Dead mouse smell under kitchen cabinet

It’s Murphy’s Law but I had just finished telling someone at work that my wife and I have never had issues with mice in any of our homes. Then a few days after we came home opened the door and were greeted by a dead animal smell in our kitchen. Neither of us declared it a dead mouse right away but we were both thinking it. Instead we took out the trash and hoped that would remove the smell. A few days later we came to grips with the obvious. We had a dead mouse somewhere in our kitchen.

The rotting smell was getting stronger and seemed to be coming from the stove area so I set off on a mouse hunt determined to find and remove our unwelcomed guest. Upon pulling the stove out I was greeted by some little mouse droppings but no mouse. I followed my nose and finally realized that it was coming from the small empty space underneath the kitchen cabinet that sits flush with the stove. A piece of trim similar to a kick plate, blocks most of this area but there is a about a half an inch gap between the top of that board and the bottom of the cabinet and that has to be how our little friend found his way in.

Now I knew what to do; remove the board and extract the mouse. I could see the board had some nails in it so I grabbed a hammer and screwdriver and started to attempt to remove it. The board must have either been really old or glued on though because it just began splintering and chipping off. This board was actually just the decorative one. Behind that was an additional one that looked to be part of the cabinet. I soon realized I needed another plan.

The obvious solution seemed to be to remove or cut through one of the sides or the bottom cabinet shelf. This seemed like a poor solution though and my wife was not excited at all about me tearing apart her cabinet. Reading on-line it seemed that as long as we weren’t touching the dead mouse it was not hazardous to our health and that it’s not uncommon to let mice rot in wall cavities or other places that are unreachable as long as you can handle the smell. So this became our new plan but I kept looking for alternate solutions.

My most creative solution attempt was taking my shop vac and trying to suck the mouse out. To do this I tried my best to seal the opening shut with heating/ventilation ductwork tape to create a vacuum. I couldn’t get the hose into the small opening so I taped the end of the hose so it was sealed in with the rest of my taping. Once it was all sealed tight I turned the shop vac on and was happy to hear it make that sound it makes when it’s picking something up. Could it have worked? Unfortunately no. All I accomplished was making our kitchen smellier. I think I moved the mouse but the suction wasn’t strong enough to lift him over the board and through the small opening.

I sought out some advice from other people as well. My wife’s uncle offered an interesting idea. His big plan was to obtain an additional mouse and not feed it for a few days. Then release him into the area with the dead mouse and let him eat the dead one. Once this process is complete we would catch/trap the living mouse and expose of him. Brilliant plan maybe but I opted not to give it a try. Just couldn’t pull myself to bring more mice into the house on purpose…seemed like it could backfire a bit though my wife’s uncle said he had forgotten to feed a couple mice for a school project and the one mouse ended up eating the other. It’s the whole “My homework ate my other homework bit.”

The other idea was suggested by my dad and seemed more likely to work. He thought maybe if I could fit a hanger in the opening that I could fish the mouse out. I gave this try and did actually catch the hanger hook on something sizable. I was able to move it a bit but couldn’t fish it out. A nice try but no cigar.

Now close to two weeks have passed and the smell is definitely not nearly as strong anymore. I guess our dead mouse must be mostly decomposed now and I think he will likely remain buried in his little tomb under our cabinet. I’d still like to get him out as it’s kind of weird thinking that there is something dead so close by to where we cook and eat but my guess is he will likely soon be forgotten. The real worry is to make sure more live ones don’t invite themselves in.