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This article was co-authored by Susan Stocker and by wikiHow staff writer, Raven Minyard, BA. Susan Stocker runs and owns Susan’s Green Cleaning, the #1 Green Cleaning Company in Seattle. She is well known in the region for outstanding customer service protocols — winning the 2017 Better Business Torch Award for Ethics & Integrity —and her energetic support of green cleaning practices.
There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
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The smell of cat urine is strong and unpleasant, but the stains can sometimes be hard to find! Luckily, you don’t have to rely on your nose alone to help you find the source of the odor. UV lights, or black lights, cause cat urine to glow yellow or green, making it easier to find and clean up. In this article, we’ll teach you how to find cat urine with a UV light and clean it with tips from professional cleaners. We’ll also provide troubleshooting tips if your UV light doesn’t work and list some popular urine detectors you can buy.
Finding Cat Urine With a Black Light: Quick Steps
Choose a UV or black light with a wavelength of 365 to 395 nanometers. Wait until nighttime, and make the room as dark as possible. Turn on the black light and shine it near the area you suspect the urine is located. The urine should glow yellow or green. Mark the area with tape or chalk so you can clean it later.
Steps
Locating the Cat Urine
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Purchase or borrow a UV light between 365-395 nm. For the best results, look for a handheld LED light with 9-12 bulbs. It should be rated between 365-395 nm, which stands for nanometers. A lower rating won’t be strong enough to light up the cat urine, and a higher rating is too similar to natural light to have an effect.[1]- Find these lights, also known as black lights, online or at a local home improvement store.
- You can also find UV lights with fluorescent bulbs. As long as it’s rated between 365-395 nm, this will work as well, although the LED lights tend to be stronger.
- Nanometers are used to measure the visible light spectrum, or the light that can be seen by the human eye.
Meet the wikiHow Experts
Susan Stocker is a green cleaning expert and the owner of Susan’s Green Cleaning, the #1 green cleaning company in Seattle. She has over 10 years of experience.
Guy Peters is a house cleaning professional and the owner of MOP STARS Cleaning Service based in Denver, Colorado. He provides cleaning services for residential and commercial clients.
Kadi Dulude is a house cleaning professional and the owner of Wizard of Homes, a cleaning company based in New York City. She has over 10 years of experience.
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Wait until evening and get the room as dark as possible. While you could try to draw all the curtains in the room as tightly as possible, it will be easier to wait until it gets dark outside before you try to use the black light. When you’re ready to start looking, turn off the lights in the room, as well as the lights in any adjacent rooms or hallways.[2]- If the room isn’t dark enough, your eyes won’t be able to detect the glowing urine.
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Turn on the UV light near the suspected soiled area. Typically, the urine spot will be somewhere in the area where you can smell it, although sometimes you’ll have to look around a little before you find it. To make the search more efficient, start looking near where you think the cat may have urinated, then work outward. -
Look for a glowing yellow or neon green spot. When the UV light comes into contact with the urine, it should start to glow. Depending on how much urine there is, and where it is located, the stain may look like a spot, puddle, splatter, or drips.[3]- For example, if your male cat sprayed to mark his territory on the wall, it may look like a splatter, with a few drips running down the wall. If the cat peed on the floor, you might just see a large, round-ish spot.
- Some cleaning products and other household materials, including wallpaper glue, may glow under a blacklight, so don't panic if your whole room lights up when you turn on the UV light.
- Other substances, including some bodily fluids and tonic water, may also glow. Use the location, size, shape, and smell of the spots to determine if it's cat urine.[4]
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Sweep the light back and forth, checking various surfaces. Cats may urinate on a variety of different surfaces, so don’t just check the floor. Slowly move the light from side to side, checking along the walls and door frames, on top of and on the sides of furniture, and on any bedding in the area.[5]- If you don’t spot the stain right away, slowly move outward from the source of the odor.
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Mark the edges of the stain so you’ll know where to find it. It can be hard to remember exactly the size and shape of the stain when the lights come back on. To ensure you know exactly where you’re supposed to clean, use something like tape or chalk to mark a perimeter around the stain.[6]- It’s a good idea to clean further outside of the stain than what you can actually see, in case the stain soaked in and spread out, so don’t worry about perfectly defining the edges. Just make a small mark at the top, bottom, and sides of the stain so you’ll remember where it was.
Cleaning the Cat Urine
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Try to find and clean the stain as soon as you can. The sooner you can get the stain clean, the better your results will be. Cat urine will smell stronger as it breaks down and become harder to clean once it’s set in. House cleaning professional Guy Peters says, “Your first goal is to try and soak up the urine with the most absorbent item you have around the house. Paper towels are usually your best option.”[7]- If you smell cat urine and can’t find the stain during daylight hours, try to use the black light to locate the spot that same evening.
- If the stain has already dried completely, move on to the next step.
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Saturate the stain with soapy water, if possible. If the stain is somewhere that’s safe to get wet, like your carpet, professional cleaner Susan Stocker recommends mixing a few drops of dish soap into warm water, then blotting the water over the entire stain with a white rag.[8] Leave it there for about an hour. This will help loosen the crystals from the cat urine. -
Blot away the stain with a damp cloth. Once the soapy water has had enough time to penetrate the stain, “rinse the area and make sure you get all of the dish soap solution washed out,” explains Stocker.[9] Blot the area with another clean, damp cloth. Work from the outside in to avoid spreading the cat urine out past its original spot.- Stocker adds that you may want to repeat the process using a mixture of vinegar and water. “This will work on the odors. Vinegar neutralizes the ammonia smell of the urine,” she explains.[10]
- If you’re trying to clean something that can’t get wet, like leather or wood, skip soaking the area and just blot away as much of the stain as you can with the damp cloth. Let the area dry completely.
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Spray the area with an enzyme cleaner and let it sit for 20 minutes. Peters explains, “Enzymatic cleaners break down odor-causing components of pet urine and actually remove it instead of just covering it up. You’ll need to use an enzymatic cleaner to soak the area, let it sit, then soak up any excess.”[11] Directions may vary, but typically these sprays don’t need to be wiped away.- Find enzymatic cleaners at pet supply or home improvement stores, or make your own if you want to. You can find powdered enzyme cleaners if the item you're cleaning can't get wet.
- Be sure to read the directions on the product you’re using to make sure it's safe for the surface you need to clean.
- You may also want to spray a little of the cleaner on an inconspicuous area to make sure it won’t damage the finish of whatever you’re cleaning. Enzyme cleaners are typically gentle compared to other cleaning products.
- Peters adds, “If you weren’t able to soak up much of the initial urine, you may need to repeat this process several times to get the odor out.”[12]
Tip: If you’re cleaning a material like wood or leather, read the label to make sure you choose a product that’s safe for those surfaces.
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Eliminate lingering odors with baking soda. Stocker says, “Baking soda is great at absorbing odors. Let the baking soda absorb for at least an hour before vacuuming it up.” She adds that you can mix a cup of baking soda with about 10 drops of lavender essential oil to create a pleasant smell.[13]- If the smell of urine lingers in the air, house cleaning professional Kadi Dulude suggests, “Leave bowls of vinegar around the room. Wash all possible surfaces with pure white vinegar. It will smell strongly of vinegar while you’re cleaning, but once that smell goes, it also tends to take all bad smells with it.”[14]
Community Q&A
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QuestionWhere can I purchase a UV light?
Community AnswerCheck eBay or Amazon, Walmart, or your local hardware store. -
QuestionMy cat recently started peeing on piles of clothes. She used to only pee on bags or plastic containers on the floor but now she does it anywhere where she finds clothes. What can I do?
Community AnswerThis is easy. Pick up all of the piles of clothes. -
QuestionI already cleaned with special enzyme cleaner, yet the cat can still smell her urine. Would the black light still work?
Community AnswerIf there is little urine left, then yes. However, you would have to make the room pitch black to see it if you already tried cleaning it and some was left.
Video
Tips
References
- ↑ https://www.petscare.com/news/post/cat-pee-black-light-detection
- ↑ https://www.preventivevet.com/dogs/using-a-blacklight-to-discover-dog-pee-accidents
- ↑ https://www.planeturine.com/articles-blacklight-to-find-cat-urine/?srsltid=AfmBOoq6PyI_drlbIGvLuO3yA7sjquT7XNygYRGv4F8S00LMIe_-yDay
- ↑ https://sciencenotes.org/list-of-things-that-glow-under-black-light/
- ↑ https://www.petscare.com/news/post/cat-pee-black-light-detection
- ↑ https://www.humaneworld.org/en/resources/how-remove-pet-stains-and-odors
- ↑ Guy Peters. House Cleaning Professional. Expert Interview
- ↑ Susan Stocker. Professional Cleaner. Expert Interview
- ↑ Susan Stocker. Professional Cleaner. Expert Interview
- ↑ Susan Stocker. Professional Cleaner. Expert Interview
- ↑ Guy Peters. House Cleaning Professional. Expert Interview
- ↑ Guy Peters. House Cleaning Professional. Expert Interview
- ↑ Susan Stocker. Professional Cleaner. Expert Interview
- ↑ Kadi Dulude. House Cleaning Professional. Expert Interview
- ↑ https://www.petscare.com/news/post/cat-pee-black-light-detection
About This Article
If you need to find cat urine with a UV light, use a handheld LED light that’s rated between 365-385 nm. Wait until evening and turn off any lights in the room you want to check, as well as nearby rooms or hallways. Turn on the UV light and sweep it back and forth, checking the floors, walls, door frames, and furniture in the area. Look for a glowing yellow or green spot, puddle, or splatter that looks like it could be cat urine. Use masking tape or chalk to mark the outline of the stain so you can clean it after you turn the lights on. Keep reading to learn how to clean a cat urine stain if you find one!
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