Find Cat Urine With a UV Light

Although the source of cat urine is often hard to find, you can pinpoint it fairly easily using a simple UV light. As funny as it sounds, cat urine glows under UV, or "black" light, which is a type of light that we can't visibly see (like infrared radiation, or microwave radiation). Turns out, tanning beds aren't the only thing artificial UV light is good for!

Steps

  1. Buy a decent-sized UV or "fluorescent black" light. Look for a long bulb (preferably longer than 12 inches) so you can cover more ground at once. Cheap bulbs with the housing included can be found at most hardware stores. Although pet stores sell the lights as well, they're usually smaller and more expensive. They can also be purchased at a reasonable cost online, depending on how much time you have to wait around living with the odor.
  2. Search at night or in complete darkness. Cat urine can be difficult to see, especially when old, so maximize your search efforts by taking advantage of darkness. Either wait for night, or make the room as dark as possible.
  3. Use a sweeping motion and gradually move farther away from the generally smelly location. The cat urine that you're looking for should show up as a yellow/greenish color. You may be surprised to find a stain farther away than you thought. Don't just check the floor; cats are inventive! Try the following areas:
    • Bookshelves
    • Furniture
    • Cloth decorations
    • Inside vents
    • Objects that appear to have "holes," such as inside portable heaters
    • Clothing that your cat may be able to access
    • Other small areas your cat could squeeze into
    • Anywhere else you can think of - if you can see it, it could be your source.
  4. Take a look at these examples to know what you're looking for:


    This is what your stained carpet might look like under normal lighting.


    Fresher urine stains will show up like this under the blacklight.


    Older urine stains will be fainter under the blacklight.
  5. Clean the stains as you check. If you can, clean the spots when you find them. If you prefer, you can mark the spots using tape, item placement, etc., and clean once you've found them all.

Tips

  • Stain cleaning products may also show up under UV light. Don't panic if you see lots of spots! The cleaning agents will look more purple than yellow, and will usually much brighter.
  • Make sure you have an extension cord handy if you're using a corded bulb. Chances are, you're going to need it.
  • While tubular black lights will work, you'll make much more progress by choosing an LED black light. You can purchase them for as little as a few dollars online. There's no sense in paying a lot for one. Any of the LED black lights should work fine.
  • Note that the UV element of the images above can be hard to see online if your computer is in bright sunlight.

Warnings

  • Finding the urine is only one step; don't be surprised if removing the odor proves more difficult. See the suggestions in the related wikiHow articles below. Note that enzymatic cleaners are ideal for removing cat urine odor.

Things You'll Need

  • UV/black light (sometimes called pet urine detection light)
  • Darkness
  • UV protection glasses
  • Extension cord
  • Enzymatic cleaner

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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