Oh the stink!

[Chief Cook]

Hi Everyone, sure hope someone out there can help me out. We decided to toss extra bar bait into the attic so we wouldn't have any mice this winter. Nothing like listening to a mouse rodeo over your hear, ya know. So we think we are going to be ahead of the game this year. WRONG! I think we may have used a little too much and called in some unwanted visitors. It sounded like a herd of rats had gotten up there, and were using the bar bait for basketballs! Now things have calmed down and the stink has become burn your eyes strong. I thought the little buggers were supposed to go outside looking for water after eating this stuff. We have used bar bait for years and never had this kind of problem. DH (bless his heart) went up and removed what he could find, but it is still yucko around here. So any ideas on how to get the smell out of the house? Any thing would surely be better than this. Thanks in advance. Open windows only work for as long as the window is open.

[Harry Chickpea]

Put a small fan in the attic blowing OUT through one of the gable vents and keep it running for a week. YOu want negative air pressure in the attic so that air goes into it and out through the exhaust fan.

[Common Tator]

Been there, done that. The good news is that eventually, the stink fades away. But for years, you will be finding little mummified corpses.

[suitcase_sally]

OK. I'll bite. What is "bar bait"?

[barnyardgal]

Could you try spraying something or putting a bowl with like Pinesol or vinegar or putting moth balls up there to quiet down the stink with some other smell?? Just a thought,would think anything would be better than that smell.....

The smell WILL go away though~~

bar bait is mouse/rat poison that comes in bar shape...

[Harry Chickpea]

Originally Posted by barnyardgal

Could you try spraying something or putting a bowl with like Pinesol or vinegar or putting moth balls up there to quiet down the stink with some other smell?? Just a thought,would think anything would be better than that smell.....

The smell WILL go away though~~

bar bait is mouse/rat poison that comes in bar shape...

Unless you are at the local twist'n'shout...

[Alice In TX/MO]

http://www.ruralking.com/16-oz-bar-r...ouse-bait.html

[julieq]

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

Put a small fan in the attic blowing OUT through one of the gable vents and keep it running for a week. YOu want negative air pressure in the attic so that air goes into it and out through the exhaust fan.

That's what I'd do too. Regardless, as others have said, it will go away after awhile.

At our last home we had what I would assume was a barn cat die under our old laundry room, which opened somewhat down to the equally old basement. No way to get to it, whatever it was. Stunk for a week to ten days, then finally cleared.

[Cyngbaeld]

May be something bigger than mice that died.

[WhiteWillow]

Originally Posted by Cyngbaeld

May be something bigger than mice that died.

Good point.

Around here we have black bars. The approved way to hunt them is to put out bait for a few weeks before the season opens so they get used to comming to the bait, then sit on a stand over the bait and shoot them when they come. I don't know why you put the bait in your attic?



Seriously, Poison bait attracts mice. They come to it because it seems like a food source. I have had them move the bait to a stash for the winter before the poison gets them. As you found out, not all the Elvises leave the building. Some die and decompose in inaccessible places. The smell will eventually go away. The fan in the attic is a good idea. In the future try mouse traps.