We've been living in the same home for over 6 years. It's a normal, modern home & we keep it clean. Maybe 6 months ago, this strange smell appeared in my daughter's bedroom. It's a combination of musk, fish & just plain stink. Sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Then, it goes away without a trace. It may stay away for days or even a week. But, then it comes back. It's strong.

We've sniffed everything in the room, including my daughter & can't identify a particular item or even an area of the room where it seems to originate.

Any ideas?

I wonder if the wind is carrying odor from a plumbing vent into the room at times?

I don't think so. It's appearance doesn't seem to relate to the wind. We don't live in a windy area either. My daughters bedroom backs up to a bathroom, but we sniff all around & don't get it anywhere else. Also, it doesn't smell like sewage. I know what that smells like, but this is different. It's almost a fishy smell, but very heavy musk (I don't know how else to describe it).

This Is Not Funny But I Can Imagine You Going Crazy Sniffing Everything In Sight! I Know This Sounds Crazy But Have You Ever Saw Sylvia Brown On Montell? Do You Have Any Relatives Here Or Gone That Worked Maybe On A Boat Or Around Fish? Don't Laugh I Am Serious! Because Sometimes These Im Not Sure How To Spell This But I Think It Intities Bring Noises, And Smells.

That's spooky. I'd hate to think it was a ghost. I have the same problem here with a smell that comes and goes. The smell is similar to a fish smell but not exactly. It smells bad in a certain area of the bedroom. It's almost always at night and by the morning everything smells fine.

We've been living in the same home for over 6 years. It's a normal, modern home & we keep it clean. Maybe 6 months ago, this strange smell appeared in my daughter's bedroom. It's a combination of musk, fish & just plain stink. Sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Then, it goes away without a trace. It may stay away for days or even a week. But, then it comes back. It's strong.

We've sniffed everything in the room, including my daughter & can't identify a particular item or even an area of the room where it seems to originate.

Any ideas?
This sounds exactly like our problem. It's in our daughters room (next to bathroom).. main floor. We are pulling our hair out to try to figure it out. We hired a couple inspection companies and they could not find anything. Of course, when they arrived the odor was gone.
Have you gotten it resolved yet?

This is really interesting - and we are having the same problem (old house). I have seen a few posts elsewhere that are claiming it is something to do with old electricity. Has anyone else seen an answer to this? I am really curious.

My first question for all of you is the age of kids in the room with the smell. The same thing happened to me, but I found the culprit. My little girl was sneaking candy and such in her room and that was what I was smelling. By the way, my little girl was about ten at the time.

In my case, it's my own bedroom. Last night when it rained the smell was worse. I still don't know what it is!

Well, in your case gingerwe, you could have a leak in your roof.

I don't know I think maybe it could be mold I had mold in my house behind the wall and it smelt just like that lol

We discovered the smell in my daughter's room!
It is coming from the ceiling light. We were burning a 100W bulb in a max 75W socket and we think it was making the socket smell (must have been plastic getting too hot). Anyway, we left her bedroom light off for 10 days just to be sure... and no more smell.

We are going to replace the sockets and make sure we use only the max light bulb. We found they do sell ceiling light fixtures that allow for 100W so we may replace the whole light.

I hope this helps. We are relieved because the "fishy" smell was driving us crazy!

Anne:)

I have the same problem if your daughters room is connected to the bathroom or close I would check for mold because I had the same problem and I checked and sure enough it was mold

We have finally located the source and origin of this problem. We had the same dynamics going as camarohq, whose note appears above: intermittent musty/fish smell that could be overpowering at times, had no obvious source and could come and go with no established pattern. I finally checked the ceiling light fixture, which rests flush against the ceiling, and discovered we had been burning a 100-watt light bulb in a 75-watt socket. The socket, which is resin-based, rather than porcelain, was overheating. The plastic must contain a chemical or component that gives off that awful smell when hot. I could smell the nasty odor pretty strongly in the little insulation pad that deflects heat in the fixture, but just to further test our theory, we only used the lamp in that room for two weeks and didn't turn on the overhead light once. The smell has disappeared. Just to be certain, we're having the sockets replaced with porcelain sockets with 60-watt-maximum capacity. It's a pretty cheap repair: new sockets only cost about $3 at Lowe's. We discovered this just in time: we were going insane, sniffing around floorboards, calling inspectors to look in the attic, having Critter Control guys looking for rodent carcasses. Thankfully, it was this simple. Good luck!

Sounds like all of the problems are in rooms backing to a bathroom. I would go into the attic and check to see how the drains were vented. The vent should go out through the roof. I have found some vents and exhaust fans that just dump into the attic, not good.

We've been living in the same home for over 6 years. It's a normal, modern home & we keep it clean. Maybe 6 months ago, this strange smell appeared in my daughter's bedroom. It's a combination of musk, fish & just plain stink. Sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Then, it goes away without a trace. It may stay away for days or even a week. But, then it comes back. It's strong.

We've sniffed everything in the room, including my daughter & can't identify a particular item or even an area of the room where it seems to originate.

Any ideas?
We are having exactly the same problem at the moment and it can smell like rotten flesh. We haven't identified where it comes from yet but its awful and does stink like fish.

Could be that you have a stench pipe vent into your loft check it out we are having ours done!:confused:

It seems like you may be dealing with rodent (mouse) nest odors coming from the a nest built in an exterior wall. They can be very smelly caused by excrement accumulating in and around the nest and dead and rotting mice.

The reason the odor comes and goes is probably because your houses are sealed up pretty well and I'll bet you all have gas or oil heat or even a gas or oil fired water heater. Most houses do not have an air source for the furnace and water heater so when they turn on the air needed to feed the flame is drawn in from where ever there is a leak into the house. This air will bring in odors like rodent nests in on an intermittent basis (when the furnace or water heater is on).

The hard part will be finding the nest and removing it.

Thanks a million to those of you who helped us figure out what was causing the fishy smell in our bedroom (we had 100 watt bulbs in 40 watt sockets -- whoops). Anyhow, we are "over the moon" as we thought we were going to have to gut the room and pay big $'s to have the problem fixed - a million thankyou's to all of you for helping us to figure this out!

We've been living in the same home for over 6 years. It's a normal, modern home & we keep it clean. Maybe 6 months ago, this strange smell appeared in my daughter's bedroom. It's a combination of musk, fish & just plain stink. Sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Then, it goes away without a trace. It may stay away for days or even a week. But, then it comes back. It's strong.

We've sniffed everything in the room, including my daughter & can't identify a particular item or even an area of the room where it seems to originate.

Any ideas?
Hello all. I have experienced this awfull fishy smell in 2 homes. It was very strong in odour, very localised, and only certain people could smell it. My ex partners mother went to see a clairvoyant about the smell, he told her that the smell was of cancer/rotten flesh and that it was the smell of her fathers mother. If anyone would like to discuss this more then feel free to mail me on [email protected].

I have the same problem at work in my office. It comes and goes and our air is on continuously. I have told facilities about it and he insists it is coming from the microwaves in the lunchroom. The lunchroom has never smelled like this. I have checked numerous times. I am thinking it might be a rodent or mold. It smells fishy almost like something died.

Hello all.
Just want to add to my last post. My ex partners fathers mother was deceased at the time we were told what the smell was by the spiritualist.
I think that the smells some people are experiencing may be down to air-con, electrics etc.
But I do believe that a handfull of people who posted on this site have experienced the same smell as myself, and I believe it to be a smell of supernatural properties or a dimension that we have not yet discovered.
The smell was so powerful that it would make me heave, it had a rotten fishy, warm smell, and would be concentrated to a small area.
We would just walk into it and the hairs stood up on my back every time. It would go as quick as it came and not everyone could smell it.
I would love to know the answers to this smell, but I believe that it will always be a mystery and shall be experienced by many people all over the world.
Whether supernatural, or alien, you know when you got it and there's no cure.
Good luck all.

This happened to us when we had someone else living in our basement.We even tore out walls looking for the smell.It ended up being one of those diaper genies that the lady of the house filled up and forgot about it, this lasted for a few months before we found the cause.I hope you find it ,there is nothing worse then a bad smell that you can't find.

First off, I am glad it is not your daughter, that made me laugh when I read it. Have you inspected your plumbing? Could be a sewage smell from a leaking pipe. I will tell you that the water from a kitchen, or bathroom sink, or bath tub, or washer machine is some of the worst smelling "waste water".
Have your plumbing checked out. And if there is moisture under the house, you can use powdered lime to help with the smell until it goes away. Lime is hazardous to your lungs, so wear eye and breathing protection.

Has anyone checked the plumbing vents to make sure they are not clogged? Again it may not be sewage from the toilets, but from all the other drains , that usually smells worst than the sewage from toilets.

And I hope it is not a ghost as the post on the first page suggested.

I have a foul acrid odor in my house off and on. I thought it was a skunk in the attic but it's not that. I notice it more when I turn the air conditioner on. It's so bad that it burns your eyes, gives you a headache and makes you feel very lethargic.Someone told me that my airconditioning pipes in the attic could be leaking. Would it smell like that? It will go away for about a week and then it's back for days on end. Anyone have any suggestions?:confused:

I've experienced the gross fishy smell on three occasions, once at work - when it culminated in the extension lead catching fire, the 2nd and 3rd time I was aware and found the culprit quickly. Best test is to put all electricals off, then gradually re-introduce after checking all for any signs of overheating.

We have a horrendous smell in our attic, I'm pinning my hopes on it being caused by a damp area behind the chimney where two tiles are leaking. It permeates everything in the loft, we pulled all items out to see if was being caused by a bunch of christmas decorations or suitcase, but although they stunk when bought down they soon returned to normal when out of the loft. I'm half expecting to find a fungus growing up there at some point as that's the kind of smell it is and it does seem to worsen when the weather is damp, as this summer has been.

If it goes in the next 3 weeks then I'll know that the builders fixing of the tile and pointing has done the trick.

Check to see if there is something electrical that is overheating. Eletrical elements overheating (possibly affecting the plastic casing) causes and awful fishy smell. If it's intermittent check what's changed next time it happens.

I'm a plumber and I deal with this sort of thing all the time.
If you sniffed around and can't find the source, it could be coming from up above.
Is there an attic above the room? It's also possible that a small rodent could be nesting somewhere between the walls and defecating.
Another possibility is that if something like milk may have spilt on the carpet or on the fabric of furniture it will release an odor and will become more severe on some occasions than others, depending on the temperature and humidity of the room.
There is a new product on the market, and I highly recommend. It's called Room Shocker. It will illuminate any severe odor in a 500 square-foot area by decontaminating the room of any odor causing mold, mildew, bacteria, fungus or even chemical compounds. The stuff is pretty amazing. It will get rid of the odor and sanitize the room. But first, I recommend you make sure the source of the problem isn't a rodent between the walls. If you search the internet under dead animal removal you will find several specialist in your area that can come out and assess it for you for a fee. The other way to go is try the Room Shocker first. It will most likely take care of the problem and if it doesn't the website offers a money back guarantee. So you get a refund and then call the dead animal removal service.

Best of luck.
Joe the plumber

:cool:
I'm a plumber and I deal with this sort of thing all the time.
If you sniffed around and can't find the source, it could be coming from up above.
Is there an attic above the room? It's also possible that a small rodent could be nesting somewhere between the walls and defecating.
Another possibility is that if something like milk may have spilt on the carpet or on the fabric of furniture it will release an odor and will become more severe on some occasions than others, depending on the temperature and humidity of the room.
There is a new product on the market, and I highly recommend. It's called Room Shocker. It will illuminate any severe odor in a 500 square-foot area by decontaminating the room of any odor causing mold, mildew, bacteria, fungus or even chemical compounds. The stuff is pretty amazing. It will get rid of the odor and sanitize the room. But first, I recommend you make sure the source of the problem isn't a rodent between the walls. If you search the internet under dead animal removal you will find several specialist in your area that can come out and assess it for you for a fee. The other way to go is try the Room Shocker first. It will most likely take care of the problem and if it doesn't the website offers a money back guarantee. So you get a refund and then call the dead animal removal service.

Best of luck.
Joe the plumber

Bad smell in only the bed room how do I find what causing it

Some of you folks have had a smell due to an electric overload. That makes a lot of sense to at least check first as it would present the most immediate danger and most easily remedied cause. Priorities after that I would rate as:

1) Plumbing vent pipes
2) Moisture problems, such as leaks or standing water
3) Mold/mildew problems from old moisture issues
4) Pest problems, either rodent or insect
5) Chemical issues, such as carpet or plywood outgassing
6) Exterior causes, such as fertilizer or industrial smells on the wind

Let me repeat, CHECK THE ELECTRIC, FIRST AND FOREMOST, nothing smells as bad as a burnt down home!

We discoverd the smell in my daughter's room!
It is coming from the cieling light. We were burning a 100W bulb in a max 75W socket and we think it was making the socket smell (must have been plastic getting too hot). Anyway, we left her bedroom light off for 10 days just to be sure....and no more smell.

We are going to replace the sockets and make sure we use only the max light bulb. We found they do sell ceiling light fixtures that allow for 100W so we may replace the whole light.

I hope this helps. We are relieved because the "fishy" smell was driving us crazy!

Anne:)

Thank goodness for all the answers on this site. My husband and I have lived in the same house for 33 years and have been experiencing the same smell for about a month. We have done all the things everyone listed: checked plumbing, crawled through the attic, ready to call critter control. It has been driving us crazy. Finally I tried some internet research and came up with your answer. After reading it, I remembered that we recently replaced the bulb in our celing fan last month. We went straight to the light, turned it off, and took it out. Yep! It was a 100w bulb that was in a 75w socket. The smell coming from the area was strong. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you!

Please allow me to repeat myself.

CHECK THE ELECTRIC !!!NOTHING smells as bad as a house fire

Is your smell almost vinegary?

Bkarrer, note that this question was asked 2 years ago. The original poster hasn't been back. My comments were for the forum, not the question.

I have the fishy smell that comes around 11am in the morning for a few hours in my bedroom that is backed up to the bathroom... the electric wall box is in that bedroom... and sometimes when I turn the hot water off or on from the power box (to save money from being on all day)... I notice the buttons are warm... when the fishy smell comes, my eyes water and my nose runs... my answer from the LL is just to run a fan in the basement... can someone help me?. Jan in the Poconos

Jan,

Until our experts check in, the warm buttons at the power box disturb me. Ask your landlord(that is what LL means, yes?) to check the connections at the power box. Electricity flowing through the connections over the years can loosen the screws.

Have you checked for mold in the walls? Have it tested. Also, not that your kids are doing this, but it happens. Have you checked their drawers for panties that have been shoved in the back due to embarrassment?

My neighbors were having a fishy odor in a hallway closet, under the stairs. At first they thought it was something (rodent) that had died inside a wall, but, after carefully checking, couldn't find anything.

This smell has gone on for months and seemed to be really bad one evening. I decided to Google it and found this forum along with another one that all basically said the same thing. One thing stood out though... the comment that said... "Check the electrical, nothing smells as bad as a burnt down house".

My neighbors electrical panel is in that closet.
Sure enough, her husband discovered a hot wire that night. Upon pulling the breaker, he discovered that the back of the breaker had actually melted inside the panel.

Thanks for the heads up!!

One thing stood out though...the comment that said..."Check the electrical, nothing smells as bad as a burnt down house".

My neighbors electrical panel is in that closet.
Sure enough, her husband discovered a hot wire that night. Upon pulling the breaker, he dicovered that the back of the breaker had actually melted inside the panel.

Thanks for the heads up!!!!

That's why we leave these up to be read years later.

Here is food for thought . I was having the same problem. We don't have Pets . However we do have small children. Despite our cleaning habits our toddler son would sometimes urinate on the carpet with out our knowing. This can be cleaned on the surface with enzymes but is a slow process . However if it has soaked to the padding you may have to call in the professionals .
Stop sniffing , by a black light and use it (usually done at night time ) watch for yellow or green glowing looking spots , any signs of animal or pee stains from kids .

I have found when there are odors in the house, such as in cooking, the best way to get rid of them is with an electric potpourri pot. Run it for a few minutes or longer if you need. But this does the trick. I don't have a long-term cure, however. Good luck.

Thanks to the people who posted about light fittings. Thank goodness! We've had this smell for 8 years and had replaced floorboards, carpets, had pest control checks... After reading the posts here, I cannot stress strongly enough to people to check their electrics. The room affected is to be our nursery. Having read the posts here, we finally checked the white plastic ceiling light socket. There was a 100 watt bulb in the fitting and the fitting, although rarely on, had melted (we couldn't see it because of the lightshade). When we took it down, it absolutely stank of fish! We cannot thank the person who posted about electrics enough; had we left this light on in the nursery once the baby arrived, we have no doubt that it would have caught fire. The fitting has been replaced and the smell has now gone. Strangely enough, we thought the smell was coming from a corner near the floor-just turns out that the air was circulating least in that corner so that's where the smell gathered. Thanks again! Please anybody else, check your electrics if it's a musky fishy smell!

I am not sure who to give the credit to but I was having the same odor that you are speaking of and could not find it for weeks. I came onto this site and one of you mentioned that the smell may be coming from the electrical box. So I stuck my nose in there and sure enough, it most certainly was a fuse (my AC breaker) that was overheating, basically melting and every time I turned on the AC, it was causing the fuse to overheat. I thought it was a dead animal, or mold or who knows. But thanks to you guys, I figured it out. It was a simple fix. Replace the fuse and your smell will go away!

It seems to be either a dead animal in your ventilation system (air ducts), walls, attic, or crawl space or a mold problem that could be growing in the air ducts or building structure. Either a mold problem or dead animal odor circulates when there is movement, doors or windows are opened, or if the heater, a/c, or house fan is turned on.

I would look into a having a professional check it out, such as a mold inspector. We used this one: IndoorRestore Environmental Services Home - Mold Inspection and Testing, Remediation, and Restoration (http://www.indoorrestore.com). They are headquartered in California, but apparently work nationwide.

We have a funny smell in my room. I can smell it everywhere hallway, sitting room and kitchen but my mum and friend can not its not me because they can smell it in my room. It smells like mold we have took all electrical plugs out and tuned them all off and the smell hasn't gone. I have told my friend and mum about this and they seem to not be caring should I care because no plugs smell nothing in the room smells. Could it be a rat under the floor boards who has died ( I life in a farmhouse ) but this smell hasn't been here since I lived here ! ( 1 year I lived here) please tell me what I could do ?

Did you glue the carpet down - if so the glue might give it a stink when its humid

Is the carpet glued down to the floor - I`ve found smell like that from the glue when its humid out

I too, was looking for an answer to the "fishy odor" just a day or two ago and thankfully, found this site. This was the first time my husband and I had ever encountered this smell in our living room. It was brief but VERY STRONG. We have cats and my husband blamed it on one of them, perhaps spraying (which I might add they do not do this in the house!) I investigated everywhere trying to pin point the cause. Then I googled up the problem.
This forum put me on to investigating electrical possibilities and I sniffed all the outlets, switches, appliances, etc. I even sniffed out the hot water tank in another room and the wall switch to it. Nothing turned up.
I still felt uneasy the whole day.
Next morning I went in the back room where the hot water tank is located in its own space behind a wall panel. I heard a strange buzzing sound coming from the wall switch that turns the tank off or on! WHOA! There was no smell, but I knew something was wrong. I turned it off and pulled the breaker on it.
We called a good friend who is an electrician and he came over and pulled the wall switch out.
Thank goodness! A loose wire in the switch box had burned out part of the plastic! It had been sitting in there arcing and sizzling.
I sniffed the switch after he removed it. There was the awful fishy smell! Why the smell showed up in a room not even near the problem, I can't explain that. That smell never even showed up in the room it happened in.
I learned from this website and this experience to never take anything that seems odd for granted. Always check it out.
I appreciate this website.

Interesting stituations... I have a similar problem of a weird smell that comes and goes in a bedroom but it's the smell of puke. It doesn't smell musty at all. It comes and goes all the time every day, sometimes for hours. The carpets have been removed and there's nothing underneath. The carpets have been professionally cleaned, but the puke smell still comes and goes. I haven't checked the lights yet but it would surprise me cause the lights are pretty much never on in that bedroom. Anyone got ideas?

We haD a smell - like a tom cat's been, mixed with snell of rotting mouse corpse - that appeared yesterday in a bedroom and later, in the office in an adjacent building. SUCH a disgusting smell, we had the rat man out, and had begun to close off that part of the house till it cleared - but this morning - MIRACLE! No trace of the smell in bedroom or office. And no, there are no cats at all, and both buildings are locked up and empty, normally - they are old buildings, used for holiday accommodation, etc.
If it had been a dead mouse, the smell wld last for a few days at least... and the tom cat spray smell certainly lasts at least a week if not forever.
SO WHAT THE HELL IS IT?

Today, we just followed an house inspector to inspect a house we plan to buy. When they tried test the ceiling fan in master bedroom, the switch did not work well and felt wield. They climbed the ladder to check the top of the fan and did not find anything. After stucking on that ceiling fan/light for around 5 minutes, they feel difficult to find the problem--the switch for the fan. Then they moved into the big closet neighbored to the master bedroom. At this time, my daughter came into the house from outside and ran up to master bedroom, the first word she yelled out is "what kind of bad smell". We did not realized that at the beginning. After a few minutes, we came out of the big closet/attic, we all felt the bad smell like fishy or dead corpse... The inspector and us kneel down to the air vent because the whole furnace and hot air system was being tested. But no bad smell found from vent. So, the inspector thought it could because of the ceiling fan. It could be the burning plastics parts related on the ceiling fan and light... very frustrated... we are almost done with everything, most are OK except some minor problems to be solved... Could the burned electric circuit loop give out this kind of smell... it's rarely smelled before...

Today, we just followed an house inspector to inspect a house we plan to buy. When they tried test the ceiling fan in master bedroom, the switch did not work well and felt weild. They climbed the ladder to check the top of the fan and did not find anything. After stucking on that ceiling fan/light for around 5 minutes, they feel difficult to find the problem--the switch for the fan. Then they moved into the big closet neighbored to the master bedroom. At this time, my daughter came into the house from outside and ran up to master bedroom, the first word she yelled out is "what kind of bad smell". We did not realized that at the beginning. After a few minutes, we came out of the big closet/attic, we all felt the bad smell like fishy or dead corpse... The inspector and us kneel down to the air vent because the whole furnance and hot air system was being tested. But no bad smell found from vent. So, the inspector thought it could because of the ceiling fan. it could be the burning plastics parts related on the ceiling fan and light.... very frustrated.... we are almost done with everything, most are ok except some minor problems to be solved.....Could the burned electric circuit loop give out this kind of smell.....it's rarely smelled before....

After a few minutes, we went back to the room again, the smell was gone, no tracking..?

I had a terrible fishy smell in my home-office that only arose when I plugged in a space heater. It was like some food had gone bad, or some fish had been left out to spoil. And it only smelled when I turned on the space heater. It was awful - very strong. We washed down all the surfaces in the room and even replaced the heater, but the mysterious smell persisted. We had no clue where the smell was coming from until I happened upon some posts on this sight. After hearing about a light socket that was causing someone else's problem, I thought I'd check out the electrical outlet our heater was plugged into -- it reeked! Turns out the heater was drawing too much electricity. I'm not sure why that produces a rotten fish smell, but the smell's gone now that we switched outlets.

I moved into this brand new house a year ago. During that time on about four occasions, including this evening, a strong smell of what appears to be furniture polish 'develops'. It only seems to stay in the downstairs area of my open-plan house, and appears to start in the kitchen. This evening when I went out at 6pm there was no unusual smell. I returned at 10pm and when I opened the lounge door the smell was very strong. My friend who was with me verified that it smelt like furniture polish, but the house has been completely empty for four hours. The last time this happened was about three or four months ago during the daytime. I naturally checked for any logical explanation without success. I have a dishwasher and washing machine that have both been used within the last 24 hours. It is not an organic smell, or a rotting smell, or a chemical smell, or a gas smell. It is now 12 midnight and the smell has gone. Any ideas as to what is causing this please?

Hi Freedom27,

Read my post just above yours; it may be of help.

Although the odour we had was a fishy smell of rotting food, the source of the problem was the overheating of an elecrical outlet. We had a space heater plugged into an old electrical outlet, and the outlet itself just reeked. I guess the heater was drawing too much power from it and causing it to heat up and smell. Once we plugged the heater in elsewhere, the smell disappeared. (A close whiff of the previous outlet confirmed that that was definitely where the smell was originating.)

So, try smelling any electrical outlets that you have things plugged into, and also check your light fixtures. Maybe something's drawing too much power from them and causing the fixtures too heat up and smell like furniture polish. Stranger things have happened.. . Ours smelled like rotting fish!

Good luck.

We had something similar happen with a home that had been built in the early 70's in California. We had a room with condensation issues, and the smell manifested itself when a wall outlet corroded. The house had aluminum wiring, and the moisture caused the aluminum+copper connections in the outlet to react - and it smelled funky, musty, fishy. Ultimately the outlet started smoking spontaneously. We had to have the aluminum wiring replaced with copper. The problem never came back. For what it's worth.

We have been dealing with "the stinky fish" smell for close to 3 years at our vacation home. We were going nuts. I just googled and found the light socket answer. Holy cow!! That was it. We had the crappy hangong made in china girly chandeliers in my daughter room and surte enough it was the light sockets. Happy to say the are in a landfill somewhere. Thanks a ton for your posting. We were close to a complete teardown on the ceiling and walls.

Interesting stituations...I have a similar problem of a weird smell that comes and goes in a bedroom but it's the smell of puke. It doesn't smell musty at all. It comes and goes all the time every day, sometimes for hours. The carpets have been removed and there's nothing underneath. The carpets have been professionally cleaned, but the puke smell still comes and goes. I haven't checked the lights yet but it would surprise me cause the lights are pretty much never on in that bedroom. Anyone got ideas?
I would go with electrical sockets or light sockets that have bulbs higher than rated wattage, sounds weird but we had this on and off for severa lyears before nailing it on the head.

We've been experiencing the same odor in our garage. I automatically thought it must be a dead animal, but the smell goes away before I can call pest control - just to return from a couple days to a couple weeks later. It comes usually when the heat is on, but not every time the heat is on. It came back today and I realized as I was reading the posts that I had left the light on by the washing machine. I'm definitely going to call the electrician and have him check it out... and I never thought I'd say this, but I hope the smell doesn't go away... before he can smell it.