Mice mice mice, and not the good kind either
April 16, 2021 1:39 PM Subscribe
Over the winter some mice got into a closet full of stuff. I need advice on cleaning and disposing of things.
First off, I'm not super worried about hantavirus - these are city mice in a second floor closet. I believe that my talented mouser cat brought them up here and released them to play with, because I've seen her bring mice upstairs before. We live in a porous old Victorian with a mouse problem but there are generally no mice upstairs.
The closet, unfortunately, is large and contained:
-Cardboard shoeboxes of shoes
-Two open tubs of shoes
- Fabric-covered boxes containing various things
- A shelving unit
- Lidded plastic tubs
- A net basket of hangers
I can see one spot where the mouse/mice had some kind of fluffy stuff from somewhere yet to be discovered - I have sprayed this and the floor immediately inside the closet with bleach and water. The tubs and boxes are stacked inward and will need to be dealt with layer by layer before the entire closet can be cleaned.
I have started on the tubs of shoes. Most of the shoes seem not to have been moused, so I have wiped the exterior and the heel portion with bleach and water and set them aside.
Several of the shoes have a little mouse shit in them (not that "a little" makes it any better). These are leather shoes, fairly well constructed. Can I wash them out well with bleachy soapy water or do I need to discard them? They seem not to be saturated with anything.
I am going to throw away all cardboard and fabric-coated boxes and wipe down all the plastic with bleach and then wash it.
Ultimately, I assume that I'll be able to spray the floor with the bleach/water mix and then mop it, plus wipe down the storage unit.
I wore a surgical mask when I started work on this. What else do I need to do? I'm hoping I don't need to discard the shoes that look untouched.
First off, I'm not super worried about hantavirus - these are city mice in a second floor closet. I believe that my talented mouser cat brought them up here and released them to play with, because I've seen her bring mice upstairs before. We live in a porous old Victorian with a mouse problem but there are generally no mice upstairs.
The closet, unfortunately, is large and contained:
-Cardboard shoeboxes of shoes
-Two open tubs of shoes
- Fabric-covered boxes containing various things
- A shelving unit
- Lidded plastic tubs
- A net basket of hangers
I can see one spot where the mouse/mice had some kind of fluffy stuff from somewhere yet to be discovered - I have sprayed this and the floor immediately inside the closet with bleach and water. The tubs and boxes are stacked inward and will need to be dealt with layer by layer before the entire closet can be cleaned.
I have started on the tubs of shoes. Most of the shoes seem not to have been moused, so I have wiped the exterior and the heel portion with bleach and water and set them aside.
Several of the shoes have a little mouse shit in them (not that "a little" makes it any better). These are leather shoes, fairly well constructed. Can I wash them out well with bleachy soapy water or do I need to discard them? They seem not to be saturated with anything.
I am going to throw away all cardboard and fabric-coated boxes and wipe down all the plastic with bleach and then wash it.
Ultimately, I assume that I'll be able to spray the floor with the bleach/water mix and then mop it, plus wipe down the storage unit.
I wore a surgical mask when I started work on this. What else do I need to do? I'm hoping I don't need to discard the shoes that look untouched.
My apartment had a bad mouse problem before I got cats, so I had fifteen years or so of cohabiting with mice (I trapped them, there wouldn’t be any for a while, then there would be more again). I felt comfortable (annoyed, but comfortable) doing ordinary cleaning of things that showed evidence of mice (mouse shit, pee) and then continuing to use them, and no one ever got sick in any way attributable to the mice.
I am the reverse of fastidious, so there’s no reason to be like me, but I think ordinary cleaning is enough for safety, and more than that depends on how grossed out you are by knowing that the mice were in your stuff.
posted by LizardBreath at 1:48 PM on April 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
I am the reverse of fastidious, so there’s no reason to be like me, but I think ordinary cleaning is enough for safety, and more than that depends on how grossed out you are by knowing that the mice were in your stuff.
posted by LizardBreath at 1:48 PM on April 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
I am the reverse of fastidious, so there’s no reason to be like me, but I think ordinary cleaning is enough for safety, and more than that depends on how grossed out you are by knowing that the mice were in your stuff.
This is also my feeling. Anything a mouse has touched should get washed to your level of comfort, but just being in proximity to a mouse (i.e. a cardboard box that otherwise doesn't show any sign of being peed/pooped on) I'd just leave alone. Mice do like to leave little seed/food caches inside toes of shoes, so I would give them all a good shake just to be on the safe side. As far as the shoes that had mice in them, I'd wipe down with something bleach-y and dry them out and assume they are good.
posted by jessamyn at 2:14 PM on April 16, 2021
This is also my feeling. Anything a mouse has touched should get washed to your level of comfort, but just being in proximity to a mouse (i.e. a cardboard box that otherwise doesn't show any sign of being peed/pooped on) I'd just leave alone. Mice do like to leave little seed/food caches inside toes of shoes, so I would give them all a good shake just to be on the safe side. As far as the shoes that had mice in them, I'd wipe down with something bleach-y and dry them out and assume they are good.
posted by jessamyn at 2:14 PM on April 16, 2021
I'm kind of squeamish about germs, but if I threw out everything in my house that ever had mouse droppings in it I'd be in an empty house. I just wipe it off with a regular lysol wipe, or for kitchen stuff, wash it like a regular dish.
posted by nantucket at 6:31 PM on April 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by nantucket at 6:31 PM on April 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I grew up in house shared with mice.
My immediate concern would be where in this closet they live, made a nest. Have you found that yet?
As for the droppings/Hygiene angle, i also would not toss anything that looks and smells okay. Whether bleach is needed is a personal decision, i would actually clean only without getting things damp to avoid mouse droppings disolving or sticking. However, here in Austria Hantavirus ist not an issue.
posted by 15L06 at 2:03 AM on April 17, 2021
My immediate concern would be where in this closet they live, made a nest. Have you found that yet?
As for the droppings/Hygiene angle, i also would not toss anything that looks and smells okay. Whether bleach is needed is a personal decision, i would actually clean only without getting things damp to avoid mouse droppings disolving or sticking. However, here in Austria Hantavirus ist not an issue.
posted by 15L06 at 2:03 AM on April 17, 2021
Mice have a musty smell that is pervasive. Pine sol is okay at eradicating it and leaving an aggressively clean scent, or something orange-oil based. I'd leave baited mouse traps where the cats can't get them.
posted by theora55 at 12:42 PM on April 17, 2021
posted by theora55 at 12:42 PM on April 17, 2021
Response by poster: Thanks! I have continued cleaning with comparatively good cheer.
I don't think the mice actually nested in the closet since I found a starter mouse nest next to the outside of the closet door and removed it. I think what happened was that my cat brought at least one mouse upstairs to show me/chase when I was asleep, the mouse/ice ran into the closet and then started a nest in a sheltered spot by the outer base of the closet door. The nest and mice are gone now.
I've found a heavily moused area in the closet but it clearly wasn't a nest - I think the mice sort of rested there for a while. I've been setting aside moused items and will wash/rinse them tomorrow. This is a big project because it's a huge, semi-finished closet, full, to be honest, of things that I should have given away or sold.
posted by Frowner at 2:12 PM on April 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I don't think the mice actually nested in the closet since I found a starter mouse nest next to the outside of the closet door and removed it. I think what happened was that my cat brought at least one mouse upstairs to show me/chase when I was asleep, the mouse/ice ran into the closet and then started a nest in a sheltered spot by the outer base of the closet door. The nest and mice are gone now.
I've found a heavily moused area in the closet but it clearly wasn't a nest - I think the mice sort of rested there for a while. I've been setting aside moused items and will wash/rinse them tomorrow. This is a big project because it's a huge, semi-finished closet, full, to be honest, of things that I should have given away or sold.
posted by Frowner at 2:12 PM on April 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Frowner at 1:41 PM on April 16, 2021