Mice and smells - help!

Question

It all started when our boiler was replaced. The guy left a small hole in the wall and I didn't realise. Next I heard scratching at the back of my kitchen cupboard. Boyfriend thought I was mad...until he saw a tail disappear down the back of the boiler a week later and we found droppings down the back of the kitchen cabinets after taking all the skirting off. That smell came too. A horrible distinctive smell. Yuck. I was freaking out and I am petrified of mice and I a bit crazy about cleaning anyway, this has just made me worse and paranoid! We immediately set traps and it took one sighting of the blighter and then three nights later, snap, and we caught it.

My question is we have seen and heard nothing since and that was two weeks ago today (we found two droppings behind the fridge this morning but they were lodged sort of under the skirting so maybe we missed them...). All 6 traps are still out and baited and nothing else has happened in 2 weeks... The smell is still there though. It has remained the same and it is making me uneasy.

Does anyone know how long a smell can linger? The floor has been scrubbed and I spray every night. Does anyone think we have more mice even though the only sign is 2 droppings? Has anyone else experienced this and caught just one mouse?

Ideas on how to get rid of the smell too welcome! Could it be under the floor? We live in a Victorian house.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If there's a bad smell and no traps have been triggered, you might have had a second mouse that died in your walls. The scratching could have been one struggling to get out.

It may depend on the severity of the smell. If it smells like something, well, died, then that's more than likely what it is. As gross as it sounds, it happens. Your room will smell pretty foul for a week or two, but it should go away. If you have access to the crawlspaces, you can try to clean it out, but the smell will go away on it's own if it's left by itself.

If it smells like urine or f***s, it may also be because it happened within the walls, and out of the range of your cleaning. It should go away on its own, but it may take a bit. Keep the traps out just in case there's something that's still alive, and be sure to cover up the hole in your pantry.  

Answer 2

fact mice drop 15-20 pellets (droppings)per day if you have had no further droppings then chances are you have no more mice

Having the snap traps set out for 2 weeks and no activity good chance you have caught the intruder and no more

without actually smelling the smell hard to say what the cause is if it smells like something dead than its something dead another mouse may have fallen into a wall void and cannot get out and died,for a urine smell it takes a long infestation of many mice to get that heavy of a smell.Place out a few dryer sheets to help disperse the smell it will leave eventually.