# Help! Stinky dead mouse in back of fridge



## Nette (Aug 17, 2003)

There's a stinky dead mouse in my house. My discerning nose tells me that it's in the mechanical guts of my refrigerator. I've pulled off that cardboard piece on the back bottom part of the fridge (that would be the part that I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to leave on or take off when I bought the thing last year). I've played CSI with my little flashlight and peered in every nook and cranny. I can't see the dead beast, but I KNOW that's where he is. How can I get him out? Compressed air? Vaccuum? Suggestions, please.


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Got a dead mouse eh? 
What I've done is take an old nylon and let a vacum cleaner suck it part way in. It will suck the whole thing in, in a heart beat so go slow and hold on. You can then go in and use the vacum cleaner to suck the thing out and it will be in the nylon. shut the vac off pull the nylon out and throw it away. Little fuss little muss. Then if you can spray the whole area with bleach water

Dave


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## dlangland (Jul 7, 2005)

Nette said:


> There's a stinky dead mouse in my house. My discerning nose tells me that it's in the mechanical guts of my refrigerator. I've pulled off that cardboard piece on the back bottom part of the fridge (that would be the part that I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to leave on or take off when I bought the thing last year). I've played CSI with my little flashlight and peered in every nook and cranny. I can't see the dead beast, but I KNOW that's where he is. How can I get him out? Compressed air? Vaccuum? Suggestions, please.


So you don't have to actually touch it...you put your hand inside a trash bag, or like I use a plastic shopping bag from a store....grab the sucker...then when you take it outside...just release and burn the bag.


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## gilberte (Sep 25, 2004)

Not to second guess your nose, but are you sure it's a mouse? Our fridge can smell pretty bad if any water gets in and stays in that little slide out tray at the bottom.


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## Nette (Aug 17, 2003)

Oh, it's a mouse alright. (Besides, I discovered that little tray, and it ain't nothin' in it  )

I like that vacuum cleaner and panty hose idea. Don't get me wrong--I'm not afraid to touch it--I've gotten nastier things than rotten mouse meat under my fingernails (don't ask). But I sure wouldn't want it to mess up my vaccuum cleaner...


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## gobug (Dec 10, 2003)

I don't think there are any moving parts under the fridge. A dead mouse will stink for only a few days to a week. The odor itself is not dangerous, just gross. I've never smelled a fridge motor odor that smelled like a dead mouse. Our noses do not work well for locating the source of an odor. 

If you don't find it under the fridge, there are a couple other possibilities. First, most kitchen cabinetry has a space below the bottom shelf and behind the kick plate. Some kick plates do not go all the way from the floor to the bottom of the bottom shelf. You can put your hand under the cabinet and feel for the gap. This is a place popular with mice. You would need to remove the kickplate to get to the dead rodent.

The other possibility is a larger rodent dead in the wall. Even though its in the wall, an electric outlet provides a hole for the odor, and often, the electric wire provides holes in the wall for rodents to move about.

If you smell it but cant find it, remove the outlet cover plate and stick your nose right next to it. If the dead rodent is in there the odor will be much stronger. The rodent in the wall requires a little demolition to remove.

Good luck


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## papaw (Jan 21, 2005)

We had one in th wall. Smelled like a dead horse, but it had to be a rat or something like that. We just waited it out .... took about 2 months! Next time, I might tear out the wall and re do it. The oder was horrific in the summer. 
Good luck!


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## BamaSuzy (May 10, 2002)

Please just watch out for any electric lines in the wall or in the refridge!

We had a mouse die in a bathrooom wall and we just finally had to stick it out until the smell went away....we kept the bathroom window open an awful lot! but there was no way to get it out other than making a hole in the wall.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

I HATE stinky dead mice! And I HATE handling stinky dead things.

But at least a mouse will decay rather rapidly.

Unless there are a whole lot of them, so ... eww!

Last winter, there were a couple of nests in the electric stove at The Farm. It was pretty gross. DH and FIL cleaned them out. I gave encouragement and support from the next room. 

Pony!


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## Nette (Aug 17, 2003)

Well, I pulled that refrigerator out for the fifth time in two days, used a flashlight, floorlamp, reading glasses, and vaccuum cleaner, and never COULD find the darn dead mouse. So....I reloaded four Glade Plug-In's in every nearby outlet, and decided to wait it out. Oh yeah, AND...I put the high-dollar big-gun rat poison under the house: Ramik bar bait. I might get one or two more stinky mouses in the house, but that stuff will eventually do the job.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

Nette said:


> Well, I pulled that refrigerator out for the fifth time in two days, used a flashlight, floorlamp, reading glasses, and vaccuum cleaner, and never COULD find the darn dead mouse. So....I reloaded four Glade Plug-In's in every nearby outlet, and decided to wait it out. Oh yeah, AND...I put the high-dollar big-gun rat poison under the house: Ramik bar bait. I might get one or two more stinky mouses in the house, but that stuff will eventually do the job.



This might help-----------move the fridge out again, get 4 bricks or short pieces of 2x4's------get some help-------tilt the fridge backwards just enough to put 2 pieces under the front legs---then go to the back and tilt it forward(don't let it slide of the front pieces)--put the other two pieces under the back legs---------this should get it up high enough to see under it real good----if you don't see anything(only a few places it could hide)---take a small amount of bleach water(two or three cups) and open the fridge---pour the bleach water where it will pour through the drain tube into the pan under the fridge, remove and clean pan----let fridge set there for a few hrs/over night, smell again to make sure the smell is coming from under the fridge and not under the floor under the fridge. Good Luck!! Randy


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## twstanley (Sep 23, 2004)

Best way to prevent having them die in the walls is to trap them someplace easy to get to, that keeps the population down as well. 

We use the plastic traps baited with peanut butter, I like to keep one baited under the kitchen sink all the time, I had forgotten to do that for a while and my wife mentioned hearing one behind the stove last night, so I stuck one under the sink and caught a mouse over night. 

I rebaited it and put it back as if you catch one, you most likely will catch a few more before you get rid of them.

Remember to place the peanutbutter baited end towards the wall as mice travel along walls. I set them so when it snaps closed its snapping towards the wall, that will get the ones that are trying to eat the peanut butter or the ones that just stumble across the trap in the dark while traveling down the wall. I have caught several on the back and hind end that weren't trying to eat the bait.

I wouldn't ever use the mouse poison, they just call in the walls or up into the hidden parts of your appliances to die. We found dead mice up on top of the dishwasher, underneath the range but on top of the oven and other places when we moved into our current house. 

http://cgi.ebay.com/TRAPPER-SNAP-T-...717491087QQcategoryZ50365QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That is the kind of trap I use, very easy to set, impossible to hurt yourself setting them. 

Sorry to go on so long. =)


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