Dead Mice & Odors
Will I experience odor following a rodenticide treatment?
Rodenticide is used throughout the country to sucessfully control mice in residential homes - every day.
Without control, mice reproduce rapidly. During this time in the home, they become a pest and contaminate food. Mice communicate with urine. A dominant male mouse may mark his territory with thousands of microdroplets each day.
Mice also die from natural causes within the first year. If you do nothing - they will die and present an odor risk. Whenever a mouse perishes - from natural cause or through rodenticide, there can be an odor.
Most people do not notice an odor when mice decompose. There are probably several factors at play. First, mice weigh less than an ounce. Much of their bulkyness is fur. Second, mice tend to thrive in attics because they can grow their population without your attention. Attics are also ventilated to the outside through the top of the roof.
We apply rodenticide thousands of times each year. If a mouse lands in the wrong place, an odor may be noticed. Generally, basements with large mice populations can be the highest risk. Despite this risk, we only receive a handful of complaints each year. We would classify the risk as low.
If you are unfortunate enough to experience an odor, please remain patient. Generally, the odor lasts a few days to a week. Remember, mice weigh less than an ounce and dry out quickly. You may try running the dehumidier or opening windows for a few days. The trick to reducing the odor risk is maintaining the rodenticide in the home to prevent another population boom. Less mice - less chance of odor.
We do not provide any sort of odor elimination service or odor related inspections.