I've used dries the mouse up inside so that the mouse doesn't smell even if they can't get outside to die, and when I was moving out of an apartment that was overrun (with a slum landlord who didn't give a **** . . . which was the main reason I moved) with mice, when we were doing the final cleaning thing to get my deposit back, we saw the body of a mouse behind the fridge.

We saw another one on the floor of my clothes closet and one underneath the heating baseboards.

But my apartment didn't have that dead smell or the musty 'mouse' odor. So the poison must have worked!


It was one of my biggest 'needs' when we went house-hunting -- NO SIGN OF MOUSE INFESTATION!!! And by then, I knew what to look for too, and I passed on at least two houses that were otherwise pretty nice. My agent was pretty miffed at me until I explained about the mouse infestations in the home, at which point he understood where I was coming from.

Our new home, thank GOD doesn't have the faintest trace of mice. Apparently, there have NEVER been mice in this house. And we plan on keeping it that way!


Whitewater

[NOTKT]

Ewwy! At least you found it early!

[SerendipityCrafts]

So it WAS a dead mouse....GROSS!!! Welcome back to home ownership!!!!! HA HA!!!

I suppose having the woods in back of our house doesn't help. :snide:

A condition on the sale was to have the exterminator for a year. Hugh is scouring the inside and out for entry points this weekend. I will call the exterminator tomorrow to schedule visit #2.

[val24]

glad you figured out what it was. let me know if the extrimantor has any helpful hints. we caught a family of mice. I hope it is done with! It was making me mad cuz they kept eating the food off the traps but the traps were not going off. so my dad was like buy the sticky things (EWw!) and we did and now we know why...they are baby mice so small and light that is why they werent setting the traps off! the momma mice was caught in the trap. I am not sure if it is a city thing but my friend said her daughter house has a mouse in it also (eating the dog food). I hope it is a isolated indicent!!!

[WebLady]

I guess it could have been worse; glad you found it before the smell got worse.