You’ve just finished the big spring cleaning of your house and everything is spotless. However, a foul odor persists and even seems to spread throughout the house…could it be a mouse infestation? Given that these tiny rodents can squeeze through dime-sized holes, it’s quite possible. These unwanted visitors leave excrement and urine in their path, which causes a very unpleasant odor that pervades throughout the house.
Read on to understand if the lingering smell in your home is from a mouse infestation and how to get rid of it.
Before You Start
Mice can carry bacteria, viruses, and other diseases. For example, the deer mouse can carry the hantavirus, which spreads through the air and can attack the lungs of humans. In addition, rodent droppings, urine, and saliva can be contaminated with a host of health-damaging microorganisms.
Therefore, you must protect yourself properly before starting the cleaning. Gather the following protective gear:
The 4 Steps to Get Rid Of Mouse Smells
1. Identify the Source of the Foul Smell
An infestation of mice or other rodents causes a specific odor somewhat reminiscent of cat urine, or ammonia. Feces left by mice and smells of putrefaction given off by small corpses are other typical smells of a mouse infestation. Since these rodents particularly like confined areas (like the attic, inside walls, or basement), the scent will be more pronounced in these areas.
Also, if you find small excrement in the kitchen cabinets or holes in the corners of the walls or in your cardboard boxes, you most likely have unwanted visitors. In any case, you must act quickly to prevent the mice from multiplying and making the smell of the whole house unbearable.
Call a professional to solve the problem as soon as possible.
2. Keep Mice from Coming Back
After the exterminator has passed, you must ensure that the mice will not return. So, in addition to installing traps all over the house, you will probably need to:
3. Decontaminate Your Home
You are now ready to eradicate the mouse smell once and for all!
To do this, start by opening the windows to ventilate your house as much as possible for at least 30 minutes. Above all, avoid vacuuming or shaking your carpets, as this can release harmful particles from mouse droppings and urine into the air.
4. Clean the Whole House with a Disinfectant or Bleach Solution
After spraying bleach on mouse urine and droppings, you can mop floors without worrying about harmful particles being dispersed into the air (but keep your protective mask on at all times during cleaning).
When you’re done scrubbing, throw away your gloves and wash your hands thoroughly.
Bonus Tip: Purify the Air to Remove the Last Hints of Mouse Odor
After you’ve thoroughly disinfected and cleaned your home, it’s time to clean the air. To do this, you can choose the following natural methods:
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With all these methods, mouse smells should be a thing of the past.
Summary
Mouse smell can quickly become a problem in your home, especially if the smell is caused by an infestation of these little critters. However, if you suspect an infestation, you should call an exterminator first before you tackle the source of the problem yourself. Then ventilate, disinfect, and thoroughly clean all the rooms in your home, taking care to wear protective equipment. Once your home is free of unwanted critters, purify the air using natural, effective, and inexpensive methods.
Featured Image Credit: Paulpixs, Shutterstock
