Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 26 to 50 of 52

Thread: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guitar

  1. #26
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    15,863

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Protection is a good thing and I recommend it also, but I don't want this to seem like a panic situation.
    Hantavirus is usually transmitted to humans by breathing rodent excrement that has become airborne, usually when someone is cleaning in an enclosed space and stirring up the mess so that it gets into the air (like the attic of a hunting cabin, storage shed or some such). I found this on Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth (it is credited, at least):

    The duration which hantaviruses remain infectious in the environment varies based on factors such as the rodent's diet, temperature, humidity, and whether indoors or outdoors. The viruses have been demonstrated to remain active for two to three days at normal room temperature, while ultraviolet rays in direct sunlight kills them within a few hours. However, rodent droppings or urine of indeterminate age should always be treated as infectious.[26][27][28]
    That leaves me to believe that the virus, even if it was present in the guitar, is probably gone from there now and I stand by my earlier assumption that a good cleaning and sunlight exposure will probably do the trick.

  2. The following members say thank you to sunburst for this post:


  3. #27

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Agree with John & others, doubtful the germs are dangerous 30-40 years later, as unappetizing as that may seem. A couple thoughts -- homes are remediated all the time after flood/mold damage -- no big deal. Also, if germs were a big deal, homeless people would die from living in trash dumpsters, filth, etc. -- not to be mean, but it seems they are able to thrive in situations where logic would say otherwise.

    I would say if you can contain the odor, with a sealant or otherwise, I wouldn't worry about the possible germs as they are probably benign at this point.

    Chip Gaines on HGTV's Fixer Upper likes to eat dead cockroaches, etc. found on home improvement sites (for comic relief!) and he appears to be as healthy as a horse!

    I remember reading something about certain germs couldn't survive more than 48 hours on a toilet seat..................

    Interesting discussion. I am going to wash my hands now........

  4. The following members say thank you to Jeff Mando for this post:


  5. #28
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    15,863

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    As for odor, there seems to be nothing better at sealing a smelly surface and eliminating odor than plain ol' shellac.
    I don't want to get into whether or not sealing the inside of an instrument is a good thing or not. In this case, if the smell can't otherwise be eliminated, it would have to be a good thing IMO.

  6. #29
    Certified! Bernie Daniel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
    Posts
    8,347
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    As already mentioned the Hantavirus risk is a respiratory risk associated the feces (and dust from/with them) produced by common outdoor wild mice -- mainly one of the many species of the Peromyscus genus. These are typically called "Field-", "Deer-" or "New World-" mice.

    I am not aware of Hantavirus risks associate with the common "house mouse" or Mus musculus which is an "Old World" mouse having been transported here via ships from Europe hundreds of years ago.

    However that information is kind of irrelevant because Peromyscus often enter and live in homes so you cannot certain the species that deposited the mess in the instrument.

    I think the risk is small but just to be cautious remove the bulk of the solid material put on a good dust mask and rubber gloves and clean it out outside with a small brush with a wire handle that you can bend to get to the sides/corners. Once you have all the solids out then you could take to disinfecting it.

    I don't know what others might think of this but I would consider setting a small pan of laundry bleach inside the guitar (is it a round hole or f-hole?) and then seal the hole to trap the chlorine gas inside and let it do its work for a few days?

    That would disinfect and kill the odor too hopefully?
    Bernie
    ____
    Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.

  7. The following members say thank you to Bernie Daniel for this post:


  8. #30
    Registered User David Houchens's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    North Garden,Va
    Posts
    1,610

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    John, I do have a UV cabinet I built to cure oil finishes. It's UV B. I always thought it took UV c to kill germs but it's nice to know B will work.
    Thanks again to all you folks. I definitely feel better about it now.

  9. #31
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Manchester - Lancashire - NW England
    Posts
    14,187

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    From pops1 - " Vinegar smell will dissipate quickly." ???. - I mentioned that i used old pickle jars for storage - Flour / Rice / Pasta etc. The vinegar smell lasts for months,even in a glass jar. A teaspoon full of baking soda in the jar,top it up with water & leave it for an hour = no smell.

    The great advantage of baking soda is :- 1) It works very well. 2) It's easily obtainable, cheap & 100% safe,
    Ivan
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
    Lebeda F-5 "Special".
    Stelling Bellflower BANJO
    Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
    Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.

  10. #32
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Kalamazoo, MI.
    Posts
    7,487

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Kelsall View Post
    From pops1 - " Vinegar smell will dissipate quickly." ???. - I mentioned that i used old pickle jars for storage - Flour / Rice / Pasta etc. The vinegar smell lasts for months,even in a glass jar. A teaspoon full of baking soda in the jar,top it up with water & leave it for an hour = no smell.

    The great advantage of baking soda is :- 1) It works very well. 2) It's easily obtainable, cheap & 100% safe,
    Ivan
    I’ve had pickle aroma last a very long time in buckets, soda didn’t help in those but in Jars, yes it works very well, but, the area that seems to be the culprit in a jar is the gasket in the lid so, very small area.
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  11. #33
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    S.W. Wisconsin
    Posts
    7,507

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Pickle juice is more than simply vinegar. I have sprayed straight vinegar on my floor to keep mold away and in a short time the smell is gone. It may be that I just got used to it, but then I would smell it coming back after being gone for a period of time. I don't. Baking soda is a great odor remover as is charcoal, and newspaper. Had a new freezer get unplugged by a guest and all the food spoil. The freezer was awful smelling. I put charcoal and newspaper in if for a week, replaced it and went another week and the smell was totally gone. Sealing the guitar in a trash bag with charcoal and newspapers balled up may also help the odor.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  12. #34
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    VA
    Posts
    277

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Quote Originally Posted by CarlM View Post
    The ozone generators did not do anything more than fresh air ventilation. The ozone generators are all sales hype and marketing nonsense.
    CarlM, I'm curious about your experience. Do you think the generators were not putting out enough ozone, or does ozone not react the way we have been told?

    I've used an ozone generator to de-stink two cases and one mandolin, and assorted other things, with what I consider to be success. I am prepared to acknowledge that I am fooling myself, but prior to ozone I tried open air and sunlight, which helped, but I could still smell the funk.

    I did have to treat with ozone multiple times, and what finally worked with the mandolin was a perforated tube into the sound hole, because I don't think there was enough air exchange inside the instrument before that. I also tend to make a loose tent around the material, to try and concentrate the ozone some.

  13. #35

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Why don’t you call an exterminator or a mold specialist. I’m sure that they have come across the stain and smell problem in the past and they could have the ansewer.

  14. #36

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    CarlM, I'm curious about your experience. Do you think the generators were not putting out enough ozone, or does ozone not react the way we have been told?
    It does not react the way it has been sold. We were working with outgassing in plastic tanks when they were manufactured. The outgasses were a mixture of a number of things and rather noxious. They also would produce skin rashes in people who got sensitized to them. I was not directly involved in doing the studies. The people who ran them took air samples within the tanks at set times with the ozone generators, with compressed air flow and no airflow. These were sealed, sent to a lab and analyzed. There was no significant difference between the samples with ozone flowed through and the compressed air blowing through them at any time point. Prior to that people had perceived differences and were convinced the ozone made a difference. If it did it was not measurable.

  15. #37
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    VA
    Posts
    277

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Quote Originally Posted by CarlM View Post
    Prior to that people had perceived differences and were convinced the ozone made a difference. If it did it was not measurable.
    Thanks.

    I'm certainly open to the idea that I am imaging the difference, but it seems like a real effect to me. However, I was comparing leaving a case out in the sun to a loosely bagged case with an ozone generator; certainly not an apples/apples test. I also did not compare the ozone generator with a tube to get airflow within the body to the same system without the ozone. I compared it to just leaving the mandolin out of the case - so also not a good test.

  16. #38
    formerly Philphool Phil Goodson's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Statesville, NC
    Posts
    3,256

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Not sure that smelly wood and outgassing plastic are comparable.
    Phil

    “Sharps/Flats” “Accidentals”

  17. The following members say thank you to Phil Goodson for this post:


  18. #39
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Norfolk, VA
    Posts
    800

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Looking forward to seeing this guitar when you are done. Many a similar instrument situation will get tossed in the dumpster. I would love to own an old arched top F hole Gibson so best of luck on the project.

  19. #40
    Registered User Tom C's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Warwick, NY
    Posts
    3,985

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Why not a mild bleach water solution? It is only a guitar

  20. #41
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Manchester - Lancashire - NW England
    Posts
    14,187

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Spraying anything 'smelly',vinegar for instance,onto a hard surface will result in the 'whatever' slowly evaporating over time & leaving only a faint trace (maybe ?). However,spraying the same substance onto a porous wood surface,will result in the wood soaking it up & it won't evaporate in the same way. Also - as it's a guitar assembly,glued together,i wouldn't go near it with any liquid of whatever type at all - ''just in case''. I wouldn't want to take the chance of the 'whatever' leaching through the wood & damaging the top in a way that might damage the re-finishing,
    Ivan
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
    Lebeda F-5 "Special".
    Stelling Bellflower BANJO
    Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
    Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.

  21. #42

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    David, I've got no real help to offer, but some ideas.
    Using deionized?/distilled water to clean in small areas followed with a damp kitchen sponge that left on the area would act as a wick to pull what it could up from the wood.
    When you put it back you should use basswood kerffing. That will hide a lot of the mouse smell.
    Oh! What is up with the upper bouts? The rib wood?

  22. The following members say thank you to Eric Oliver for this post:


  23. #43
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Asheville, NC
    Posts
    2,758

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    DAVID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    No pun intendend, but ....brother, you gotta learn to say no to that $h!t; throw that whole mess in the bonfire and run from it!

  24. The following members say thank you to j. condino for this post:


  25. #44

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    That seems to be true of a lot of repairs -- about two weeks into it I ask myself why did I take on this job?

    I guess it pays better than watching tv, but that's not saying much!

  26. #45
    Registered User David Houchens's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    North Garden,Va
    Posts
    1,610

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Eric, the neck block exploded into 4 pieces when 2 young brothers tried the wrestling moves they had seen on TV and one of them landed on it. Then it was left that way for over 20 years and the sides warped outward. The dovetail tenon on the neck is now a straight tenon. Not worth fixing but it has sentimental value to the brothers. It was their fathers guitar.
    James, I took this on as a challenge and wish I hadn't. I'd only feel right saying no now if I glue the back, back on. Might as well fix it beforehand I reckon.
    I've had it in my UV-B cabinet on and off for several days after scraping the "bulk" out. Hopefully it will be safe now. I pretty much have a blank check on this one so......

  27. #46
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Asheville, NC
    Posts
    2,758

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    You should see some of the crazy things I've pulled out of 100+ year old upright basses....

  28. The following members say thank you to j. condino for this post:


  29. #47

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Op, respectfully,

    Other than the challenge of the job, which i get,

    I cant possibly believe that once "re-done", refinished, re-kerffed, re-bound, etc, that this guitar would be worth half of the fmv equivalent undamaged model.

  30. #48
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    15,863

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Steve, perhaps you missed where David said:

    ...Not worth fixing but it has sentimental value to the brothers. It was their fathers guitar...
    It is not that unusual for people to spend more on repairs than an instrument is intrinsically worth for reasons of sentimental value.

  31. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to sunburst For This Useful Post:


  32. #49
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Kalamazoo, MI.
    Posts
    7,487

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    There is a formula I uses to use when I really didn’t want to do a job:

    Actual cost x four + the time it took to come up with the initial plan for the repair.
    Roughly translated it comes to ten times what you think plus an extra 10% to attempt to discourage the client from getting the project done.
    Sometimes it works, sometimes it still does not.
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  33. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Timbofood For This Useful Post:


  34. #50

    Default Re: Cleaning Mouse feces and urine out of an old garage kept guit

    Not sure that smelly wood and outgassing plastic are comparable.
    So just what exactly does the ozone do chemically to remove the smell?

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •