ᐅ The wall suddenly smells like marijuana and stale beer.

blueday schrieb:

Hello Stefanie D. and Käsekrümelchen,

we have been living in our house (rented) for eight years and have the same problem. Especially in spring, there is a strong smell of marijuana (sometimes it also reminds me of beer, but very sharp and unpleasant). The odor appears in our living room. It somehow seems to come from the floor or underneath it. We have a wooden floor (oak plank flooring). The smell comes from the corner near the floor-to-ceiling windows. Since we have an open floor plan, the smell spreads throughout the house and it is really disgusting. After airing out the room, the smell returns immediately. We notice the smell mostly in the evenings, at night, and in the mornings. From about 1 p.m. (13:00) it gets less and then starts again around 8 p.m. (20:00). We had this problem three or four years ago as well. It always starts in spring (between February and April) and disappears after three to four weeks. I suspect it has something to do with moisture somehow seeping into the floor or under the screed. Ideally, we would need to remove the flooring in those areas to check for mold or leaks, but since this is a rental, that’s difficult. Our landlord doesn’t take care of it and makes us seem overly sensitive.

Right in front of the window, outside, is our terrace. We sometimes find small black droppings there, which could be from mice. So I’m not sure whether the smell comes from moisture seeping through leaks under the screed or wooden floor, or from mice living under the floor.

Earlier, I covered the areas where the smell came from (as far as I could locate) with plastic sheeting and tape, hoping this will reduce the smell entering the room. Let’s see if it gets better now.

I’m interested in hearing about your experiences.

Later, I will place animal repellent devices on the terrace in front of the affected windows to see if that helps.

Keep me updated!

Best regards

That’s definitely mice in your case too if you are already seeing droppings. They lived just under the floor-to-ceiling porch door along the wall in my house. It was extremely noticeable there. They lived along the entire house wall under the porch, and under the stone pavers that are placed every meter (yard), there are their tunnels.
Sounds very much like that in your case.
Fingers crossed, and please let us know what you were able to use to hopefully get rid of them.
Best regards

So, mice do occasionally live with us as well, we know that. But I’m not familiar with them spreading such a smell. I once had mice and also rats, and the stench from their cage was really awful. But this smells completely different. Maybe we really need to open the small hatch to the crawl space ‍— I don’t even want to know what awaits us there.
In 15 years, this is now the 4th year.

[MICE do occasionally live with us as well, we know that. But I’m not familiar with them causing such a smell. I once had mice and even rats, and the odor from their cages was really disgusting. However, that smell is completely different. Maybe we should finally open the small hatch to the crawl space ‍— I really don’t want to know what we’ll find there.

This is the fourth year in 15 years.]

I also wouldn’t have thought that it could smell that bad and even spread almost throughout the whole house.
I know the smell from mice in cages is different. But outside, it might be due to the amount of urine they leave behind, and the wall may muffle or change the way the smell comes through. It was all covered in droppings, unbelievable...

I’m really curious about what you’ll find! Make sure to prepare well in advance.

Here are some photos showing how comfortably the creature has settled in...

So the smell in the cage is definitely worse than it is now. Sometimes it smells less or not at all during the day, and then at some point it becomes stronger again. That’s what I find strange. A nest with urine is always there and should have a constant smell. It doesn’t just stop for a while and then start again.

Käsekrümelchen schrieb:

So the smell in the cage is definitely worse than it is now. Sometimes during the day it’s less noticeable or not there at all, and then at some point it becomes stronger again. That’s what I find strange. A nest with urine would be there constantly and should smell the same the whole time. It doesn’t just stop and then start again.

No, I thought that too, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I think it smells worse whenever the animal was active there at night and depending on the weather as well. It was the same here. Only when I sniffed right outside did I almost feel sick. From inside the living room, it was just a smell that, like with you, would come and go. Even the bricklayer wouldn’t have guessed mice because the smell was so sporadic, but it returned every year.