You can use any disinfectant that is used for bathroom cleaning. Bleach is an excellent disinfectant.

Garyt

Scattering some moth balls may help keep them from returning, or not. They keep squirrels away when I plant bulbs.

Baking soda can also help neutralize smells if you scatter it under the plants, then lightly rake it around on the dirt or mulch. Shouldn't hurt any plants.

If smell is really strong and offensive, you might have an exterminator come check for rats. They love places with cover, easy food, even in the best neighborhoods.

I had never thought of rats, The smell is very strong and all I could think of were rabbits because we have lots of them. We see rabbits hopping all around our neighborhood at night. What are signs that it could be rats?

By chance, do you have any Boxwood in this area? Boxwood have a terrible urine-like odor.

A year or so ago I was sure a neighbor cat had been urinating outside my living room window, making it unbearable to have the windows open when the weather was nice. I tried everything I could think of, mothballs, cayenne pepper, motion detected sprinkler, nothing worked. I finally figured it out, it is the Boxwood!

If you don't have Boxwood, I recommend the motion detecting sprinkler- mine is called Water Scarecrow. I now use it in my vegetable garden to keep the hungry woodchucks away.

Bludane is right! The smell was/is from the Boxwood that are planted across the front of the house! Thank You!

Well that has to be a relief to know WHAT caused the problem!! Sure nicer to find it is a plant rather than pests of the rodent variety.

How interesting that boxwoods smell so badly. You see them everywhere down south, and I never noticed a stinky smell. Is it only a certain time of the year, a male or female plant, or do they all do this? Certain varieties, like you named, are worse?

It is good to learn something new every day! Thanks. I always thought of having boxwoods for edging. Guess that won't happen now!

Hi, I just wandered over from the wintersowing forum, I didn't even know there was one for the G. L. area!!
Our nieghbor used to have some bushes like that, they were evergreen ones. We called them "cat pee trees"
yuck!
-B

Also - several species of Juniper smell of cat urine.

We moved into a new house and it was a big problem. While I believe that most of the wonderful smell was coming up from under the house, there still might be some of the odor entrenched in the carpeting - which is soon on the way out. What we did was to hire someone to scrap out a couple of inches of the dirt. Then he sprayed an odor eater that we got from Home Depot and lastly, we painted all the beams with Kilz, which is a paint intended to cover up stains. That got rid of 99% of this sickening stench. I think that the remaining smell is in the carpet so, in the meantime that we put in wood floors (and by the way, having carpeting in one's house is not a good idea, period), we are using odor eaters, sprays...and keeping the window open. All in all, it went from being completely unbearable to tolerable, albeit not yet where we want to be from a scent standpoint...not yet.
www.cellularabroad.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Cellular Abroad

Just reading some of the suggestions: mothballs, baking soda, bleach.... my gosh, people, is there anything you won't do to sanitize environment?

There are creatures living in and on the soil, not to mention plants. If you have an unpleasant smell, find the source and remove it. Please stop throwing chemicals at anything you find offensive.