Dead Animal Removal in Fayetteville, GA

Dead-animal odor in a Fayetteville home

It usually starts with a smell that wasn't there the day before. It's faint and sweet at first, then clearly rotten, it's strongest in one room and air freshener doesn't touch it. A day or two later, flies start gathering at one window. Somewhere you can't see, in a wall, the attic or the crawlspace, an animal has died. In Fayetteville, the older homes near the courthouse are built over crawlspaces and have plenty of hidden places, and the wooded lots in the county mean there's always wildlife nearby, so it happens more often than people expect.

The smell lasts about two weeks if nothing is done, and it's worse in a hot attic. The dead animal is also usually a sign of something else. Most often an opening was sealed while young were still inside, or a rat ate poison and crawled into a wall to die. So there are really two problems: removing the animal and finding the opening that let it in.

Why the smell gets worse before it fades

The odor usually shows up a day or two after the animal dies and peaks over the next several days. Heat makes it worse. In a Georgia summer an attic or wall cavity gets hot, the body breaks down faster and the HVAC can carry the smell into rooms far from the source. Left alone, it takes about 14 days to run its course, and flies and stains spread the whole time. Air fresheners and plug-ins only cover the smell for a while.

It almost always traces to a live-animal problem

When a dead animal turns up inside a Fayetteville home, the cause is usually one of three things. A squirrel or raccoon opening was sealed while young were still inside. A rat ate poison and crawled into a wall void. Or an animal got into a crawlspace or wall and couldn't find its way out. In all three cases there's still an opening, often a gable vent, a ground vent or a construction gap. Removing the animal fixes the smell. Sealing the opening keeps it from happening again.

Finding it: smell and flies

There's no special tool for this. Pros find a dead animal the same way you would, by following the smell from room to room and watching where the flies gather, combined with knowing where animals tend to end up: the crawlspace, deep in attic insulation and the wall cavities behind kitchens and bathrooms where pipes run. Pinning down the spot carefully is what keeps the opening small.

Removal, then treating the spot

Once the animal is found, it's bagged and removed, along with any insulation or debris it soaked into. The spot is then treated with an enzyme or disinfectant that breaks down what causes the smell instead of covering it, and any flies or maggots are cleared out. Pros try not to cut into a wall if they can avoid it. When they have to, most wildlife companies don't do drywall repair, so ask beforehand whether patching is included or whether you'll need someone else for it.

Crawlspace, attic or wall

Where the animal is decides how hard it is to reach. In older homes near downtown, the crawlspace is the most common place and usually the easiest to get to. That said, older homes can have tight spaces and framing that make some spots awkward. An attic means searching through insulation. A wall cavity is the hardest, because the only ways in are from above, from below or through the drywall. The pro picks the least destructive way in. Any repair to the wall afterward is a separate question to ask about.

Seal the entry so it doesn't recur

A dead animal inside the house means a live one found a way in, and that opening is probably still there. After removal, the pro finds where the animal got in, such as a torn crawlspace vent screen, a rotted gable louver or an unsealed gap on a newer roofline, and seals it with metal. On a wooded Fayette County lot, skipping this step usually means you'll be dealing with another one later.