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<p>The punch line to that one is that the former wife had put shrimp shells inside the drapery rods. The husband and his new wife could never figure out the cause of the smell. As soon as the first wife regained possession, she just took them out – problem solved.</p>
<p>Jym: I wonder if having the carpet cleaned on top of a cement slab has caused moisture problems. Perhaps the cement is preventing the carpet from drying completely.</p>
<p>THe carpet people came back to do a second cleaning. ANd it was over a week after they left that the smell started. And its seeming now to be coming from the storeroom (which is of course not carpeted). And its starting to take on the smell of eau de stale urine…</p>
<p>If you think it’s the carpet, try scattering cat litter all over it and leave it for a few days. That might get rid of the smell and excess moisture. We didn’t buy a house once because the finished basement had a funky smell. Agree about not carpeting a basement, but if I found myself with one, I’d get a very good quality dehumidifier. </p>
<p>If it’s something dead, I don’t know what to do.</p>
<p>“If you think it’s the carpet, try scattering cat litter all over it and leave it for a few days. That might get rid of the smell and excess moisture.”</p>
<p>However, if there is too much moisture, the cat litter can absorb too much water and will get slimy and will be a PITA to clean out of the carpet fibers!</p>
<p>We’ve been running a dehumidifier and a fan. I double checked to be sure there was not food in a picnic basket or anything (we went to some outdoor concerts recently). Will triple check that.</p>
<p>The carpet feels dry.</p>
<p>A long shot here, but do you have anything that may contain batteries? When a large battery goes bad is often smalls like a dead animal.</p>
<p>Do you have a friend with a dog who could visit your basement? If it’s something dead, I would think the dog’s nose would be able to locate it.</p>
<p>Fascinating thought, limewine, and interesting dog idea, though will hold off on that.
DH (who was downstairs watching tv and on the phone with his sister when I went to share limewine’s battery thought) thinks he can see some evidence of where there may have been a “nest” or something in the past, behind insulation behind a wall. He is working on a cleanup of what he can, and we’ll have to call the exterminators back as we paid a lot of $$ for that service and we have a warranty.</p>
<p>Are you in an area that will have below freezing temps for 30+ days? If so, if it’s a deceased animal, the scent will go away. We had a horrible smell in our beach house dining room one summer. The next, it was gone. A few years later, we dug a full basement and the contractor found 3 possums skeletons under the dining room area.</p>
<p>No such luck, njmom…</p>
<p>Possums… lovely…</p>
<p>Well if it isn’t one thing its another…</p>
<p>Left some windows open yesterday to help air things out and it rained… Curtains got damp. Humidifier is now running near the curtains.</p>
<p>Have the pest control person coming tomorrow to look for acute evidence of “guests” and the 2 man crew coming at the end of the week to look for outside holes or what have you.</p>
<p>Wet concrete. ?
Over time, my beloved dog caused issues with a valuable rug (living room, not basement, so over a wood floor.) The cat smell folks have far more info on the web than for owners of pups. They talk about how urine smell can seep into concrete subflooring. I believe concrete can hold smells for- well, I hate to say forever, so let’s call it “a long time.” Big headache. If yours was in any way treated or washed-? I believe they recommend some sealing paint. Lots of it.</p>
<p>Whenever the weather dampens (like right now, when it’s warm and damp or like mid-summer, hot and damp) they say the scent can be reactivated. Blooms or whatever word it is. Sorry.</p>
<p>Litter doesn’t kill the origin of the scent- you need something that kills the bacteria. or breaks down the crystals. Try googling about cat urine over concrete. And, whatever solves it, let us know.</p>
<p>We used some of that Natures miracle stuff yesterday. Will try lysol tonight. That said- might need to wait til after the guy comes tomorrow so he can smell what we are smelling.</p>
<p>Its less like a dead critter and more like stale pee at the moment. Lovely. But seems to be in the storage area… or near it.</p>
<p>update (should anyone care):</p>
<p>Person #1 from the wildlife treatment company was here Tues. Set 4 traps. The follow-up guys were here today to inspect. No visitors in the traps. They said the smell has, to them, the distinct smell of “eau de mouse or rat” (not chipmunk) that has departed this earth (smells like stale pee to me, but what do I know). </p>
<p>They think one might have gotten in (they are thinking one of our repair or delivery people left a door open- which I am not sure I agree with, as a large critter could not just waltz in and head across a large carpeted area to the storeroom unnoticed, but I digress…) Anyway, they think it got in and couldn’t find a way out. They filled another hole they found at the foundation in the front of the house, and will be back 2 times in the next 2 weeks to check the traps they left. It never caught anything before, so doubt it will now. They left another “scent bag” which they say should help absorb the smell (first one hasn’t done much - now there are 2 in the storage area). They said if we wait it out the smell will dissipate in another week or 2 (guess the carcass will mummify or something) or we can let them cut holes in our wall. Seeing as how the painter just finished YESTERDAY, I am not inclined to take that route. I am hoping by the time the check the traps a second time (in 2 weeks) we’ll know if the stink is gone. </p>
<p>Stay tuned… And thanks for all the help, as always.</p>
<p>Thanks for updating us. You would be surprised how sneakily they get in. I was surprised several years ago to have a rodent visitor, despite having two cats at the time. I gave them a good chastising for not doing their job while I cleaned up the mess when I finally trapped him. Was totally freaked out after taking the depo of an epidemiologist on the hanta virus. I never cleaned my house so good. Last time one got in was shortly after Katrina. He was hiding above my back door, away from the huntresses who keep the back yard rodent free, and dropped into my laundry room when I opened the back door. Took me three days to catch the rascal. He survived the trap, but did not live long after being released to the back yard. Despite releasing him into shrubbery, my calico found him quickly. Poor thing. Unlike the previous monster, this was a wee thing. Still, to this day, I have to block my inside cats from getting into my laundry room, as they must have heard him during his short stay there.</p>
<p>I can relate. We had a squirrel invasion this spring/summer in our living room ceiling, and had the wildlife guys here. They trapped and took 14/15 squirrels (gray, red and chipmunks) away to live some where else, and blocked the suspected entry points on the roof, and all is quiet now. They covered all the plastic vents with metal cages, and blocked the holes in the fake chimney, which we suspect is how they got in. Newish house – Guess they don’t build 'em the way they used to, just one more example. I no longer think squirrels are cute. We have three cats, and I wish I could have found a way to let them loose in the ceiling. I imagine there is quite a mess inside the ceiling, but am not ready to take the ceiling apart to see what they did. Since it doesn’t smell (not to me, anyway), we will leave it for a later date.</p>
<p>I’m interested in the outcome Jym. We have occasional mice that get into our basement somehow. Unfortunately I now recognize the smell of dead mouse, since we keep traps down there (mostly hidden so if we forget to check them, we find them by smell). It is more of a sickly sweet smell than an ammonia urine smell if that helps. </p>
<p>DH pulled up all traps when we went out of town for a week. When we came back I insisted there was a dead mouse in the basement–he argued that it was impossible because of no traps. Well I started looking around and discovered a dead mouse in a plastic bag–DH had started to dispose of one of them before our trip and somehow forgot to finish the process–yuck!!! Could have been worse, I suppose–at least all the yuck was contained in the bag! </p>
<p>We still haven’t figured out how they are getting into the basement. I sure would like to figure that one out! It is not constant, so there is obviously a venue that they find on occasion. No cats, so we are out of luck there!</p>
<p>mstee-- sounds like your ceiling was a squirrel condominium!!</p>
<p>VAmom and montegut,
sounds like this problem is sadly quite common. Plastic bag-o- mouse?? Ewww! I wouldnt call this smell sickly sweet. Sickly, yes, sweet? no.</p>
<p>The rodents can get into the house through the tiniest hole, apparently. Ones we humans can’t even see.</p>
<p>Yup, they sure can. We have had a gazillion chipmunks living around our house. I suspect they may be getting in somewhere. I had hoped the guys today would have crawled a bit more under the deck, as the back of it backs up to the wall where we thing the critter carcass is. But they didnt go too far under there, and the guys were bigger than the space (It starts wide but narrows due to the grade of the yard.)</p>