Possible dead rat in walls / housefly infestation, landlord is gone
August 23, 2015 7:51 PM
My landlord is currently out of the country until the end of the month. I've emailed her, but haven't heard back yet, and am not sure what steps I need to take if I suspect a dead rat is in my walls. There are dozens of flies in my apartment and a bad smell that I can't pinpoint.
I live in a fourplex, and the next door neighbors who I share walls with have been dealing with a rat infestation for the past few months. Luckily, I haven't seen a single rat! (And, for what it's worth, neither have the other two apartments.) Also luckily, my landlord is great—there have been multiple visits from exterminators and they have taken many steps to eliminate any way for the rats to keep getting inside. The problem seemed solved, but apparently the rats came back and one was recently seen through the neighbor's bathroom vent, and they said the rats being in the ceiling was a new thing.
For the past few days, I've noticed a bad smell in the vicinity of my bathroom and kitchen, but can't pinpoint it. The smell is kind of like natural gas (sorry for my ignorance, but I don't think it's that, I have an electric stove and I think the water heater is electric? There's a carbon monoxide monitor plugged in right by the area that smells and it's fine, too) and sewer. I've done EXTENSIVE cleaning over the past three days to try to figure out where the smell is coming from. I am a clean person, and the presence of an incredibly large amount of flies makes me suspect there's a dead rat and that's where all the flies came from. Without the flies, I might think maybe there's a sewer problem, because the smell is near my bathroom—but it's also kind of out in the hallway, near my kitchen, and it's not any stronger when sniffing around my toilet. I have screens in my windows and there aren't any holes, and the next door neighbors don't have any flies, despite leaving their front door open (with no screen) quite a bit. (No idea why they do this if they're trying to prevent rats, but whatever.)
I'm not sure what I can do without my landlord here, so I'd appreciate any information about whether this is something I need to take immediate action about. I'm killing the flies ruthlessly, but I don't know what to do about the smell.
I can call the exterminators on my own, but I'm unsure if I need to do this immediately or if an exterminator is who to call when there's a dead rat somewhere. I don't want to do this without landlord authorization and get stuck with the bill if it's something I don't need to do right away. (I suspect she'll take a day or two to respond. I have emergency contact numbers for things like the plumber, handyman, etc, but this isn't really that kind of thing!)
I live in a fourplex, and the next door neighbors who I share walls with have been dealing with a rat infestation for the past few months. Luckily, I haven't seen a single rat! (And, for what it's worth, neither have the other two apartments.) Also luckily, my landlord is great—there have been multiple visits from exterminators and they have taken many steps to eliminate any way for the rats to keep getting inside. The problem seemed solved, but apparently the rats came back and one was recently seen through the neighbor's bathroom vent, and they said the rats being in the ceiling was a new thing.
For the past few days, I've noticed a bad smell in the vicinity of my bathroom and kitchen, but can't pinpoint it. The smell is kind of like natural gas (sorry for my ignorance, but I don't think it's that, I have an electric stove and I think the water heater is electric? There's a carbon monoxide monitor plugged in right by the area that smells and it's fine, too) and sewer. I've done EXTENSIVE cleaning over the past three days to try to figure out where the smell is coming from. I am a clean person, and the presence of an incredibly large amount of flies makes me suspect there's a dead rat and that's where all the flies came from. Without the flies, I might think maybe there's a sewer problem, because the smell is near my bathroom—but it's also kind of out in the hallway, near my kitchen, and it's not any stronger when sniffing around my toilet. I have screens in my windows and there aren't any holes, and the next door neighbors don't have any flies, despite leaving their front door open (with no screen) quite a bit. (No idea why they do this if they're trying to prevent rats, but whatever.)
I'm not sure what I can do without my landlord here, so I'd appreciate any information about whether this is something I need to take immediate action about. I'm killing the flies ruthlessly, but I don't know what to do about the smell.
I can call the exterminators on my own, but I'm unsure if I need to do this immediately or if an exterminator is who to call when there's a dead rat somewhere. I don't want to do this without landlord authorization and get stuck with the bill if it's something I don't need to do right away. (I suspect she'll take a day or two to respond. I have emergency contact numbers for things like the plumber, handyman, etc, but this isn't really that kind of thing!)
I had the exact opposite experience; equally horrible. The smell got inceasingly sickly over a couple weeks and I couldn't live with the idea of it. We had drywall (without any lathe), so it was simple to cut holes between the joists until I found it. I made the holes big enough to fit a small camcorder into and used the night vision setting. I used bbq tongs to grab the body. It wasn't much work to replace the drywall pieces.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:33 PM on August 23, 2015
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:33 PM on August 23, 2015
Actually, now that you mention it - the exterminator company probably has a scope camera. Certainly call them and explain the situation, including the slow response time from the landlord, and see what they'll do for you. A lot of places will have some kind of service warranty that will cover follow-up visits for 15 or 30 days.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:39 PM on August 23, 2015
posted by Lyn Never at 8:39 PM on August 23, 2015
We just had this problem (minus the flies, thankfully) at work, and the smell did not go away after a few days. After about a week and a half of it getting nauseatingly worse, we finally called the exterminators, who located and removed the dead rat within 10 minutes. (We had waited because our manager was on vacation, but it just got too gross to wait for her to get back.)
I can't speak to the cost, but yes, the exterminators who have been treating the problem are appropriate to call.
posted by jaguar at 9:17 PM on August 23, 2015
I can't speak to the cost, but yes, the exterminators who have been treating the problem are appropriate to call.
posted by jaguar at 9:17 PM on August 23, 2015
Re the "natural gas" smell. You might want to follow up on that. The water heater could well be gas (since you're not sure), as could be your furnace, (and, a carbon monoxide detector does not detect natural gas)... It wouldn't hurt to call your gas company, they would probably come check for gas, it's quick and easy... Good luck...
posted by HuronBob at 4:16 AM on August 24, 2015
posted by HuronBob at 4:16 AM on August 24, 2015
That rotting dead animal smell, that is awful. Horrible. You have my sympathies.
As HuronBob said, definitely call the gas company if it smells like gas....if it's anything like my experiences calling, they will send someone over super fast - like within 15 minutes - and just take a look. It's free.
Once that's crossed off, then call the exterminator.
posted by john_snow at 7:36 AM on August 24, 2015
As HuronBob said, definitely call the gas company if it smells like gas....if it's anything like my experiences calling, they will send someone over super fast - like within 15 minutes - and just take a look. It's free.
Once that's crossed off, then call the exterminator.
posted by john_snow at 7:36 AM on August 24, 2015
Thank you everyone—you all had a best answer! I slept better last night thanks to you all. I was leaning towards "ignore it until the smell goes away", but thanks to Lyn Never's answer, was able to confirm through the neighbors that we're on a free maintenance place with the exterminators, so I'm calling them today and making an appointment without worrying about getting stuck with the bill. (Also good news: confirmed that there's no gas appliances in my apartment. Definitely good to know!)
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 8:20 AM on August 24, 2015
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 8:20 AM on August 24, 2015
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The exterminator will probably tell you the same thing. It's not worth the drywall work it'd take to find and fix. Though it might be worth it just to get them to swing by and take a sniff, because they have a certain amount of experience (horrible, horrible experience) with this stuff. They can probably tell you if your problem is large or small.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:05 PM on August 23, 2015