This is a common call we get here at Creature Control. The idea of an animal dying in or around our home may be an unpleasant thought, but it does happen occasionally. The presence of a dead squirrel or other animla in the home can be unnerving; fortunately, Creature Control's technicians have the experience (and stomach) to promptly and professionally remove smelly carcasses. Though every case is different, all carcass removal jobs fall into two categories: exterior or interior.

Exterior Carcass Removal

    An exterior carcass removal is needed when an animal dies outside of your home. Sometimes an exterior carcass removal can be very simple, as easy as walking out in the yard, picking up the carcass and removing it. Sometimes it can be more complicated. Most animals, if they have the choice, prefer to die in an enclosed location rather than out in the open. Under decks, beneath additions, in Michigan basements and underneath porches are common areas for animals to retreat before dying. Exterior carcass removal can include first locating the carcass and then extricating it from the enclosed area it has chosen to die in. Dead opossums and dead raccoons are comonly found in these enclosed areas.

    It is not uncommon for deer to occasionally wander into a yard and die. This usually happens when a hunter wounds a deer but fails to kill it. The deer will survive for a time, wandering around and eventually straying into a residential yard where it will die. This can also happen with roadkill; larger mammals, such as raccoon, opossums or deer, may be struck by cars and survive for a time, long enough to wander off the road and into a nearby yard where they die. This is especially the case for homes situated within 100 yards from a major road.

Interior Carcass Removal

    Interior carcass removal can be complicated as well, since usually homeowners do not know exactly where an animal has died within the home. The first sign of a dead animal is usually a putrid stench. This stink in the home may be limited to one room or area of a room, or it may permeate the entire house. This does not have anything to do with the size or number of animals that may have died, but rather with the location of the carcass. A single dead mouse can stink up an entire house if it dies in the "right" place. For example, if a mouse dies near a duct, the duct (because it is not a perfectly closed system) will suck in air from outside itself and spread the stench of the rotting mouse throughout the entire home via the central heating or air conditioning. Mice that die inside wall voids, however, may not be smelled save in the immediate vicinity of the carcass.

    Though a rotting odor is the most evident sign than something has died inside the house, it is not the only sign. A carcass in the home may be accompanied by the presence of large, bottle flies or "hide" beetles, little brown or black beetles that feed on decaying carcasses. An animal that dies in a drop ceiling may cause a small "wet spot" to appear on the underside of the ceiling due the carcass sweating. This is especially common in the case of dead mice and dead rats.

    Usually animals that die inside the home do so in the attic or in wall voids. Removal can be very simple (going up into the attic and retrieving the carcass), or quite complicated, sometimes necessitating cutting into the wall and using fiberoptic cameras and lights to locate a carcass. Many people believe that thermal inaging equipment is helpful in locating carcasses, but this is not so, as a carcass has the same temperature as its surroundings.

   The most common animals to die in homes are squirrels and mice, which typically die in wall voids (squirrels sometimes "fall" into these voids, are unable to get out and die). Birds will often get trapped in exhaust vents and die there. Another common source of carcasses in the home is "abandoned litters", litters in which the mother has gone out for food and been killed, leaving the litter in the home to starve to death. Juvenile animals (baby raccoons, opossums) will sometimes get into areas, get trapped and die, since they lack the strength to extricate themselves.

Price

    The cost of carcass removal is more or less depending on the amount of work needed to remove the carcass and the laws regulating its disposal. For example, in the case of animals larger than a raccoon (such as a dead deer), state laws requires the carcass to be disposed of in a pit at least 3.5 feet deep, on private property, and not adjacent to any standing water.

    Don't put up with that smelly carcass in your home one minute longer; call Creature Control for experience and prompt carcass removal at competitive pricing.

CALL CREATURE CONTROL FOR PROMPT CARCASS REMOVAL 1-800-441-1519