Decomposition

[P5 Guy]

I have a dead critter under my house . The smell is getting pretty bad. I think it is a cat.
How long does it take a 10-12 pound critter to decompose enough to stop smelling? The buzzards are circling and have confused looks because they cannot see the juicy carrion they smell.

[Grandpa Shooter]

Depends on the weather, what the critter died from, etc.  When I was doing work for the local real estate companies I often had to fetch remains from under houses.  Of animals, I mean.  Usually they stop stinking in about a month, but that is if they dehydrate fast enough.

[P5 Guy]

This is the dry season in Florida the temperature has been more or less normal for this time of year. 60s at night high 70s low 80s at the highest. Under the house should be pretty dry. I wish the crawl space was accessible.
Two course of cinderblock and no opening. I really do not want to break into the crawl space.
I hope I can put up with the smell for three more weeks. At least the weather is conducive to opening the windows.

[vaskidmark]

Have you checked to see if there are bugs devouring anything?  Florida should be rife with little carniverous critters with more than 4 legs -- along with the 4-legged kind.

If there is nothing eating it, go get a skunk.  They seem to love carrion.

stay safe.

[230RN]

Can you mount a fan in a window or someplace to blow in and put a little positive pressure inside the house?  Might keep the stench from actually coming in, and probably force it out of the crawl space to the outdoors through the inevitable "leaks" there must be in the crawl space.  A "leak," like the hole the critter crawled in there from in the first place.

Colorado is so dry (usually) that most small critters mummify before they start to stink too bad.  A remodeler once told me that it's not all that unusual to find a shriveled but almost perfectly preserved critter in walls and stuff.

Terry, 230RN

[MillCreek]

If the crawl space is inaccessible, how did the animal end up underneath the house?

[AJ Dual]

Are you sure it's not the Maestro?

[P5 Guy]

The crawl space has openings, just not big enough for me to squeeze thru.

The smell is abating and I'm glad the weather is mild enough to keep the windows open. I do have some fans running.

From the number of flies I'd think the maggots are having an early Thanksgiving. I just hope the rats don't come for a snack. I'm not going for the skunk idea. Trade one bad smell for another.

[RoadKingLarry]

Man up, suit up and crawl your butt under there witch a bag and a trowl and get it out.
Sheesh.

[230RN]

 

I do have some fans running.

I was thinking in terms of pressurizing the living area with one fan blowing fresh air in, and the rest of the place closed up.  The slight excess pressure (even 0.1 in H20) will trickle through to the crawl space through all the inevitable little openings (piping, electrical conduit passages, etc) into the crawl space and force the decomposition gases back outside through all the inevitable openings from the crawl space to the outside.

Practicality depends on the weather.  You don't even need a very big fan.

Effectiveness depends on a couple of things, notably how much of the smell has infused itself into the living area high-surface area things like carpeting, furniture, etc.

You should start out with a large fan running full blast for a while with another window open to vent the pressure so that you are purging the place.  Then, when the large body of stinky air has been replaced go to the small fan and closed windows to keep the place pressurized just enough to kerp more stinky air from coming up from the crawl space.

Terry, 230RN

[wuluf]

I'm a pest control guy, and we use an "odor bag" when we can't reach the carcass.  Basically a cloth bag with activated charcoal, as close to the "smell source" as possible...

[Perd Hapley]

Easy solution!  Burn it! 

[230RN]

^ That sounds like advocating an illegal act.  Tsk-tsk-tsk. 

[Matthew Carberry]

Easy solution!  Burn it! 

The best tinder being used floppy disks.

[P5 Guy]

I did the intake in one window and exhaust in another when the smell was strongest. Main problem with that was I have to leave to go to work and do not want to leave a window open while no one is home.

I would have to break out a few cement blocks to make an opening I could fit thru. I was hoping that the smell would not last more than a couple of weeks and I'd be able to keep the smell down with ventilation.

When I got home last night the stink was barely detectable. All told about a week and a half.

Thanks for the replies.

[AZRedhawk44]

I think I had a mouse die in my walls about 9 months ago.

It took about a month for the smell to go away.  But, it would be hard for bugs to get to something like that efficiently to help the decomposition process.