Ugh…. what’s that smell?
The smell of a dead animal is pretty hard to tolerate. When you smell it, you find it won’t take long to figure out that something dead is around.
The hard part can be finding that dead animal though. You might want to call a dead animal removal service, or you might want to try to find the animal yourself.
So if you want to try to figure out how to find a dead animal in an air duct on your own, what do you do?
Do you need professional animal removal?
Contact us today!
How to find a dead animal in an air duct
An important note: The dead animal may not actually be in the air duct.
Animals dying in air ducts is rarer than most people would think. It’s not actually very common. We hear calls from people all the time because they think there is a dead animal in an air duct.
What is often the case is that an animal has died somewhere in the walls, but it wasn’t noticed until the heating or air conditioning turns on and circulates the air.
Related: What’s that Noise? Animals could be in Your Home
Step one – Turn off your heating and cooling system.
Whether the dead animal is in an air duct, or in a wall, it’s going to be easier to find if you stop the air in your home from circulating. Turn off the air, open the windows and let the house air out a little.
Step two – Search the home or building for the smell.
Walk around your home or building and 
search for the room or areas where the dead animal smell is the strongest.
Step three – Examine the air vents
In the room with the strongest odor, place a stepladder in front of each air vent register and smell to confirm if that is where the dead animal smell is coming from. The vent with the strongest odor may be where the dead animal is.
Related: Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Rat Poison or Mouse Poisons
Step four – Remove the air vent cover
Use a screwdriver to remove the cover of the suspected air duct.
Step five – Examine the air duct
Use a flashlight to look inside the duct and see if you can find the dead animal. If the distance to the dead animal is beyond a turn in the air duct, you will need a tool such as a telescoping inspection camera to find it.
Step six – Removal
After you have located the dead animal, remove it by using a vacuum with an extension to draw the carcass closer to the duct opening where you can reach it. This will may or may not work depending on the equipment you have, the size of the animal or where it is located. If you can not reach the dead animal this way, you may need to access the ductwork the attic area or maybe even cut the drywall to get to it.
Professional removal services will have specialized equipment for removing the carcasses of dead animals. If you cannot reach it easily by the process above, you may need to call a professional.
Related: Preventing Wildlife From Entering Your Home
Dead animal removal or humane live animal trapping
Call 847-464-1861 anytime. We can typically begin local service the same day.
NEW! For a limited time, get a 10% discount when you mention coupon code WEB10%
Photo credit – Air duct