You could use it, where you suspect the rodent lies a-mouldering. You just have to drill a small hole in the dry wall. It might save you opening up a lot of drywall.
It sounds as though you are convinced the odor is coming from inside the wall. That being the case you have no option but to pinpoint the odor and tear open the wall.
Strange situation, but I’m sure exterminators have had to deal with this before. Call a few.
You can’t find a point-of-entry? If you could, you may be able to narrow down the part of the wall between studs that you’ll need to demolish. I don’t know how you’d get it out with pulling the wall down.
Had this happen frequently in a 150-year-old home I owned (had hollow walls). The way to deal with the odor? Grin and bear it. Will only last a couple of days. In the meantime, try Febreeze. Seriously.
As an add-on to south-40’s, did you check other places, like the chimney, the bathroom exhaust pipe, the furnace exhaust, the attic, any place where a squirrel could have climbed in?
See #4. That’s the answer unless you want to start ripping out walls.
Think you’re going to have to open it up. You could try small test hole to try and locate exact location before making big hole to get it out. But time is urgent cause if you can smell it it is decomposing and as it liquifies it will soak into drywall and lumber. That is bad news.
I agree with Ghost of Philip Marlowe.
A pest control guy will know where to look.
it’s not that bad to patch drywall, if it’s simple drywall
Incense to cover it up, it will go away in a week in hot weather if it’s a dead rodent.
You didn’t recently divorce I assume?
You mentioned you got back from vacation, were the teenagers left at home?
Rent, borrow or beg a good corpse-sniffing dog.
We just removed a dead mouse from the AC drain line. We have no idea how it got there, and could have been there since the AC was installed 2 years ago. It caused a little flood.
See if you can rent a thermal camera like they use to detect drafts, you may be able to see specifically where the corpse is. You will have to tear out the drywall obviously, probably a whole section if the smell is attached. Spray everything down with bleach before replacing the drywall.
Nothing you can do but either bear it and hope it goes away as the critter dries out, or start demolishing drywall.
Sorry.
We had that happen once. A stupid mouse died in the wall. We couldn’t get to it so we sealed off as many leaks in the wall through which the smell would seep and just bore it for a while. Just don’t go in that room too much and you will be ok. :)
the odor will go away...just like BP's oil spill...let nature take its course.
Remove the baseboard for a place to drill test holes.
IF you’re determined to look.
If you have never done this before call a professional.
Before you try any of the above 'rip it all out' tricks, try something very simple: Run water through all the sinks, tubs, showers, toilets for five minutes or so. You may just have some evaporation that took place in the 'traps', giving you some odiferous funk factor. If so -- instant fix. A touch of vinegar down the drains won't hurt, either.