Raccoon Feces – Humane Wildlife Removal

How to Properly Clean Your Attic After a Raccoon Infestation

After removing the raccoon that has been a nuisance from your attic, you now have new problems to deal with. Asides from repairing damaged insulation, wires, pipe, and wood structures, you have to decontaminate the space. The extensiveness of the decontamination procedure depends on how long the raccoon has been residing in the attic and the number of them that were present.

Raccoons generally defecate in a single spot called a latrine. However, if they’ve been in there for a very long time, it’s not uncommon to find raccoon feces and urine scattered around the attic.
First things first… You have to first seal up all potential entry points before decontamination to ensure that other wild animals won’t come back in.

Protect Yourself

Raccoon feces and urine are considered a health hazard. Their feces carry up to 42 diseases including roundworm, campylobacter infection, and leptospirosis – all of which can have a serious health impact on both pets and humans if physically handled or ingested. That’s why you need to wear disposable gloves, rubber boots, a coverall, and a face mask to avoid ingesting airborne eggs.

Disinfection Process

To start with, spray the feces and urine with a disinfecting solution and wait for about 5 to 20 minutes to let it soak. Thereafter, pick up the piles of feces and put them in a plastic bag. Heavily soiled insulation will have to be removed and replaced – and for this, you may require a professional. Thereafter, remove every sign of nesting materials. Similarly, any other form of food or waste that was brought in by the raccoon has to be removed.
Dealing with the urine isn’t as straightforward because it soaks into the insulation or drywall or even wood in the attic. Similarly, not all feces will be accessible by hand. That’s why you have to fog the attic with a sanitizing antimicrobial spray to kill off every fungi and bacteria present.

Waste Disposal

Now, it’s time to get rid of the feces. You can either burn it or send it to the landfill. Do not forget to dispose of the gloves. Thereafter, wash your clothes with hot water and detergent. Also, scrub your rubber boots with hot soapy water.

Conclusion

Raccoon feces and urine are considered to be a biohazard. That’s why you need to properly disinfect the contaminated space. Sometimes, the mess they leave might be too much, probably because a raccoon family has been living there for too long. In such instances, you might require a professional removal service to handle the decontamination process.