Did you know that mice communicate with each other using scent and pheromones? The latter - pheromones - are detected and figured out using an organ that can be found at the very base of the nose of the animal, called Jacobson’s organ. The pheromones themselves are sent out by the animal in a wide variety of ways, including from glands, in “tears” (fluid from the tear ducts), and also in urine.

If you can smell the urine of mice, and in some heavy infestations you can, you are primarily smelling the urine from male mice. They use urine as a way of marking territory, much like the males of other animal species, and it is stronger-smelling and more potent than urine produced by a female. Male urine is actually very effective at keeping other males out. Once a secondary male smells the urine/detects pheromones from a territorially-guarding male, it usually backs away and is respectful of those boundaries.

Female urine can be more dangerous in terms of that infestation, though. In fact, while they are pregnant or nursing (lactating), they give off an odor from their entire body, as well as the urine they produce, that can increase the rate at which other females reproduce. The smell scent or pheromones can also cause presently-immature female mice to go into a state of breeding-ready.



You might wonder why we’re telling you this. It’s because the urine of these rodents needs to be cleaned up thoroughly and effectively if you want to get rid of a mouse problem for good. If you miss a spot, you have pheromones still present in that area, that will eventually lure or invite in another mouse. The pheromones or scent could also cause the new mouse squatters to go into a frenzied, faster state of reproduction, too. That’s something you definitely don’t want when you’re trying to get rid of them.

In order to thoroughly and effectively clean up the urine of mice, you need to make sure that you have thoroughly and effectively cleaned up every area the mice could have visited. Males and females both defecate as they run around, and this means that they will transfer bacteria and other disease-causing spores on their paws as they run around. The animal will urinate, run along and step in its own urination, and then transfer any present bacteria to surfaces, the floor, on walls, on your bedding, on the couch, and perhaps even across plates, glasses, cups, and other items. When you pick up or touch those items, the disease-causing organisms are then transferred. Pheromones are also found in all of the places that the organism/urination transfer has taken place, basically leading other rodents right into your home. It's like a treasure map — follow the pheromones until you find the food or nest that is hiding at the end of it.