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Sat May 05, 2007 1:31 am

I have bus in the shop has had a lot of mice in it over the years and mouse urine smell was pretty rough. The bus has been striped down for paint and there is still a faint smell in a couple areas.

Does anyone know of any tips or good products to elliminate the mouse urine odors?

Sat May 05, 2007 3:48 am

Get some "Nature's Wonder" at a pet store. It removed dog and cat urine smell and should work on mice.

Good luck.

Sat May 05, 2007 4:18 am

Glenn wrote: Get some "Nature's Wonder" at a pet store. It removed dog and cat urine smell and should work on mice.

Good luck.

I used it on a '71 I had that had been sitting in a field. Nothing touched the smell of mouse piss. I ended up selling it......I tried everything....Nature's Miracle...Febreze, Lysol, laundry soap, and a couple of other products made to remove or cover up the smell of pet urine. Nothing touched the stench of the mouse piss.

Sat May 05, 2007 5:21 am

VDubTech wrote: Glenn wrote: Get some "Nature's Wonder" at a pet store. It removed dog and cat urine smell and should work on mice.

Good luck.

I used it on a '71 I had that had been sitting in a field. Nothing touched the smell of mouse piss. I ended up selling it......I tried everything....Nature's Miracle...Febreze, Lysol, laundry soap, and a couple of other products made to remove or cover up the smell of pet urine. Nothing touched the stench of the mouse piss.

hafta agree w/ dubtech...i had the same problem. I even tried bleach , and then ammonia,.... no luck!!! i got pissed(pun intended) and sold the true "rat bus"...... :?

Sat May 05, 2007 6:20 am

Have your painter mix some cat piss with the paint. That should get rid of the mouse piss. Seriously, I thought that those pet odor removers would work but obviously they don't do the job.

Sat May 05, 2007 6:35 am

is the smell in your cabinets or in the interior metal of your bus. if it's not in your cabinets then painting it should cover up any smells. for your cabinets you might try cleaning them really good with lacour thinner and brushing on some polyurethane.

Sat May 05, 2007 7:07 am

VDubTech wrote: I tried everything....Nature's Miracle...Febreze, Lysol, laundry soap, and a couple of other products made to remove or cover up the smell of pet urine. Nothing touched the stench of the mouse piss.

Yes, but did you use Bon Ami?

Sat May 05, 2007 7:07 am

abeed wrote: is the smell in your cabinets or in the interior metal of your bus. if it's not in your cabinets then painting it should cover up any smells. for your cabinets you might try cleaning them really good with lacour thinner and brushing on some polyurethane.

I agree, paint will seal the smell in on metal and polyurethane will seal it into the wood.

Sat May 05, 2007 8:04 am

My mouse nest tips:

remove mouse nest. I usually damp it down, and use rubber gloves

take bus to pressure washer... wash it out. Usually the nest is under the front seat... you can just take out the front seat and wash the front and ignore the interior in back if you want. Remove every thing from packafe tray and wash that off too.

Get a gallon of white wine vinegar, Arm and Hammer laundry soap (powder) and baking soda at the grocery store. Slosh the vinegar on areas that are staying stinky.
The acid in the vinegar neutralises the base in the piss.

This is why you should not use bleach when washing clothes that an animal has pissed on. The bleach will keep the smell from washing out !

Then rinse the vinegar off the bus and use baking soda to neutralise the acid. Rinse again. Repeat if needed.

Leaving a bowl of baking soda in the bus will also help to remove odors. Baking soda is also good for your battery tray after a battery leak/ spill.

I'd wipe the cabinets down inside and out, get in the corners, with arm& hammer laundry soap/water.

Febreeze stinks, and doesn't actually get rid of the previous smell. It tries to cover up. The vinegar and baking soda do actually get to the source of the smell.

Sat May 05, 2007 9:24 am

on mine...I used tons of simple green straight from the bottle...took a couple of treatments but seemed to work...I also pulled my OG seat cover off and scrubbed it and reinstalled it with new padding as mice had been in it too...and had stripped all the horse hair padding out..

Sat May 05, 2007 10:09 am

I don't know if this'll work for your application (or if it just removes stains from carpets) but I've seen something called Urine Gone at Target or Bed Bath & Beyond. That might work for you.

Sat May 05, 2007 11:50 am

The bus is a bare sheel and 90% of the smell is gone. They did piss a bit up around the inside top ledge in the rear of the bus and that is where the smell still lingeres a bit.

I may try the vinegar trick and maybe a spray or two and then mix up some paint with catalyst and brush it up in there...my spray gun really cant hit that spot up there. The smell is VERY minor...just since I have the bus a bare shell I want to address anything there at this time.

Sat May 05, 2007 12:00 pm

My westy interior had the same problem; there was a massive mouse nest in the rear overhead cabinet. I washed it with soap and water, which did nothing, I bleached it, which did nothing, and febreeze, well, that didn't work either. So I installed the interior into my bus, and lit some incense in the cabinet. What do ya know, after about 10 sticks, the mouse piss is gone! I think in your case, go with the vinegar, or even the baking soda( I like that idea)

Sat May 05, 2007 12:15 pm

Clara's technique worked wonders with our blue '56 subhatch. Even locked up on a hot day it doesn't smell when you first get in. It smelled pretty nasty when we first got it.

Sat May 05, 2007 1:27 pm

alls i have to say is wear a surgical mask, mouse are disease carrying things, be carful :shock:

Sat May 05, 2007 1:35 pm

let a hippie live in it for a few weeks. problem solved.
the patchouli and nag champa odor will be overwhelming.

Sat May 05, 2007 4:18 pm

my ass gas > any mouse piss smell

ask my wife :wink:

Sat May 05, 2007 4:34 pm

Clara wrote: My mouse nest tips:

remove mouse nest. I usually damp it down, and use rubber gloves

take bus to pressure washer... wash it out. Usually the nest is under the front seat... you can just take out the front seat and wash the front and ignore the interior in back if you want. Remove every thing from packafe tray and wash that off too.

Get a gallon of white wine vinegar, Arm and Hammer laundry soap (powder) and baking soda at the grocery store. Slosh the vinegar on areas that are staying stinky.
The acid in the vinegar neutralises the base in the piss.

This is why you should not use bleach when washing clothes that an animal has pissed on. The bleach will keep the smell from washing out !

Then rinse the vinegar off the bus and use baking soda to neutralise the acid. Rinse again. Repeat if needed.

Leaving a bowl of baking soda in the bus will also help to remove odors. Baking soda is also good for your battery tray after a battery leak/ spill.

I'd wipe the cabinets down inside and out, get in the corners, with arm& hammer laundry soap/water.

Febreeze stinks, and doesn't actually get rid of the previous smell. It tries to cover up. The vinegar and baking soda do actually get to the source of the smell.

Works for us at home also. Mixing Hydrogen Peroxide, Baking Soda, and dish soap does the same thing, and it even lifts cat piss smell out of carpet. You can mix this in a spray bottle, but don't shake it hard! Shake it like you would a Martini, James Bond style, shaken not stirred.

Sun May 06, 2007 5:42 pm

Hi all
Good ideas some may work some may not. If you take it to a Catastrophe cleaning place worth its weight and dont pay till it is gone is usually the way it works. But they can use a Ozone machine that will some how remove all the smell in the bus down to killing the air freshener pine tree. also make sure there are no mouse carcasses in the bus as well as droppings. they WILL fall into the smallest of areas. Try to clean it with a vacuum like you had it sand blasted and need to clean out sand. Ive even used a vacuum hose reduced down to the size of a pencil just to pull sand and junk out of some of the tightest of spaces. Good Luck and just wear a hepa mask air filter. C-ya Jonce

Tue May 15, 2007 4:28 pm

Sorry to say the Vinegar trick was a bust...made the bus smell like vinegar AND mouse piss...LOL I tossed the idea of the baking soda after the vinegar around a tad but decided where I needed it (up around the inner roof lip inside the bus) the baking soda would be difficult to remove
or clean up after the fact and it would ruin chances of what I thought MIGHT just work as a last resort.

Well, that final idea was paint...I masked off the bus and cut down a chip brush so I could really get up in there. Bought a quart of rustoleum rusty metal primer, great stuff for things like this. I really got that primer up in the inner rail...made sure it was all covered. Almost instantly the smell was gone. Now it has dried and voila no more piss smell. I am going to paint over the primer with some ruby red matched enamel with a brush which should seal it all up for sure.

Now more mouse piss smell YEAH! ...:)