How to get rid of the smell of mice in the house using folk and chemical remedies

Few people enjoy being around mice. These rodents spoil clothes, equipment, chew furniture, and get to food. The presence of these small animals in the home is constantly reminded by an unpleasant aroma that lingers on furniture, textiles, and other surfaces. To remove it, it is not enough to kick uninvited guests out of the apartment and ventilate the home. Special preparations or available folk remedies will help clean the room.

Causes of odor and its dangers

An unpleasant aroma, indicating the presence of rodents in the home, comes from the male’s marks, with which he attracts his “girlfriends”. The same stench usually comes from cages with indoor rats or hamsters. Then, to get rid of the mouse smell in the house, you just need to put fresh litter or sawdust.

An equally disgusting stench comes from mouse excrement. It is a mixture of methane, sulfur dioxide, and hydrocarbons. The desire to eliminate it cannot be ignored. The peculiarity of this stench is that it quickly penetrates into the smallest pores of the surface and does not disappear. It is especially difficult to eliminate when mice have pooped on the wooden floor. Therefore, to eliminate the unpleasant odor, you have to treat the entire house completely.

The unpleasant aroma of mice itself is not dangerous to humans. It only brings serious health consequences to people suffering from allergic reactions. Substances that can provoke an attack of illness are carried in the air. Nevertheless, you need to get rid of the smell of mice in the house immediately. Otherwise, the stench will penetrate into textiles or porous surfaces, and it will be very difficult to eliminate it.

Removing traces of urine and cadaveric rot from surfaces

Having identified the source of unpleasant odors, you can begin to neutralize it. The smell of urine and droppings carries the same danger to the inhabitants of the house as a decaying rodent. Therefore, the treatment is carried out in a similar way, using less aggressive drugs.

When removing mouse odor, you can’t do without general cleaning.

Concentrated urine from mice not only has a foul odor, but can also carry hantaviruses. They are distributed by rodents. To date, no vaccine has been found against it, and in a third of cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, patients do not survive. Therefore, the seriousness of its prevention is not worth talking about.

How to treat the surface depends on the materials from which they are made. Any characteristic stains found on a wooden surface should not be heavily moistened, since urine will be absorbed into the wood along with the preparation. It is better to use a powdered absorbent, and then a spray that neutralizes odors.

It is more difficult to remove stains from drywall, therefore, having determined the extent of the contamination, you need to either cut out a part or replace the entire sheet. How to eliminate the smell if chipboard is damaged? You can try to save the damaged part of the furniture. To do this, thoroughly wipe the contaminated areas with alcohol and treat with a chemical neutralizer.

Ways to drive out mice

Before you start fighting the unpleasant odor of mice, you need to get rid of the source of the problem. If the rodents leave the house, the smell will not appear. To kill small animals, people use traps, mousetraps, poisons, and other dangerous means.

You can remove mice more safely by using the following measures:

use ultrasonic repellers;
call the deratization service;
use folk remedies.

Important!

Mice cannot stand the smell of tar. Therefore, to eliminate them, place rags soaked in this liquid in the corners. Rodents also do not like wood ash. It is scattered in places where pests may live.

What to do if you can't find it

In a private home, rodents can hide and die in a crack in the wall, under the floor, or in another hard-to-reach place. If the smell is felt, but the mouse corpse is not visible, experience-tested observations will help at least reduce the search area. What to pay attention to:

The smell intensifies as you approach the epicenter.
A decomposing dead rat can be found by tracking the trajectory of the flies.
The corpse can be found by drops of liquid released from it.
If you have a dog, it will become anxious around a dead mouse.

Ways to detect a dead mouse

Corpses emit an unpleasant odor if the mouse is dead. The animal dies for some natural reasons or as a result of poisoning with toxic substances placed around the apartment by the owners. The first priority then becomes locating the decomposing body. It is packed in plastic and destroyed - burned or buried. Only then should you look for ways to get rid of the smell of a dead mouse.

Typically, dead rodents are found in various secret places:

in old furniture;
under the baseboard;
in ventilation;
in a bag of cereals or flour.

Sometimes the corpse of a rodent can be found in places where insects - ants or flies - accumulate. Sometimes a rotting body leaves behind droplets of liquid. Then the dead animal is found based on these spots. If it is in a hard-to-reach place, you have to go to extreme measures and open the floor, dismantle the cabinet or unscrew the baseboards to get there. Only after the body has been destroyed can one think about how to get rid of the corpse smell.

Important!

To find a dead mouse, you should carefully observe the behavior of dogs. They usually show anxiety and constantly hover near the place where the corpse is located.

Signs of a dead rat or mouse under the floor

If you fail to find the corpse of a mouse or rat in the furniture, then most likely it died under the floor. This is most often faced by owners of suburban real estate. In the fall, rodents climb into the house and make nests. Decomposed pesticides cause the animals to die. The faint smell of a rat dying under the floor can be felt already on the third day, when the dead animal begins to actively decompose, the body swells and secretes fluid.

Over time, the stench will become stronger and stronger until the corpse completely decomposes. It is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of how long a dead rat stinks, since it depends on the air temperature and humidity in the room. The warmer it is, the faster the process will go.

In apartment buildings, it is much more difficult to find the corpse of a rodent, as the smell spreads to neighboring apartments. In this case, the best solution would be to seek the help of professionals.

Ways to eliminate mouse odor

To remove the smell of mice, you will need effective means and auxiliary tools. There are several effective methods for getting rid of stench in any premises.

Ventilation

The simplest and most accessible method to remove odor, which should be used first, is to completely ventilate the home. To create a draft, open all windows and doors for several hours. The same applies to pantries and cabinets. Additionally, they let in a lot of natural light. The sun's rays will help disinfect the room and help destroy the unpleasant odor.

Portable and ceiling fans are used to increase air movement. Additionally, air conditioning is included. But here it is worth remembering that the stench can be absorbed into the air filter of the device. Therefore, to completely eliminate the smell, it needs to be changed.

Wash

The smell from excrement found on textiles can be easily removed by washing. Clothes, bedding and other fabrics are simply washed with a suitable detergent. Carpets and upholstery that smell of mice are cleaned with special disinfectants. To make washing more efficient, set the washing machine to the longest program possible for this type of fabric. A vacuum cleaner is used to clean carpets. Blankets, pillows and other bulky textiles are dry cleaned.

Important!

Sometimes it is enough to treat textiles with an air freshener with a deodorizing effect. It not only improves the air in the apartment, but also disinfects it.

Chlorine treatment

All washable items in the house are disinfected with chlorine. To do this, they are washed with a simple and affordable product “Belizna”:

The liquid is poured into a convenient container.
Protect your hands with rubber gloves.
Dip a sponge in “Whiteness”.
Use it to treat all areas where rodents may be present.

In an apartment where small children or pets live, it is not recommended to get rid of the stench with chlorine. This substance is very toxic and can cause harm to health. Chlorine treatment is suitable for country houses and outbuildings where there are no people constantly. Once the substance evaporates, the health hazard goes away.

Hydrogen peroxide treatment

After disinfecting rooms with chlorine, it is useful to wash all objects in the apartment with a solution of hydrogen peroxide. The liquid is poured into a spray bottle and generously sprayed on all possible locations of pests and their routes. Hydrogen peroxide destroys all dangerous bacteria and harmful microorganisms remaining after exposure to chlorine.

Unpleasant smells from clothes can be eliminated by soaking them in a solution of 1 part peroxide and 6 parts water for 2 hours before washing. But this method is only possible for light, non-thin fabrics.

To remove mouse stench, carry out wet cleaning using a hydrogen peroxide solution:

800 ml hydrogen peroxide concentration 3%;
100 ml dishwashing liquid;
120 g soda.

Important!

The mixture is prepared right before work and poured into a bottle for storage. Before working with this composition, be sure to wear rubber gloves.

Potassium permanganate solution

Potassium permanganate is known as a good disinfectant. Therefore, treating a room with its solution is useful not only for getting rid of mouse odor, but also for disinfection.

The instructions on how to use potassium permanganate are very simple:

Prepare a sufficient amount of concentrated solution of potassium permanganate to treat the room.
Protect your hands with rubber gloves.
Soak a sponge or rag in the solution and wash all surfaces and places where mice are likely to live.

The human sense of smell does not distinguish the smell of potassium permanganate, but for animals it is very unpleasant. Therefore, treatment with potassium permanganate will be an excellent way to repel rodents and will protect the house for a long time from their repopulation.

Vinegar treatment

Acetic acid is another good natural disinfectant. It destroys the unpleasant stench left behind by rodents and gets rid of the infection brought by them. To treat with vinegar, prepare a solution of 1 part active ingredient and 5 parts water. The substance is poured into a spray bottle and all rodent habitats are sprayed with it. You can treat either a separate closet or the entire room.

Important!

The pungent vinegar smell after treatment disappears after some time.

After treating the room with vinegar, it is useful to use essential oils to improve the aroma and get rid of the pungent odor. Mint, lavender or pine ether not only makes the atmosphere in the house more pleasant, but also has some disinfecting effect.

Application of absorbents and ionizers

Available substances in this group include soda, salt and lime. Other products with absorbent properties are purchased in specialized stores. Typically, such products include flavoring additives that mask the unpleasant odor while its source is eliminated.

Such preparations are especially good at eliminating absorbed odors remaining at the site where dead mice were found. The powder is scattered in a dense layer at the desired location. It absorbs not only the aroma, but also the remaining particles of secretions, bacteria and other organic matter. In residential premises, soda and salt are used, and lime is suitable for outbuildings.

Ionizers are used simultaneously with absorbents. These devices disinfect the room using ultraviolet rays. They destroy the decomposition products of corpses, microorganisms and bacteria brought by rodents.

Chemicals

In addition to folk remedies, special preparations effectively eliminate traces of rodents in the house. They contain disinfecting components, disinfectants, masking components, as well as substances that prevent the growth and spread of bacteria.

The most popular anti-mouse odor drugs:

The drug Lizafin is a yellowish concentrate, a toxic substance for treating any surfaces. It is mixed with water according to the instructions and sprayed on the floor, walls, furniture, plumbing and other objects.
Medifox-Dez liquid effectively eliminates pathogenic bacteria and unpleasant odors of rodents, destroys mold and mildew in damp rooms.
Chlorapin is commercially available in powder or tablets. It is used when washing textiles, adding to the powder. Wipe furniture and other surfaces with it.

Why is it dangerous?

The smell from mice not only causes serious discomfort to people, but can also cause property damage. This is due to the fact that the stench is very persistent. It is absorbed quite quickly into fabrics, paper, and wooden surfaces. Soon upholstered furniture, carpets, curtains, bedding, books, even flooring and wallpaper begin to smell of mice. Sometimes things become so saturated with the smell that it is no longer possible to clean them, all that remains is to throw it away.

Another danger is related to the fact that mice are carriers of a large number of dangerous infectious diseases. The occurrence of many of them can be triggered by contact with rodent excrement, which contains pathogens. A person can pick up an object that has rodent urine on it (of course, without knowing it), and then, for example, go to dinner or touch their face. The infection will enter the body with food or from the hands to the mucous membranes, which will lead to the development of pathology.

Disease carriers

For people with allergies, traces of mice in the house can cause a severe reaction, just as inhaling dust containing tiny particles of mouse excrement can trigger an attack in asthmatics.

Application of products on different surfaces

Porous surfaces can absorb odors. Therefore, to eliminate the stench, a special treatment approach is required.

Chipboards are disinfected in the following order:

Rodent excretions discolor the slab and change its density. Therefore, to treat such a surface, solutions are prepared in lower concentrations and the holding time is reduced.
Before applying the disinfectant, the surface is cleaned of dirt and dust and degreased.
The active solution is applied on both sides. If spraying is used, wipe the surface with a rag after the substance is completely absorbed.
Finally, sealant or polish is applied to the chipboard.

If animal waste gets on the drywall, it is easier to replace this part than to try to get rid of the smell. The liquid is completely absorbed into the pores of the material and it is impossible to completely remove its particles. Especially if the stains appear on the back of the part.

Natural wood is first covered with an absorbent to draw out excess liquid from the pores. After this, a solution of vinegar, potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide is applied to the surface. You can use special aerosols instead of folk remedies. Finish the treatment by applying sealant or polish.

Prevention of mice

To avoid having to think about ways to get rid of mouse stench, you need to take preventive measures in time. Rodents prefer dirty, cluttered spaces. Therefore, in order to deprive them of their usual habitat, they regularly do general cleaning and wash all hard-to-reach places with disinfectants. Additionally, the rooms are ventilated.

All bed linen, textiles, pillows, carpets and blankets are periodically taken outside for drying and airing. It is useful to have a cat at home. Even if the animal does not catch mice, the very smell of the predator will be unpleasant to the rodents.