Smelly Varmint??? (Bangor: home, inspector, live)

[bangorme]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Right--could be bat droppings in his attic.

Yeah, that was my thought. They probably spent the winter in your attic (they don't defecate much in the winter), but are now out feeding and having babies up there. That extra excrement and the heat and... abra cadabra... bad smell. Since you are living on the second floor, that's my bet. Here's a good website telling you how to handle it:

Bat Problems | Bat Conservation

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by namder1

Now that it's been warm and I have taken to sleeping with my windows open I have noticed on 2 or 3 occasions a very rank smell wafting through. I sleep on the second floor so I suppose it could be quite a bit away but it sure doesn't smell like it. I remember something about a varmint having quite an odor but can't remember which one. It's not obtrusive like a skunk, but just very rank.....kinda like how a dead mouse smells in a wall. Any ideas????

You live in athens?????

[brava4]

If it were dead, you'd smell it during the day as well. You haven't ticked your neightbors off...have you?

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Bigfoot smells really bad.

DARN! You beat me to it! A squatch was the first thing I thought of, reading the opening post.

Squatches smell so bad in Florida, wading around the wetlands in the warm, humid weather that they're known as the Skunk Ape.

Sightings in Maine, in The Bigfoot Field Researcher's Organization database, which has become kind of the on-line point of record for this uncatalogued animal, are fairly rare, however, especially in the past decade or so. It's theorized that most of Maine is a bit too cold for squatches. Out West, an animal can better respond to winter weather by dropping some elevation, where in New England, by and large, extreme cold is a function of how far north one is and warming up takes more than just walking a mile or so off the mountain.

BFRO: Reports for Maine

(Yes, I think this could be a real animal species.)

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by Bydand

I've seen/smelled a few red fox that were quite ripe.

Male foxes mark their territory with a musky oil mixed into their urine. We used to have a couple of foxes at the teaching farm/wildlife sanctuary I worked at. They were injured in car accidents and deemed "unreleaseable" so they ended up on display and more times than I could count, visitors would smell the fox and run over to the enclosure, saying they "wanted to see the skunk!"

[namder1]

Thanks for all the input. I actually spotted something in the brush yesterday about 20 yards from my house. Just caught a glimpse but my first instinct was a fox but then it seemed too large. I just saw part of its butt, and it seemed reddish brown and after thiniking about it seemed maybe too bulky for a fox......This was around 9a.m. I thought foxes were more nocturnal.
I don't think it bats. Wouldn't I hear them as well as smell them??
Maybe it really is Sasquatch.....

[bangorme]

Originally Posted by namder1

Thanks for all the input. I actually spotted something in the brush yesterday about 20 yards from my house. Just caught a glimpse but my first instinct was a fox but then it seemed too large. I just saw part of its butt, and it seemed reddish brown and after thiniking about it seemed maybe too bulky for a fox......This was around 9a.m. I thought foxes were more nocturnal.
I don't think it bats. Wouldn't I hear them as well as smell them??
Maybe it really is Sasquatch.....

Possibly a raccoon. Always suspect raccoons you see during the day of having rabies, so keep everyone and your pets away from them.

You may or may not hear bats in your attic. Lots of people don't know they have bats until they want to sell their house and the home inspector finds them. Very expensive at that point. Just go up into your attic and take a smell, you know pretty fast.

[BoxCar Willie]

Could be BIGFOOT!!!

[Zymer]

Do you live near any hayfields? First cutting should be going on now, followed by the spraying of liquefied manure onto the fields after baling the hay. The fields smell pretty rank for a few days, a change in wind direction could allow you to enjoy the odor of recycled grass.

[namder1]

no hayfields near here. My attic is very small and the DTV guy was up there in March or April and didn't say anything so I assume theres no bats up there. I haven't seen any tracks around or scat sign but my dog sometimes gets a good sniff going in the morning around the house.....big mystery....