The only thing you can really do to prevent them is have your building/house completely sealed with no holes to prevent them from ever coming in from the cold, heat, or food.
This is my worst nightmare. I have lived and worked out of public school buildings and apartment buildings with rats that forced me out of each situation. It affects everything from your health, sleeping at night, to your overall quality of life and greater well-being.
So far today only got three flies so I guess most came out yesterday. I'm definitely breathing a sigh of relief. Yea, like donkeypunch said above, if you don't seal your home up...then they find a way in. Then, you can have a recurring issue on your hands. I know my cousin is dealing with the same thing except his dead rat is somewhere between the master bedroom and master bathroom in the attic. He can't find it. And, the large well-fed black flies have come out. So, they are in a worse situation than I am because I just quarantined my bathroom and used the spare for a while. They are sleeping with the strong smell and flies buzzing around. Nasty. And, he's had infestations happen multiple times. One thing you should know is if you ever get your roof replaced...then that is a huge factor in potentially opening up eaves to critters. A roofer is not going to seal everything off in all likelihood. They will cut corners depending on who they are. That is when my problems started is I had openings under eaves after a new roof went up. You want to make sure there is no way they can get in if possible. I had it supposedly professionally done as far as sealing everything off and this one still got in. These critters also leave trail scents that other critters pick up on as to how to get in. Like was said, they look to get in out of the cold and look to get in out of the heat. They will set up shop while coming and going for food. I typically don't go in my attic regularly unless there is an issue up there but I found out when I was working on a fan blower that went out that I had droppings a few years back when it happened initially. Also, there is a low level smell that seeps down into the home from the attic. I couldn't even tell but professionals can smell it. It's nothing like a dead animal smell, though. Yea, across110thstreet, I went to bed at 4 am last night because all I could think about was a nasty fly war I just had and whether I was going to be back at it today. I was so bummed when that smell first appeared. I almost thought it was a broken sewer line under the slab or something. Luckily, I held out on doing some expensive plumbing smoke tests and hydrostatic tests that would have set me back at least $1k (just for the tests) thinking it was something dead. My brother didn't think it was a dead critter because he's had it and he said the smell was worse. But, he was wrong. It just depends on location of where it died and how the smell is permeating in. One other thing...it's generally not a good idea to leave rat bait around your property because they will eat it and then die in your attic or wall (or wherever they nest). Use traps that you can check and throw away if you catch one.
Seriously, don't use poison.... Dogs/cats are stupid, eat the poisoned rat and you're ****ed at the vet or worse.... Also as referenced... in many of the posts they die in the wall w/ poison away from the horde... To do it correctly and be done with it for GOOD get metal sheets/metal wire mesh etc and seal up the perimeters, do this throughly. It takes a bit of time, or Hell Hire pest control, probably $4-600 for house and it's guaranteed for a year and can be renewed yearly for like $200, best money spent if you're too busy to do a good job. Anyway, seal the whole thing up, use mouse/rat traps, once the ****ers are sealed in they will approach the traps out of curiosity, and within a few days or less, you collect the dead rats, repeat until all dead. By using traps the stupid pests didn't go off and die in the wall as a last parting gift. And smell goes away as the carcasses get tossed in the trash, since they die in the trap and don't wander off looking for water/place to die alone.
They can bring in a machine (either called a ionizer or ozone machine) that can run for a while to help dissipate/remove the smell. You should try to find and remove the dead animal but even after a certain amount of time it dries up and won't smell anymore.
Well...looks like the first generation of blow flies laid eggs and I'm now on the second generation. The smell appears to be completely gone. I'm hoping this is the last outbreak of flies. The fly traps are getting most of them. Surely, this had to end some time. Good grief.
This stuff freaks me out. I can't deal with rodents, dead or alive. I'd have to hire professionals to deal with every part of an issue involving rodents. I'm in an apartment right now but will be in a house within the next 2 years. Just thinking about this issue makes me uncomfortable.
I feel you SG. Our house is around 8K square feet and we couldn't find out where the lil ****er set up shop and died, the attic just ended somewhere. To the point about any little corner they can find to get in..YES. There was one tiny little hole they made in the wall and that was enough in the garage. 3K to get the rat dude here to fix everything but definitely worth it. Shingle roofs, and areas around the garage are big. Don't leave any bird food etc around either, they love that stuff.
Your wall killed and ate a rat, which means your wall is carnivorous, and that's what I would be worried about.
It's true that I will never look at my master bathroom the same way ever again. Just knowing what is in the wall makes my skin crawl. In a way, a part of me has been consumed by this experience. Also, all I see is dead flies, people.
Yes! I went through the same thing last summer. For two weeks I complained to management that my apartment reeked and it wasn't trash. They came by and said they didn't smell anything unusual and it was probably food in the disposal, to run vinegar and such. Then saw a mouse, bought some traps, and called maintenance again. They sent a pest control guy who laid more traps, but didn't catch any. After about 3 weeks I had had enough with the smell, I was so pissed off. I called the manager to my apartment and made him smell it. They sent a guy over to inspect the next day and found that when they renovated and remodeled my unit, the dumbass contractors put sticky traps INSIDE THE FKING WALL!!!! Needless to say, I was pissssssed. Wrote a stern letter to management and was able to break my lease with no penalties.
