I don't know if this ever happened to you, but this definitely happened where I lived. I came in my house one day and was an unusual odor. I was unable to figure out what the smell was. It was lingering for about a day and a half until we realized we were not able to figure out what the smell was. The eventuality of what we discovered was not a pleasant experience. Not only did we lose a lot of money and time, but the odor stayed for days and made the people living in the house sick to their stomachs.
A dead animal in your ceiling or walls is very difficult find. Unfortunately, you may not realize that they're there. I was living in Florida and at the time I was working and going to school and doing some website work for member in the community who had me work on his computer as well. I brought his computer to my home and put it in my small office. I left it there overnight and shortly after certain noticing this mother was mentioning just a few minutes ago eight honestly thought that the smell had come from the dogs he had. Maybe which is the dirty computer that was filled with error and dirt and the fans were clogged up, but to my dismay. After removing the computer from the office this belt smell just lingered.
I discussed this with my wife, which was obviously an evitable. The reality of it was quite unnerving. We never had a dead animal in the house and we really didn't know where to go to begin about finding out about how to remove this. We live in a condominium. So we contacted the condominium association, and they wanted to know where the animal was as well and condominiums owners have certain responsibilities in the homeowners at association has responsibilities themselves. If the animal was found in the permit or walls. The homeowners association would be responsible for the removal and cleanup of the dead animal. If the animal is found in the ceiling. Then the homeowner was responsible for the removal and cleanup of the animal. If of course they wanted to go ahead and remove it.
So the homeowners association didn't really provide us with an adequate amount of resources to solve our problem. We started talking to other neighbors and found out that they were having problems with rats in their condominiums or apartments. One of the neighbors had been setting traps in their attic and had caught several rats in a dispose them in the trash. There were red trap set outside of the house, but to no avail. The rats outnumbered the men of traps that we had in the rats were also nocturnal. So they were active when we're sleeping.
How were we going to find out how to remove this animal? We contacted several exterminators, who also stated that they specialize in deceased animal removal. We asked them how they would go ahead and locate the animal and once they located the animal how would they remove it. We received several answers from several exterminators, and they all basically said the same thing that they would drill small holes in the wall and looked through with a bendable scope, which was lighted. So that they could see if there was an animal that had fallen to the ground. Small holes in the walls would really not concern us. Of course, more holes, means more patching, and no homeowner wants to have more holes in their walls. We eventually settled on a certain exterminator, and they sent out a young man to come and take a look at the situation. The unfortunate part of this is that although he found the dead rat in her ceiling. He was really winging it from step one.
The exterminator showed up and started drilling holes in the walls and could not locate the animal which had not fallen to the floor. He spent about an hour taking a look for this with no results to show for his work. He asked his permission to go ahead and start to look in the ceiling. I granted permission for them to go ahead and look in the ceiling. But again asked how he would go ahead and proceed with this. He said that he would start with drilling small holes in the ceiling. And again using the scope to try and find where the deceased animal lie. He set out to go ahead and complete his task. But shortly after beginning, he found out that there was insulation in the ceiling, which didn't allow him to use a scope properly. He couldn't see anything. He stated that he was going to have to and to take a look for it. He was a man, about 20 years old, 5 foot 10 to 6 feet tall, and in fairly good shape. So it was no slouch, and he didn't have to cut a hole that was enormous. For him to get inside of her ceiling. We had no access way to this area of the house. No entry point into an attic, and to make matters worse. We shortly found out that there was an aid being, which divided the roof section into two parts, which disallowed him from going from one side of the ceiling to the other side of the ceiling without cutting a second hole.
So as you can ascertain. He had to cut a second hole, each on the ceiling was close gaping holes 3' x 3' in size. Probably little bit less is on me as this happened a few years ago and I'm probably not remembering correctly. Regardless there were two gaping holes in her ceiling at the conclusion of the job. He found the rat. This rat was definitely dead in the ceiling, and our responsibility. There had to be a better way!
We began the cleanup and disposal of the animal, and there were set upon finding a solution for repairing our ceiling and wall which had just been decimated by an exterminator who charged us money to go ahead and remove a decaying animal. This adventure is a completely different story and has quite an assortment of characters involved as well. So we had finished patching the ceiling, and only a few short weeks later, came across the same situation. The condominium row was essentially infested with rats. I can't say if there were 10 or 100 rats. In this apartment complex, but one was too many.
My wife and I were again faced with the same situation, where we had a dead animal in the ceiling or in the walls, and we want to locate it and remove it and never have this happen again. I made my best attempts to try to locate this myself. But again to no avail. I didn't possess enough tools to go ahead and locate an animal behind a wall, but I couldn't see through. We contacted other exterminators again, and finally settled upon a more regional brand than a homegrown local, which was her previous solution. These people at the company, I believe called critter control in South Florida were equipped with an infrared gun, which allow them to determine the heat levels behind a wall or in the ceiling. Although there was no guarantee, they stated that they would be able to go ahead and use this infrared gun to scan the ceilings and walls to see if there was a temperature difference to try and locate the dead rat. The sounded like a completely logical approach. We settled upon a time for them to come and try their method, and within 45 minutes they had discovered where the deceased animal was.