Hereās how to find cat urine with a UV light: An ultraviolet blacklight emits electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength as high as 400 nm (nanometer). Such lights are kind of invisible to human eyes, however, birds can easily see them. The one used for the detection of pet urine stains is a long-wave UVA light that comes at a wavelength of about 315 – 400 nm. This isn’t too dangerous though we still advise you to use protective glasses to safeguard your vision in the longer run. It’s easier to detect dog urine stains. But, on the other hand, cat urine is hard to identify. If your cat has been drinking a lot of water and the urine is diluted, the stains are easy to find. But, if it’s on a carpet or curtains etc. then those stains do not show up. Therefore, choosing the right cat urine detector is of the utmost importance. For these kinds of dry stains, an ultraviolet black light flashlight pretty much does its job. But, how does it work? The presence of phosphorus in urine comes in contact with oxygen to glow under the direct exposure of the UV flashlight. So, detection gets constraint-free. And, here I answer the most commonly asked question – how to find cat urine with a UV light? You just have to keep in mind a few steps and that’s it.
Table of Contents
Finding cat urine stains with UV light
1. Buy The Best Blacklight Urine Detector
To know which cat urine detector does its job and is as per your requirements, check out our Best Pet Urine Detector Reviews. You can also borrow one but I’ll suggest purchasing the detector if you have a pet/s at home. It’s an investment worth every penny. So, once you have the most suitable cat urine detector is when your task gets easier. It is better to look for a handheld pet urine black light with at least 12 LED bulbs. This will sufficiently help lighten up the susceptible areas. Also, keep in mind the wavelength of the detector which can be anything between 365 to 395 nanometers. In terms of battery life, a blacklight urine detector utilizes more power than usual flashlights. So, you must not expect anything extraordinary. However, you may check out the best pet urine detector reviews to understand what’s being offered and how will it be helpful. Several products also come with batteries included and those can be a great steal considering your budget and availability.
These factors are really important to obtain a desirable result. You can purchase the best UV light for urine detection either from a home improvement store near you or simply from Amazon.
2. Now That You Have The Light, Let’s Get Going!
The most important part of starting the process is by carrying out the necessary preparatory steps. Now that you’ve purchased the blacklight, wait till it is pitch dark or at least adequately dark in the room you want to start with. UV lights are designed to work in the darkness making the urine stains glow yellowish green. So, when you think you are ready to start detecting the stains, turn off all the lights in the room and also in the adjacent rooms. Make sure it’s completely dark or else your eyes won’t be able to see the stains glowing.
3. Start Locating The Stains
Once you have the best UV light for urine detection and all the ambient lights are put off, start looking around. Begin with the areas you know can have stains or your cat can reach to urinate. Those are easy to find and you will not have to look around too much. This way you can narrow down the investigation and quickly mark those areas. Cat urine stains are not too easy to find hence keep a marker, chalk, or sticky notes to indicate those spots. So when you switch on the lights, you can easily clean the area.
Once you are done with the areas you are sure of, move on to the next spot or room. Broaden the spectrum and start moving outwards. Now is the time to investigate the areas you assume not to be dirtied. There often are areas in your home where believe your cat might not reach or urinate there. The stains might have been dry by now. Therefore, you are likely to skip those areas while cleaning. So, to get your investigation more efficient, work on the unsusceptible areas too.
4. Identifying The Stains – Is It Really A Stain?
The process of cat urine detection can be easy as well as difficult. Easy, because once you find stains glowing under the UV light, you know that’s what you need to clean. Difficult, because there are a hundred things that can glow brightly after coming in contact with a UV light.
Ultraviolet lights can be used for the detection of several substances besides cat pee. It can glow up a lot of things you aren’t even aware could be present in your home. So, for instance, even the best UV light for urine detection can light up scorpions present around which might otherwise go unnoticed by the naked human eyes. Blood marks, saliva, semen, chlorophyll, certain types of teeth whiteners and face paints, antifreeze fluids, and authentic currency, as well as official documents such as a passport, can fluoresce when placed directly under ultraviolet black light.
Basically, a black light strongly emits UV rays and is instantly re-emitted. The radiation that gets absorbed is pretty much lost during the detection process. However, the re-emitted light appears to glow since it has a much longer wavelength. To your surprise, substances like wallpaper glue, rock salt, tonic water, honey, olive oil as well as ketchup are too said to radiate. So, don’t freak out when you see hundreds of things glowing upon the administration.
Anyway, to effectively lookout for only cat pee stains depends upon how clean your house already is. Also, how quickly you can recognize the stains speeds up the process. The pee stains can somewhat look like usual urinated spots that you can also otherwise see during the day i.e. on fresh stains. Dried-up or invisible urine stains can look like small spots, drips, a puddle, or splatters. These marks can be on the curtains, edges of the bed, other furniture, or such areas. However, if the urine was on the floor, it’ll just appear to be a round-shaped small, or big spot. It is the shape, location as well as smell (if any) that will uncomplicate your task.
5. Further Investigation
It is very important for you to carefully examine all the areas in the house to assure you don’t skip any space. While you go on from one area to another, don’t just hover the light here and there like a regular flashlight. Think about it in this manner – UV blacklight will show up ‘n’ a number of stains in the surroundings. So, try and get a bit closer to the floor, doors, walls, or furniture. Swiftly move the pet urine blacklight back and forth leaving not even a single spot unnoticed or untouched. Also, if you get a stronger UV blacklight, it will easily glow up the stains. However, smaller ones need you to get much closer to them. And, for your information, dry stains glow more powerfully than wet urine.
If you are planning on regularly using the cat urine detector, make sure you are well-equipped too. By this I mean – ensure you have your safety glasses on while investigating. UV rays can harm your vision, particularly when used for a longer time. Do not look into it, no direct exposure for long on your skin, and also don’t flash it into your pet’s eyes. It isn’t recommended. For the same reason, certain manufacturers include UV filtering glasses with their blacklights but some don’t. And, too can be another important aspect for you to consider while purchasing the best UV light for urine detection from Amazon or offline.
6. Marking The Stains
As Iāve mentioned above, marking the stains is as important as investigating them. It will get hard to remember the spots, later on, so make sure you are marking them while carrying out the detection process. Make use of sticky notes, colored cello tapes, bits of paper, or simply chalk to line out the edges of the urine stains. The moment you identify a dry urine stain, mark it up and move on to the next one.
So, when you switch off the black light urine detector and switch on the room lights, you’ll know where to clean.
7. Found The Stains? What Next?
Yes, the first step of it all is to identify the stains. You can clean the ones that are visible or smell bad. But, you never know if the ones that are overlooked are actually causing all the problems! And when the pet doesn’t signal of the stains or odor, a black light urine detector will take responsibility. Preferably a 365-385 nm wavelength UV light must be your choice. However, you can always check out the Best Pet Urine Detector Reviews on my site to make an informed choice.
So, now that you know where all the dried-up stains are, the next step must be cleaning them ASAP. You’ll be soaking up and clearing the wet and fresh urine however, getting rid of the almost invisible stains is the difficult part. Regular cleaners will only remove the stain but won’t completely strip off smell and other urine components that might make your cat pee at the same spot again and again. All the pheromones, as well as urea, aren’t water-soluble so you will have to work smartly on such stains.
There are certain professional quality enzyme cleaners that are to be applied before using any other detergents or solvents. These do not allow the stains to set and also scour the dry stains which won’t otherwise get off with rubbing, wiping, or brushing. Let me know in the comment section below if you want a detailed article on how to get rid of such urine stains. I can better suggest a range of enzymatic cleaners that are safe to use and make your life easy.
Tips To Consider while finding cat urine with a UV light
Here are a few tips to consider while buying the best UV light for urine detection and also for better identifying the urine stains in your home. Detecting stains isn’t a technology available only to scientists. You can get such equipment anywhere – on amazon or any offline store. However, online purchases are always more than welcome since they never disappoint, make timely deliveries, provide warranties/ guarantees and the items reach you in the comfort of your home. And, comfort matters when it’s to having pets at home since it’s not an easy task to plan your daily routine while having a dog or a cat at home. If yours is a brat like mine, these tips will come in handy to improve your urine search and provide better results for the detection of any unwanted yet unnoticeable urine stains:
- LED ultraviolet bulb blacklights outperform regular fluorescent lights. Stronger the ultraviolet intensity, the better the job.
- How to find cat urine with a UV light? Make sure you get a device with around 365 to 385 nm wavelength. It helps find cat pee stains. Anything above this gets less efficient for cat stains.
- Lights with 9-12 LEDs are somewhat cheaper, you just need to pay a lot of attention while working with these. Any number that’s above this makes the blacklight stronger and more productive.
- Try not to get the cheaper lights since they are more or less dysfunctional and perform inadequately without any optimal UV emission.
- Don’t just dim the lights, make sure you are in complete darkness. Urine stains will glow better that way,
- Point not from a long but a shorter distance.
- Do not panic if there are a lot of other substances glowing under the black light urine detector.
- Look for yellow-green spots, vertically dripping lines, or splatters.
- Donāt try to remember all of them – just mark the spots since they’ll disappear once you switch on the lights. Remembering goes well if it’s just about a spot or two.
You can also consider this to be like a summary or a gist of what instructions you need to follow when you get your very own best UV light for urine detection. For more details about a particular cat urine detector, check out the best pet urine detector reviews here. Comment below if you have any questions. Iāll be glad to hear from you!