Many of us have been in a situation where there are dead creatures in our houses. This could be any animal including rats, mice, raccoons, opossums, pets, etc. It always starts very slowly. A whiff of foul smell gets over your nose. You do not pay much attention to its….after all it could be anything! Or it did not even happen and therefore you forget it! After some time, the same smell hits your nose again; this time more powerfully! This is definite to jerk your mind and therefore you wonder for some time what it is. At the initial stages, the smell is a subtle but given a day or two, it definitely will not be very subtle. The room will be smelling terrible, no doubt the smell of rotting meat.
If you let this go for some time, not only will the house have a terrible stench but it will also be uninhabitable. No doubt that will be a dead animal. Unfortunately, no matter how much you scan the open areas, you do not seem to find the dead animal. But of course you cannot let it stay there forever and therefore you have to somehow find it. One thing that you will acknowledge is that most animals do not die in the open; they will more often than not choose the most hidden places such as cracks or even openings as their resting place. So how do you find the dead animal that is giving your house a horrible smell?
You will need to begin with what you have: sense of smell! This appears to be very easy, but its not. It definitely will not be very easy to keep your nostrils open to foul smell but in this case it is a necessity. Following your nose will be imperative in finding the area which has the worst smell. Moving to the place from which the strongest smell is coming would be important as that is where the animal is most likely to be. However, it is important to acknowledge that the smell could be misleading especially if there are changes in the direction of the wind. Be sure to take into consideration the wind flow.
In you could use some of your pets to track down the dead animal. Dogs have particularly been known to be very effective in such cases mainly due to their strong sense of smell and therefore you could enlist their help. However, take precaution when using pets. Be sure to prevent them from taking the dead animal or even eating them. In this case, the animal should only be used in cases where you can control the action of the pet.
In addition, you could take into consideration other leads to the dead animal. Many are the times when dead animals will attract insects such as flies or even black ants feeding on its carcass. As much as flies may be misleading due to their capability to fly away, they always give an idea as to where to find the carcass simply because they circle the place. In any case, once they attract you to the area, you could look at other insects such as black ants moving to the direction of the smell.
Lastly, you could use other indicators such as stains. In most cases, animals will be dying in the ceiling of your house. How many times do you ignore the stains on your ceiling just thinking that your roof is leaking? Now is the time to look at the places with the stains as they could be caused by the rotting animal.
It is important to acknowledge that finding the dead animal would be just part of ensuring that the house smells normal again. Be sure to use gloves to remove it; clean and fumigate the place to improve the smell.
Here is more information about How to find a dead raccoon.