For months we have been trying to locate the source of a "dead rat" smell in our home. My husband has crawled around in the attic on numerous occasions, even disconnecting air conditioning vents to check them. The smell is always worse during the afternoon and evening. We never notice it first thing in the morning. It is also mostly in our daughters' bedrooms and the laundry room. Today while changing light bulbs in our daughters' bedrooms he noticed the smell on his hands. He tore away a little of what looks like insulation from part of the fixture and it smelled horrible! We think this must be the source of the smell. It must smell worse later in the day because the lights have been on. My question is, "Is this toxic?"

I don't know if it's toxic or not, but I would definitely err on the side of safety for you and your family. Is anyone feeling sick because of the smell?

I would suggest getting a city inspector or an electrician to come in to evaluate things. I would also suggest that if someone is tearing up any insulation that they at least wear a dust mask and goggles. If it is a season where you can open windows and have the air flow through, then I would also suggest doing that.

My first priority in answering you is concern for your safety.

No doubt, one of our electrical and lighting experts will be along sometime to give you more information.

WE Too have been looking for the dead animal in the attic for about a year. We
Tore out all the insulation and vaccuumed all the attic space. Sprayed disenfectant all to no avail. At times the smell was intolerable. Today while spraying in new insulation a light fixture overheated. My husband took it down and found the smell was coming from the plastic housing around the bulb. He is now replacing all the interior plastic housing on every light fixture. These are in the recessed lighting all through the house. They also have a dimmer switches on each one. We bought lower, 23 wattage bulbs that are suppose give off 100watts of light. That together with replacing the recessed light trim is our recommended fix. Hope these permantenly fix our STINKY LIGHT SMELL.

Please note that there is a "Sticky" at the top of this forum on this topic.

Check for a label on he fixture. Your problem may be the glue that holds the label to the fixture, Also if you use a bulb that is largeer than the size recommended for the fixture you increase the heat given off by the bulb. For example using a 100 Watt bulb in a 60 Watt socket.

We have had the same problem for several years. At first, we thought it was the light bulbs and even called the company, which said they had not had any other calls about it. I thought this was odd because the smell is so offensive and smelly dead fish like that I figured we couldn't be the only ones. Although, I also thought that it was odd that I would smell that terrible smell even when the lights hadn't been on for hours.But this morning my husband actually removed all of our lighting fixtures, took the plastic housing off that holds the globes on and put heat to them. They got terribly smelly in 2 seconds. That is definitely the culprit. We are now replacing all of them. Here's to hoping that there is nothing harmful in that smell that we have been breathing in for years!