How to clean up mouse droppings safely (without sweeping)

Step by step: how to clean up mouse droppings safely

Safety first. Do not sweep, vacuum or blow dry droppings: that puts dust from urine and droppings into the air, where viruses such as hantavirus can be breathed in. Mix bleach only with water. Never add ammonia, vinegar or other cleaners to bleach, because the mix releases toxic gas.

1. 1

   Air out the space before you start

   Open doors and windows and leave the room, garage or cabin to air for at least 30 minutes before you clean. Keep kids and pets out. In a closed shed or crawl space, this step matters most.

2. 2

   Put on gloves and mix the bleach solution

   Wear rubber, latex, vinyl or nitrile gloves. Mix 1 1/2 cups of household bleach into 1 gallon of water, which is about 1 part bleach to 9 parts water, in a bucket or spray bottle. Make it fresh the day you use it.

3. 3

   Soak the droppings, urine and nests

   Spray or pour the solution over every dropping, urine stain and nest until it is thoroughly wet. Leave it for 10 minutes. Wet droppings cannot crumble into dust, which is the whole point of this step.

4. 4

   Wipe everything up with paper towels

   Pick up the soaked droppings and nest material with damp paper towels and drop them straight into a plastic bag. Do not brush them into a pile. Work from the edges of a mess toward the middle.

5. 5

   Disinfect the surfaces

   Mop or sponge the whole area with more bleach solution: floors, shelves, drawers, countertops and baseboards the mice could have crossed. Let it stay wet for the time on your product’s label, then rinse food-contact surfaces with clean water.

6. 6

   Handle dead mice and traps the same way

   Spray a dead mouse and the trap with disinfectant, let it soak, then pick it up with a gloved hand or a bag turned inside out. Double-bag mice, paper towels and used gloves together and put them in a covered outdoor trash can.

7. 7

   Wash fabrics, carpets and your hands

   Steam clean or shampoo upholstery and carpet that has droppings or urine on it, and wash bedding and clothes in hot water with detergent. Disinfect or wash your gloves before you take them off, then wash your hands with soap and water.

8. 8

   Find out how the mice got in

   Droppings mean mice are active, so cleanup is only half the job. Check for gaps around pipes, doors, vents and the foundation, and set snap traps along walls where you found droppings. If you see fresh droppings a week later, mice are still coming in.

Why you should never sweep or vacuum mouse droppings

Sweeping and vacuuming turn dried droppings and urine into fine dust that you then breathe in. That is how people catch hantavirus, a rare but serious lung disease carried by deer mice. The Washington State Department of Health says infected deer mice can shed the virus in urine, saliva and droppings, and tells people not to stir up dust by vacuuming, sweeping or any other means. It also notes that a dust mask gives some protection against dust but does not protect against viruses, so wetting the mess down is your real protection.

House mice carry other germs too. UC IPM’s house mouse guide lists leptospirosis, salmonella and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM), which people can catch from fresh urine, droppings, saliva or nesting material. The risk from deer mice is higher in the western US; the Minnesota Department of Health notes rodents there are much less likely to carry hantavirus than in the West, but still advises precautions whenever you clean up droppings or nests.

Cleaning droppings in drawers, attics, garages and cars

The method is the same everywhere (wet, wait, wipe, bag), but each spot has its own extra steps.

How to stop the droppings from coming back

Seal the gaps and remove the food, or you will be cleaning droppings again in a month.

• Mice can get through openings about 1/4 inch wide, according to UC IPM. Fill gaps with wire screen or coarse steel wool they cannot chew through, and make sure doors, windows and screens fit tightly.
• Store food, including pet food and birdseed, in sealed hard containers, and keep garbage cans lidded.
• Set snap traps along walls, behind objects and where droppings were, and check them daily.
• Thin plants growing against the house, since mice are good climbers.

For full trapping and exclusion plans, see our guides on getting rid of mice in the house and mice in walls and ceilings. Call a licensed pest control company if you keep finding fresh droppings after two or three weeks of trapping, or if mice are nesting somewhere you cannot reach.

Mistakes to avoid

• Sweeping or vacuuming dry droppings, which sends contaminated dust into the air.
• Picking droppings up with bare hands, even "just a few".
• Spraying and wiping right away instead of letting the bleach solution soak for 10 minutes.
• Mixing bleach with ammonia, vinegar or another cleaner to make it "stronger".
• Cleaning up and stopping there, without sealing entry points or setting traps.
• Leaving bagged waste in the house instead of taking it straight to a covered outdoor bin.