If you have just gotten rid of a mouse from your garage, your work has just begun. You will now have to clean the mess left behind by the rodent. Mice often leave germs in their feces and urine, leading to life-threatening diseases such as leptospirosis, Hantavirus, and salmonellosis.

Will Mouse Urine Smell Go Away on Its Own?

Male mice often mark their territory using urine. The unpleasant mouse urine smell often lingers for a long time, even after eradicating the rodents from your garage. Mouse urine smell will not go away unless you take the necessary actions to eliminate it.  There are two primary sources of urine smell in your garage:

• Stagnant air within the garage
• The material/surface that the urine is soaked into.

If you want to get rid of the smell, you will need to take care of each source.  Here is how you can get rid of mice urine odor from your garage:

Wear Your Gloves

It is prudent to take precautions when cleaning after mice. It would help if you always put on plastic or rubber gloves, work goggles, and a face mask whenever you want to remove any mouse-related odors. The protection may seem too much; however, the equipment will help protect you against fumes, harmful bacteria, and harsh chemical ingredients. It would be best if you didn’t clean mouse-infected areas using your bare hands because you risk spreading diseases.

Open All Windows and External Vents

It is best to open windows and doors for at least 30 minutes before cleaning your garage after a mouse infestation. Ventilating your garage will help remove contaminated air from the area and allow fresh air to enter the garage.

Spray the Area Using a Strong Disinfectant

It would help if you sprayed the mouse-infested area with a strong disinfectant and ensure that you thoroughly soak everything. You should place all debris in a sealed bag and dispose of it outside the garage. Be sure to disinfect all areas where the mice have lingered to ensure that you kill all the germs.

A mouse infestation is hazardous; therefore, you must be thorough and systematic when cleaning the areas where the mice were active.

Mop Floors

Mop the garage floors using a bleach/water solution after spraying them with a strong disinfectant. Place any exposed insulation that’s contaminated with urine into plastic bags for removal. If you want to remove any potentially contaminated materials from storage boxes and vessels, you should:

• Move the boxes or vessels outside and place them in a well-ventilated area exposed to direct sunlight.
• You can disinfect the outside of the boxes or vessels using a disinfectant or water and bleach solution.
• Remove any contaminated materials while in the ventilated area, and ensure that debris or dust is not blown towards your face.

Use Air Freshener

After disinfecting and cleaning your garage, the smell of disinfectant is most likely to overpower your space. Keep all your windows open to help in air circulation and spray an air freshener in the garage. An air freshener will not mask any odor but will remove it on contact; hence, eliminating the mouse urine smell from your garage.

Household Remedies for Eliminating Mouse Urine Smell

If you are looking for household remedies for eradicating mouse urine smell from your garage, you could try the following:

• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• Raw onion
• Coffee grinds
• Raw onion

You can place a bowl full of any of the above options in the garage area. It would be best to replace the bowl with a new batch after every 1 to 3 days.

How to Get Rid of Mouse Urine Smell in Car

Mice and other rodents may construct their nest in your car, especially if the vehicle is used infrequently. You can find mouse nesting materials in many areas of your car, and it is best to be cautious when cleaning such areas.

If you get rid of mice from your car and notice that it still reeks of mouse urine, you should do the following:

• Change the air filter immediately-Changing the air filter will significantly reduce the odor.
• Spray an odor neutralizer in the vent of the air conditioner and flip it on.
• Keep all your car windows down as much as possible to allow fresh air to circulate.

How Do You Get Rid of Mice in Garage?

Mouse populations can get out of control and infest your entire garage or house if there are no predatory animals to hunt them. You can get rid of mice naturally or use poisons to kill them. Here are some tips to help you eliminate mice from your garage:

Keep a Dog or Cat

Keeping a dog or cat can help you get rid of mice in your garage. However, it’s best to find suitable breeds, which are effective at catching mice. Many terrier species of dogs can catch small animals, including mice, while aggressive young cats are also skilled in chasing and killing mice. If you have any of these pets, it will help if they stayed in your garage for a few hours each week to assist in hunting. This is a great idea if you have a heated garage that doubles up as a usable room in the house.

Use Live Traps

If the thought of killing a mouse repulses you, you could use a live trap to catch them. Most live trap designs bait the rodent to enter and then trip a door that traps the live mouse. However, you will need to figure out what to do with the trapped mice. You could consider releasing them to the woods or any other wildlife area.

Use Rodent Bait

Killing rodents is a tad inhumane. It could even be illegal in your area. Only resort to it if you can’t get a natural predator, are up to it, and it’s legal. You could also consider getting a professional exterminator to handle this.

You can use a variety of baits to trap and eliminate mice. Many baits use an anticoagulant substance such as warfarin that causes the mouse to bleed internally over several days. If you use rodent bait, you should ensure that children or pets do not visit the garage area because eating the bait could cause death or severe illness.

How to Keep Mice Out of Garage and Car

If you want to keep mice off your garage, you should eliminate all food and water sources, deny them their nesting areas, and block any holes, cracks, or crevices that might allow them to enter.

You can also do the following to keep mice out of your garage and car:

• Bait or trap any mice already in the garage.
• Seal up holes and declutter the garage.
• Keep food out of the garage, or seal it. Put any fertilizers, grains, and dog food in tightly sealed plastic containers.
• Ensure the landscaping around your home’s foundation is free of thick layers of mulch and brush.
• Inspect the concrete slabs and foundations for any crevices, holes, and cracks. Fill them with a concrete patch. You can also stuff wide cracks in wood walls with steel wool.
• Spray a peppermint and water-soluble extract around the perimeter at least once a week. You can also place cayenne pepper or cedarwood around your car because mice avoid these deterrents.
• Use commercial rodent repellant chemicals. However, if you are wary of chemicals, you could use a natural remedy that mice do not like. Mix a ¼ cup of laundry detergent and a tablespoon of hot pepper sauce in a gallon of water. Spray the mixture outside the garage.
• Look regularly under your vehicle’s hood. Remove any mouse nests when you spot them.
• Place mouse traps on the tops of your tires because they are the most likely point of entry into your car.
• Hang mothballs under the front of the hood to act as a repellant. However, be careful not to place them near the windshield washer area because the mothball smell will permeate the car’s interior.

Mouse urine smell is repulsive; however, following the above guidelines will help you get rid of it from your garage. Additionally, the steps above will also help you prevent a mouse infestation.

How Do Mice Nests Look Like?

If you suspect your garage has mice, here are tips to guide you trace their nest. But, before you find the mouse nests in the garage, you should learn how to identify their nests. So, what does the nest look like?

Mice make their nests using any materials they find, like grass, sticks, old clothes, or pieces of paper. In addition, any soft materials from the surroundings make a good home for the mice. The nest is usually large, with 4 to 6 inches in diameter to fit the whole family.

It’s dome-shaped with one opening as the exit and entry point. However, the nest’s shape may vary based on the nesting space, type of species, and the materials used in construction.

How Do You Find a Mouse Nest?

After identifying mouse nests, then, you should be in a position to find them. Below are some guidelines to follow and trace mice nests in the garage.

First, identify mouse species in your garage. Knowing the mouse species in your garage helps evaluate the danger they can cause and how to eliminate them. For instance, deer mice are very dangerous as they transmit Hantavirus disease. 

There are two common types of mice, deer and house mice. House mice almost infest any structure. You can find them in the garage, house, offices, trains, and anywhere else you may think. It’s small in size, measuring around 6-8 inches with the tail inclusive. This animal can fit anywhere with an opening, even when you think the garage is secure. 

House mice occur in various colors like black, light grey, and light brown. A unique feature to note is their hairless tail. 

Deer mice are a little larger than the house one. They feature protruding eyes, hairless ears, furry tails, white feet, and colored bellies. Again, their fur may be light grey, brown with white, or light fur bellies.  

It’s easy to find deer mice nesting in the walls. Their nests are untidy and disorganized,  with feces and food all over. Thus, they keep building so many nests. In comparison, house mice keep their nests clean and are smaller in size.

We also have field mice in the garage, also known as meadow voles. These species have coarse brown hair and a light grey or white belly and are 6-7 inches long with furred tails.

1. Check all the cluttered spots in the garage. Mice usually nest in quiet areas that people visit less. Check the corners, behind appliances, in the ceiling if you have one.
2. Use pets. Observe your dog or cat as it sniffs around in the garage and concentrate on those areas. These animals can easily detect rodents around.
3. Pay attention to scratching noises from the walls or ceilings. Mice can nest inside the walls or ceilings, and it may be hard to find them. However, if you search the whole room and fail to locate them, listen to their noises. Although they are a bit sneaky, you will hear them when they feed and scratch surfaces.  

Common Places to Look for Mouse Nest in the Garage

Where do you look for a mouse nest? Mice can make a nest in your garage in the following areas;

• Wall voids
• Ceilings 
• Under equipment, old appliances and usually near heat sources
• Under furniture 
• In secluded corners of the garage
• Inside boxes card boxes, used containers 
• Inside the drawers
• Under the hood, inside trunks of old cars 

What Attracts Mice in the Garage 

Usually, mice in the garage in summer come from hot temperatures outside. The rodents run to find a cool place away from the scorching sun and also in winter the hide to keep warm. However, these rodents can be a mess in whatever season if they get into your garage. So, what attracts them in your garage;

• Presence of dark places to hide and nest 
• Food and water sources in the garage- you may have stored grains or pets’ food inside.
• Some large cracks or openings where they get exit or enter the garage
• A cluttered garage acts as a hiding place
• Uncovered trash with debris, papers, old clothes
• Left-over food, snacks
• Unused old vehicles and engines
• Uncovered insulation

To have a mouse-proof garage, you need to address the above issues accordingly. Ensure you have a spotlessly clean, well-lit, organized garage to keep off the mice.