# mice smell past or present?



## PAbugman (Jun 29, 2010)

If you aren't seeing fresh rodent evidence and you aren't catching mice in traps, then I doubt that there is current activity to any extent. I'm assuming that you keep fresh baited traps set.

How can you be sure that you are in fact smelling mouse smell? Don't assume that is what it is simply because we don't know what else it could be. The process of elimination is not a good way to solve problems. 

The musky smell in the exterior vinyl siding? Do you mean the actual siding itself? Or from behind the siding? 

After all that you've done to remove rodent evidence, I'm thinking that this is a case of mistaken smell/odor.


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## Wiscbldr (Nov 1, 2010)

PA..

Yep, I keep fresh baited traps, and theres nothing getting caught. No sign of droppings, no prints, no nests, etc.

As for the smell Im smelling, Im assuming its behind the siding, or maybe its in the exterior walls? I suppose it could be another smell, but it sure seems to smell like mice. Maybe its dead mouse smell?

As a matter of fact, I was cleaning the built in microwave above the stove because I was smelling that smell around the microwave. It was the same area where we had mice activity last year. (Last year we sealed it and within a month the attic project including foaming the openings was done.) 

Anyway, we found a dead mouse, stiff, inside the compartment area. It had aten the Dcon I sealed up in the compartment, and obviously died, but, it hadnt decomposed. Likely because it had been foam sealed from above, and caulk sealed down below. (Like a mouse tomb.)

We cleaned the microwave area, resealed that stud compartment with peppermint soaked cotton balls (and Dcon just in case theres another opening). Ive also been putting a few cotton balls with peppermint in the basment and behind the counters.

...hmm..thats got me wondering if perhaps the smell of the siding is the smell of other dead mice inside the other compartments (studdings) that also got sealed up from the foaming last fall?.. hmm..

So, if there are dead mice in the exterior walls, how long before the smell goes away? If the mice are already dead and gone and decomposed (completely gone), how long before that after smell goes away? I cant exactly remove all the siding and clean it all and reinstall...right?


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## Kenlguy (Apr 25, 2011)

Hate to break it to ya but if you had an infestation in the attic then they were in the walls also. Every where a mouse goes, it leaves a trail of poop or pee because it doesn't have a spincter muscle. If you have fiberglass insulation in the walls then you can bet that it is filled with holes and tunnels laden with turds just like the attic stuff. And as far as the foam, They have no problem eating right through the stuff.


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