There are few things that can make your home sweet home less sweet than the odor of a dead animal.
Usually it starts small -- just a fleeting whiff of something rotten that come and goes with the air currents. And somtimes that's as bad as it gets before it goes away. Some very small animals, like mice, just don't have enough body mass for their carcasses to generate much of an odor before they dry up and the odor goes away.
Larger animals, however, like rats, raccoons, opossums, and many others, can stink up your home for weeks, making it practically unbearable -- and unhealthful -- to live there.
The stench of a dead animals is what most homeowners notice, and what makes them call us. But in many ways, dead animals in your home are as dangerous as living ones. Here's why.
Parasites. While they're alive, animals pick up various parasites that live both outside and inside their bodies. When they die, those parasites need to find a new host; and some of them are perfectly willing to infest humans if they can't find one of their favored hosts.
Bacteria. An animals's rotting corpse contains all sorts of harmful microorganisms and give off a lot of harmful fumes such as sulfur dioxide, methane, various long-branch hydrocarbons, and many others. Both the germs and the fumes are hazardous to human health.
Fungi. There also are many fungal organisms that feed on animal carcasses or in their droppings, and some of these fungi are harmful to humans. If harmful spores get into the air in your home (for example, through the air-conditioning duct work), they can make you sick.
At Rid-A-Critter, we spend a lot more time than we like removing dead animals from people's homes. A lot of times, these animals died there because old-fashioned exterminators treated pest problems using poisons, which caused the animals' deaths.
Many times, they told the customer not to worry -- that the animals would "go outside to seek water." Of course, that's a lot of nonsense, as you've already learned if you're reading this page. Just like people, when animals start feeling sick, they go home. And if their home is your home, then that's where they'll go to die -- and stink.
Whatever the reason, however, we can help. Our dead animal removal and odor-control services may include (depending on the situation):
Although it's not the most glamorous work that we do, we approach dead animal removal with the same high degree of professionalism and pride as any other work that we do. So if you have a problem with dead animal odor in your home, please contact us to make an appointment. We look forward to hearing from you.