The smell may not be a dead rat at all. If you have not been using this bathroom, it could be a build up of sewer gases. Try putting some baking soda in your toilet, sink drain, shower drain, etc. Flush your toilet a few times, let the water run in the sink and shower for a good 15 minutes, and see if this doesn't help.

Not using this bathroom could be the problem.

Fairequeen, I could have written this same post as yours last year! Yes, dead rats killed with Dcon DO SMELL!! I did this last summer in our garage, and our bath that backs up to it smelled like yours. I was ready to pull off the sheetrock and find it. My son in law investigated, and found the "critter" behind our hot water tank in the garage. It had been dead for 2-3 weeks. Like the other posters, I agree, it should not smell after the length of time yours has.

One rat would not smell that long. Maybe there are more than one that keep coming and dieing.

The dead animal smell should have dissipated after about 6 weeks. The smell is probably from a dry sewer trap. Run water into the drain to see if it will eliminate the problem.

Hello everyone. Thanks for trying to help. :)

I opened up the bathroom for about a week. I poured baking soda down the drains, clorox, etc... I tried to air the bathroom out and keep the door open at all times. The bathroom was in complete working order again, but it kept stinking! The smell would seem to almost go away during the first day or two and then the nights were horrific. The smell was back and as bad as ever. The last couple of day's that the door was open, the smell was horrible during the day also.

If this isn't a rat or a rat PACK.... I don't know what it is. It couldn't be paint or any sewage leaks. We don't have any stopped up pipes or anything of the like. This is so strange! I don't know what else to do. :(

I know it would be costly but a plumber might be able to discover the problem even tho it seems everything is in good working order.

Had a thought on your problem today. I hope you have it figured out by now, but here's a possibility in case you haven't. Do you have anything nailed or screwed into the wall in the room or in an adjoining room that could have punctured a stink pipe? I don't know if those are really called stink pipes, but I mean the pipe that goes up from sinks, drains, toilets and vents through the roof.

My electricians and plumbers are here today working on the remodel and the electrician said the pipe for the sink is running straight up where he would be installing the vanity light. We have to move where the light goes to avoid having him screw it into the pvc stink pipe. He related that this has happened to others and the home owners will all the time be getting a wiff of odor from that pipe. He says they go nuts trying to figure out what to clean to get rid of the smell.

So that's when I remembered reading your post.

A ruptured stack vent might be the problem. It may be that simple.
Rats live and breath decay and bacteria. They love to be surrounded by it. Garbage bins, dark places that food is deposited and decays. I doubt you have these conditions. Look to plumbing as a solution
I recently had a friend complain of terrible smells from the upper bath. They could not get to sleep some nights. To make a long story short we found the tub overflow piped on the sewer side of the trap. Everytime anything was flushed down any drain in the place sewer gases went strait into the bathroom through the tub overflow.
We found the problem by tapeing plastic bags around or over drains in the bathroom. Then flushed the toilet and watched to see if the bag(s) filled with gas.
Any new plumbing done lately?
If a vent line were plugged it would also manifest itself with drainage problems.
I hope you have solved it already.

One thing that hasn't been asked...

Does it smell like dead body, or does it smell like a septic system?

I've never gotten a dead body smell from a sewer gas leak.

Hello everyone and thanks for your suggestions.
It isn't a plumbing problem, at least not an obvious one. The pipes are all fine and we haven't had any backing up or drainage problems.

The smell is pretty much just as strong as in the beginning. It smells like a dead rat. Nothing strange or tinted about the smell - just a DEAD RAT.

The smell started the exact time that we had a rat problem. We killed them with decon (HUGE MISTAKE) and removed one of them. The horrid smell has been present since then. It's very embarrassing!

I can't imagine how it could be plumbing or anything like that, since it started at the exact time of the rat infestation. It just doesn't make sense.

Thanks again and please let me know if anyone thinks of anything else.

Years ago I lived on a farm and we had mice that would always creatively find ways to get in our house in the winter. After putting out poison, they would end up dead in places we couldn't locate. The smell was very distinct - like no other bad odor. Using my imagination... I can still smell it.
I put out saucers of ammonia FOR SEVERAL WEEKS. I would change the ammonia every couple of days. It helped more than anything to absorb the odor.

This won't solve the source of the odor, but it might make it more bearable.

How about getting an ozone generator or a charcoal air filter to put in there? At least till you find the problem. It only treats the symptom but at least your house would stop stinking.

Fairyqueen, I am desparate too! Being a first-time home owner is just turning out to be hell. I bought a house last year and ever since I moved in, I started hearing something scratching in the walls. It was just the noise that scared me and my tenants. When the noise started to get loud, my tenants in the basement found a hole under the sink in the laundry room. I placed traps and caught 3 rats, 2 small ones and a huge one.

I kept hearing noises even though I installed some ultrasonic devices in the wall were they were crawling up. After the third rat that we caught, the other rats in the wall were too smart and did not come around the traps. I hired a pest control guy who came and garanteed that the rats will come out to die outside, but unfortunately the rats (don't know how many) die inside.

I'm still sorry to have used the poison. 6 months have gone by, there is still an odour on top the the bathroom in the basement.

My tenants left when the smell in their bathroom was horrible, I got maggots coming from the corners of the bathroom and a horrible smell that came through the airconditioner vents.

I had no tenants for 2 months and used all kind of desinfectants to clean the bathroom, but the smell comes from inside the wall. I'm thinking to tear the ceiling in the bathroom and put new insulation and new drywall.

The smell kind of went away a couple of months ago and there is new people living there, but they say they kind of smell some odour around the bathroom.

I have put some moth balls in one of the cabinets in the kitchen in the first floor just a couple of weeks ago, the noise and scratching went away for a week. As we got our first snow, I heard them again yesterday and today. But I think I have discovered where the hole is. It the chimney that goes from the top of the roof to the furnace right to the basement.

I think big amounts of moth balls scare off the stupid rats, but not for long periods. Tonite I'm loading the cabinets in the kitchen with moth balls and I have a contruction guy coming tomorrow to repair the chimney. Hopefully that'll be the end of it. but I hope the all the rats come out before we seal the chimney hole. If you got someone solution as of now, PLEASE, but PLEASE let me know. I'm desparate too.

I moved into an apartment where the previous tenants had used rat poison. I had a horrible stink (dead body smell) coming from the floor of my closet for about 8 months. I don't believe this was new mice eating and dying, because I took the rat poison tray out of the closet as soon as I moved in. However, the stink persisted long past the time the mouse/rat should have turned into dust. The smell did eventually go away, but like I said, it took about 8-9 months. In the meantime, I put a lot of stick-ups and air fresheners in the closet and held my breath whenever I opened the door.

Sorry I don't have any better advice for you. All I know is that I will never, never use poisons again for a pest problem!

mdcalle, while the construction guy is there, have him do a check of the entire house and look for holes where they are coming in. He will probably find other places besides the chimney and he can block those too.

mdcalle, the aroma emitted from mothballs is very toxic. I would recommend using activated charcoal (available in pet stores) to absorb the odors while you rid yourself of this awful problem (my sympathies!).

Found this message on http://www.forwardlook.net/mail-archive/msg15053.html

If it works, it would be a good alternative to moth balls.

All:
I once read, and actually retained, the contents of an magazine article that suggested a person should use Bounce dryer sheets. I guess the mice and company can't stand them and the smell left behind is a whole lot more pleasant than moth balls.
Dan C
Spanaway, WA

We live in a drouble wide and we live on a farm and we were have mouse all winter long execpt for this year my husband put mothe balls under the tr.and i did'nt smell the moth balls and this winter we have'nt had any mouse and i have'nt seen any sign of them.

Ilene,

Speaking from experience, you'll most likely smell the mothballs the first day it hits 90° this summer.

And when they melt, they no longer smell like mothballs. They smell like rotten eggs.

Hope you only used a few, and didn't use the whole box.

Fast forward ahead to 2014, we are now having the same blasted problem. My husband has read ALL of these and to our knowledge he can not find an answer in the plumbing, short of tearing out every wall and the bathtub. Our smell seems to be coming out of the wall heater. My husband it using foam insulation around the heater to isolate it from the rest of the wall. I hope that is ok, he seems to thing so. Did anyone ever find a sure proof way. We went to the link that lasershow posted and it is not found. in fact all of you might be gone. HELP

snowflake, this seems to be the messageboard at lasershow's link:
http://www.unexco.com/msgboard/msgboard.mv
Probably not much help, I'm afraid.

Not all of us are gone. In 2002 I was Canuckguy, wow I know it doesn't help your problem but I can't remember much from 12 years ago but for some reason I remember this thread. Probably because I can smell it through my touch screen tablet that is the size of a small dinner plate and my old PC was humongous.

The dead demons are back, sorry to hear this. Science can make a super computer that weighs a few ounces that I have in front of me but we still can't make a better mousetrap.

We have exactly the same problem in 2021. Rats in the loft, poison deployed, dead rat and smell in the upstairs bathroom and downstairs utility room before Christmas. Thought it was going as now in January but seems to be coming back! How is this possible? Horrible sickening smell thats lingered now for over a month

A little know fact is that the OP did not find nor know of a second rat that had died eighteen years ago. He did find it last month when he was released from prison.

So we purchased a cavco/palm harbor home this past year, brand new off the lot. We have been living in the home right at 6 months now. I have recently began smelling something terrible in the master bath room. I scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom with scrubbin bubbles and bleach to rid the smell. I wash my face nighty… upon running hot water in my sink… the smell hit me yet AGAIN. I stick my nose right next to the flowing water and GAG. It smells like a dead rat! I turn iff the water… keep smelling, its faint at this point with the water off… but still there.. I again turn on the hot water and have come to a conclusion its coning from inside the faucet.. not the drain but the inlet water to the master bath. WHAT DO I DO??!! Ill change out the faucet, but why is it doing this just in this one sink???

Replying to anyone with similar issue or:
HU-171861020

“last year

We have exactly the same problem in 2021. Rats in the loft, poison deployed, dead rat and smell in the upstairs bathroom and downstairs utility room before Christmas. Thought it was going as now in January but seems to be coming back! How is this possible? Horrible sickening smell thats lingered now for over a month”

……

I live in a 30O yr old house which suddenly developed mice issues during the pandemic. My home shares a crawlspace with another attacked house and they were having mice and putting poison in crawlspace. Well, either a town of mice or a giant rodent ate the poison and burrowed (I believe) under my bathroom floorspace. The smell of death started a week after poison had been placed. I thought it was a plumbing issue and wasted $400 on wax toilet rings! none of the plumbers thought it was the sewer lines. Dead animal is what they all said. Called pest contol and for $300 he told me to close up holes in my foundation. well, this was during delta/omicron Nov surge and also impossible to get contractors. Finally had foundation rebuilt, but was told they could not plug every hole and mice or rats woukd still get in. its been THREE MONTHS of stank in one bathroom. fans have helped, but the weather is below freezing so i cant air the entire house out. im just horrified that a rodent could take this long to decompose (gag. GAG) It is the bane of my existance. I suppose ill have to have the tile floor ripped up or maybe the walls, which I cannot afford on a fixed income, nor can I find available contractors near Boston. Everyone is putting on additions.

Today, the smell, which had been getting milder, is back. Never a smell in crawlspace or sign of dead rodents, so they are def in floor/wall. I just can not believe this is happening. i will never, ever use poison again. i didnt even know it was there. Just venting as I’m petrified the arctic blast in the NE will bring in more disgusting RODENTS! Thank you, pandemic. You've made everything even more unbearable. Rant over, but know you are not alone if you have this issue. Thanks and sorry. i truly hate rodents and old houses.

i pray most of you with past issues have solved them.

I've had the rat stink off and on for years, paid $600 for pest guy to seal 13 entry points on the roof (no proof if he actually did it) and within a couple weeks the rat stink from the walls in my upstairs bathroom was back. In SoCal we have a lot of heat and any time temps are over 90, I can count on dead rat smell from our walls or heater vents. I have no solutions; I've done the ultrasonic rodent repellent, peppermint oil, baking soda down drains, but the one thing that will get rid of the stink (if only temporarily) is purple Fabuloso. Great product for cleansing and getting rid of odors. I am still going to call out a different pest control, but being surrounded by ivy in my neighborhood you can't control the "freeway of rats" that we have constantly. If anyone has a repellent that has worked for them, please post.

I just composed a lengthy reply to All and it didn’t post. 😵‍💫 Basically, I’ve read that nothing repels rodents. Maybe a boatload of cats, but… gag. You can try to block all entryways (good luck with that), store all unrefrigerated uncanned or unbottled foodstuffs in foodgrade containers, be meticulous about composts, covered trash cans, pet foods, seeds, garden bulbs and even the tiniest crumbs, plus watering holes should be eliminated. The sealing of the house makes the most sense, but im not sure its feasible. Mice can get in a pencil sized hole. I despise them!

Capture and release traps seem to be best unless you can deal with constanly monitoring live snap traps, which actually kill without the dread poison.

i feel your pain. im waiting for more humid weather in the NE. i heard that plus better ventilation helps, but from your story im not sure now. Next will be the walls coming out because my issue cannot be just one rodent. Im also putting Fabuloso on my shopping list just to get me through. I have HAD IT!

Put a couple of cups of white vinegar in the bathroom and it should absorb the smell. Just put them out of reach of children and pets and so you don't knock them over.