Dead animal under house? Um, no...

[Muse]

So, the last 4 days or so I've noticed the faint smell of decaying flesh when I went up the back stairs. It has gotten stronger and stronger and I concluded, after looking around, that there must be a dead animal in the crawl space. Dang! I sealed off the crawl space pretty well some years ago, but a mouse or maybe even a rat could find its way in. In fact the last 2 weeks or so I spotted a mouse in my kitchen on 3 occasions, a very furtive quick critter. It happened so fast I had to wonder if I'd imagined it. Bought and set a couple mouse traps and a day or two later the mouse was history.

So, today with the pretty bad stink that's been steadily growing I do some internet research and find some sites, one a really good one by a guy who makes a living riding houses of dead animals!

Before I ventured into my crawl space with a headlamp, flashlights, gloves, a plastic bag and a scarf over my face I decided to remove a box I had on the middle landing of the steps. I'd removed that box from my garage which I've been fixing all summer. The box contains a disaster preparedness kit, including several cans of food. Took it outside in the early morning and revisited it later on. It kind of stunk. One of the two ~6oz cans of pink salmon was bulging! I didn't see a hole in it, but I suppose there must be. I tossed it in my trash can. End of stinky saga.

 

[lxskllr]

Sounds like you need to take better care of your survival stuff. You gotta rotate stock on a regular basis. Keep it in the house so it's always in mind, take a can out, put a can back. Same with water.

Edit:
Did it look like this?

That's when it's at the peak of deliciousness.

 

[highland145]

a guy who makes a living riding houses of dead animals!

Does that pay well? Rodeo might be easier work.





Who was it here that had the dead skunk/opossum?

 

[Muse]

Sounds like you need to take better care of your survival stuff. You gotta rotate stock on a regular basis. Keep it in the house so it's always in mind, take a can out, put a can back. Same with water.

Yeah, it's true. Especially the water. That's my weak link. I generally have a few gallon containers I pick up at the market in there but I don't replace them regularly. Often they look more than suspect with the levels coming down! Really gotta improve on that, a devastating earthquake is coming here in the not too distant future, maybe today! This is coastal CA. Big EQ faults all around me.

 

[fenrir]

This reminded me of my house issues. Very old house which had settled so there was no crawl space that a human could use. Something died underneath and the smell was getting real bad, which allowed me to locate the exact area where something must have died under the house. I paid a friend $20 ahead of time for removal and handed him the circular saw to go through the floor. Best investment ever, as it was a big ass possum and it was pretty gooey by that time. My friend on the other hand did not think he got a good deal as he was gagging the whole time.

I post rarely, so I do not recall if I have posted that before.

 

[Muse]

Does that pay well? Rodeo might be easier work.

See for yourself. The site was actually pretty entertaining. It's here: Rats in the Attic

It starts "I am, quite possibly, the world's best dead rat removal person. Yes yes, you can stop applauding now, thank you, thank you, sit down, you're too kind."

 

[Muse]

Did it look like this? That's when it's at the peak of deliciousness.

Yeah, kind of like that, but not quite as bulging. Um, I wasn't hungry.

 

[Muse]

Best investment ever, as it was a big ass possum and it was pretty gooey

Many years ago I came downstairs in the wee hours of the morning (the same stairs that were pretty smelly this morning) and arriving in the kitchen I spotted a large possum. It looked straight back at me, standing still as a statue. I was a renter then. Since buying the house I've sealed off the crawl space pretty good. I don't want animals getting in there. The biggest threat maybe is one of them dieing. I remember a time when a small family of something (possums, skunks? Don't remember...) was curled up next to the bottom of the downstairs bathtub which protruded into the crawl space. Again, before I sealed things off.

Sealing the crawl space was an interesting project. I wanted to make sure there were no animals under there before I closed off the last exit. How could I be sure? I ruminated on this some and came up with a novel idea: If an animal were under there it would need to exit once in a while at least to find some water. I sealed off all exits except for one and laid down a bed of fine dirt at the last exit. I looked for paw prints after a few days. After finding none, I was confident in closing off the final entrance/egress.

 

[Mayne]

no pics.

 

[Muse]

no pics.

Pics of what? A smelly old can of pink salmon?

 

[highland145]

 

[Iron Woode]

I had squirrels chew their way into my townhouse back in the day. not much is worse than waking up in the morning to 3 squirrels checking out my house.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Dead animals? Under your house?

It's more likely than you think. Free dead animal scan. [Click here]

 

[who?]

It's amazing how bad the stink from rotten potatoes is. Put a sack of them in the cabinet and forget about them for a few months and the smell will amaze you.
If you want to clear critters out of a crawl space aim speakers into it and play a recording of Diamanda Galas singing with the volume turned up loud. Everything that can hear will leave. "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" can be very inspirational.

 

[esquared]

It's amazing how bad the stink from rotten potatoes is. Put a sack of them in the cabinet and forget about them for a few months and the smell will amaze you.
If you want to clear critters out of a crawl space aim speakers into it and play a recording of Diamanda Galas singing with the volume turned up loud. Everything that can hear will leave. "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" can be very inspirational.

I found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAFbYN_8e7g


I did listen to your Swing Low suggestion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Mm1Nf_PrM

It was different, I will say that.

 

[Muse]

I did listen to your Swing Low suggestion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Mm1Nf_PrM

It was different, I will say that.

I have played "Let My People Go" off the same Diamanda Galas record on my radio show multiple times. That Swing Low Sweet Chariot rendering is to me unrecognizable, well... nearly. I almost played a different version of it on my radio show a couple days ago -- The Gospel Hummingbirds. Played something else off the same album instead.

Well, I don't have any animals to serenade in my crawl space these days thanks to my vigilance in closing off access. No rats in the attic anymore because I killed dozens of them years ago by setting standard rat traps until the rat intelligentsia swore off my property as rat purgatory.

 

[esquared]

I have played "Let My People Go" off the same Diamanda Galas record on my radio show multiple times. That Swing Low Sweet Chariot rendering is to me unrecognizable, well... nearly. I almost played a different version of it on my radio show a couple days ago -- The Gospel Hummingbirds. Played something else off the same album instead.

Well, I don't have any animals to serenade in my crawl space these days thanks to my vigilance in closing off access. No rats in the attic anymore because I killed dozens of them years ago by setting standard rat traps until the rat intelligentsia swore off my property as rat purgatory.

That's an interesting version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLHTRI37qMQ

Here's another by Gospel Hummingbirds. Don't Move the Mountain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piv1cseYpqs

It was on a Blues compilation disk from Blind Pig records.
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Blind-Pig-Records-20th-Anniversary-Collection/release/3496809

Sorry to pull your thread OT.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Sounds like you need to take better care of your survival stuff. You gotta rotate stock on a regular basis. Keep it in the house so it's always in mind, take a can out, put a can back. Same with water.

Edit:
Did it look like this?

That's when it's at the peak of deliciousness.

I believe in most countries its Illegal to store or open Surstromming indoors or outdoors on public or private property!
I would much rather we adopt allemannsrett or allemansrätten from scandanavia than something like disgusting rotted garbage.