Rotten smell in garage, what could it be?

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Currently my garage smells like there is mold/rotten corpse inside. For a few days it is not yet going away and I am opening my garage as much as possible to air it out.

My parents said it smells like a dead mouse/rat somewhere, but couldn't find it. Wife said it smells like a leak that has grown into mold/fungus. I remember a similar smell in the same area (or surrounding) a few months ago when I accidentally spilled water on the concrete floor near the water heater and space heater.

I am afraid that something is going on inside the wall or enclosed area.
 
back at the lab there is the smell of death hanging around... smelt a lot of death from kangaroos killed on the road today...

you probably have a dead rat stinking up the roof or wall cavity. once only their bones are left the smell will go away. are there maggots crawling across the ground anywhere?
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Currently my garage smells like there is mold/rotten corpse inside. For a few days it is not yet going away and I am opening my garage as much as possible to air it out.

My parents said it smells like a dead mouse/rat somewhere, but couldn't find it. Wife said it smells like a leak that has grown into mold/fungus. I remember a similar smell in the same area (or surrounding) a few months ago when I accidentally spilled water on the concrete floor near the water heater and space heater.

I am afraid that something is going on inside the wall or enclosed area.


Sounds like carrion. If it's just a mouse the smell should go away within a few weeks. You could attempt to pinpoint the location of the "rat's chamber" and extract the corpse or mummy. Check the dryer exhaust, if you have a dryer unit in the garage. It's a popular place for little critters to die.
 
My mother's garage had that smell for several months.
We blamed each other for doing 'something'.
A year later under a rolling toolbox was found a flattened dried out rabbit.
Animals can get is tighter spaces then you'd imagine.
 
My friend, who has a 2 story house, painted the inside last summer. He took off the heat registers to paint behind them. Unbeknownst to him, his kid's gerbil crawled into the air duct and fell all the way down into the basement, dying in the ductwork from the furnace. They didn't figure out what happened to it until they turned on the furnace and the place smelled like a dumpster outside a Long John Silver's restaurant. He had to cut a hole in the duct and scrape out the goodies that were rotting in there.
 
This thread reminded me of Sherman.

Who is Sherman you say? Let me tell a tale...

In my youth, I used to lifeguard for a pool out in the country near some woods. (Pocalla Springs in Sumter, SC). Anywho, we happened to have a small problem with mice...always finding the little varmits in the restrooms and office. One day, we happened upon a larger vermon. This was no mouse, he was quite large, a rat I suppose (the size of a guinea pig). He would appear in various places and was known to habitate in the Coke machine. We named him Sherman. I wanted to make t-shirts, but the boss thought it was a bad idea (wonder why).

We spent weekends using sealers to close up the holes in the cement block walls of the building, only to find it chewed through. Sherman was smart, he would avoid the rat traps and poison pellets we left for him.

One morning I happened on an idea...our manager brought in blueberry muffins for the staff. I cut open the muffin, carved out a hollow area, put in the pellets, and closed it back. It was mainly a joke. I put the muffin on a plate under the sink in the office. I think I put a sign on it, "Eat Me, Sherman".

After my rounds I looked under the sink, it was gone. The whole thing...no crumbs. I assume he dragged it off (he was large). A few weeks later, in the store room, there was an "odor". We all paid a price that day my friends, but Sherman paid the greatest price of all. In the cool of the afternoon we had a small ceremony and (much like the SNL commercial) we catapulted the body into the woods.
 
I change my mind, it is most likely the insulation of the heater growing mold. I took some photos of it and wanted to post it online.

Google Photos

The smell comes from the yellow insulation wrap along the ducts. The strongest stink spots are the ones with black/dark stains. The previous (3 months ago) stink spot is the floor under the furnance and the shelf, the part with dark stain.
 
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