It’s not something that any homeowner wants to think about, but it is a situation that happens to many people; a mouse or rat or some other smaller mammal dies in the ductwork, and now foul air is being circulated throughout the home. Dealing with this situation is unpleasant, but it’s good to know that it can be resolved. The area can be cleaned, and a supply of fresh air can be restored in your home. Let’s take a look at some simple steps that you can take to get your home back to normal.
Hiring a Professional
The first thing to mention is that if this really doesn’t sound like something that you want to deal with, you can hire a professional instead. A local certified HVAC technician can locate the dead animal, sanitize the area, and make your indoor air feel fresh and clean again. Of course, this professional service costs money, but it removes you from the nasty nature of the task, and an HVAC technician will be able to complete the job faster. If you have a squeamish nature or you don’t have a lot of time on your hands, hire a professional and things will get back to normal faster.
Locating the Animal Corpse
If you’ve decided to handle this task yourself, the next thing that you need to is find the animal corpse. If you have a dead animal corpse in your ductwork, the smell is simply unmistakable and it will be obvious that something is wrong.
The odor can be so overpowering that it can affect the entire home, and it may lead you to believe that the animal corpse is in the ductwork. But, the ductwork is used to deliver treated air throughout the air, and you may actually be smelling the animal in another part of your home, such as the basement, crawlspace, or the attic. Sadly, the only way to track down the source of the odor is to use your sense of smell and follow it as it becomes stronger.
If you have a good sense of smell and a little luck, your nose may lead you directly to the source of the odor in one of the HVAC vents in your home. If you have a vent where the odor is extremely strong the dead animal may be just inside the vent. A visual confirmation is needed, so carefully remove the vent cover and check inside with a flashlight. If you can see the dead animal, you are ready to move to the next step, which is removal.
If you’ve checked all over your home and you cannot locate the animal corpse it’s a trickier situation. You can ask a friendly nose to confirm your findings to be sure, but if you cannot pinpoint the source of the odor, it could be located in a hard to reach location. This is when you will need to turn to a professional HVAC technician for expert help. They will have the training, experience, and specialized tools to locate the dead animal and remove it for you.
Removing the Animal Corpse
If you’ve managed to locate the dead animal, then the time has come to remove it from the ductwork. You will need a few items before you begin, they are a pair of rubber gloves, a strong disinfectant spray, some paper towels, a thick garbage back and some sort of long reach tool (a bent coat hanger works well). You may also need someone to help you by holding the flashlight and passing you items as you need them. Some people also wear a dust mask to try and keep out the odor, or you could rub some Vicks or other product under your nose to mask the smell. Now you’re ready to remove the dead animal, work slowly and carefully to avoid it slipping further into your ductwork where you won’t be able to reach it again.
Put on your rubber gloves, get a friend to hold the flashlight steady and reach into the vent to carefully grab the dead animal. If you can reach it, hold it with a couple of fingers, slide it to the vent opening and drop it into the garbage bag. If the animal corpse is just out of reach, you will need your handy reach tool to try and hook it and pull it closer to the vent opening where you can reach it. Then drop it into the garbage and place it outside to remove the smell from your home.
Now that the animal corpse is removed, it’s essential to dispose of the dead animal responsible. You local waste authorities may have specific policies regarding dead animal disposal so contact them for more advice on how to proceed.
Back in the home, there will still be a lingering smell where the dead animal was in contact with the internal surfaces inside the ductwork. To get rid of the smell for good, you will need to sanitize the area with the disinfectant spray. If the animal was located a good way into the ducts, this can be hard, and you will have to work smart. Spray some of the disinfectant on a paper towel and use the reach tool to rub it on the affected areas. Change the paper towels regularly and keep going until the towels come out clean, and the dead animal odor has disappeared. If you’re really struggling, you can use a small mop head for cleaning, but you will need to throw it in the trash when you’ve finished.
Once the cleaning is completed to your satisfaction, place everything you used in the trash outside, and thoroughly wash the vent opening. Most people like to take a shower after performing this type of task to get the smell off their skin and hair. Then replace the vent cover, turn the HVAC system back on, and you should notice that your air smells fresher.
Plugging the Leak
The ductwork should be a closed system to avoid treated air from escaping and allowing animals to enter. If you had a dead animal in your ductwork, it’s likely that you have a leak somewhere and it needs to be plugged, or this could happen again. Leaks in your ductwork also affect the energy efficiency and this cost you money.
During the dead animal removal process, you may have noticed that the inside of the ductwork was dirty, This material is circulated throughout your home, and it will affect your indoor air quality.
If you schedule an HVAC service, your technician will be able to find and plug or repair the leak for you. They can also carry out duct cleaning to remove that dirty material from inside your ductwork. Many homeowners that have this carried out are surprised by how clean and fresh their indoor air is, and they wonder how they managed before.