Rodent infestations are often spotted because of the waste these animals leave behind. This presents a potentially harmful health hazard for humans and pets. While the risks are low, there is still a chance that leftover rodent droppings can hurt, which is why rodent waste cleanup is so crucial to making your house healthy even after you’ve eradicated rodents from your home.

Why Rodent Waste Is Harmful

When rodents decide to establish nests in your house, they usually do so near food and water. This way, they can sneak around at night, nibbling on food and taking it with them. The droppings they leave behind are a definite sign of a rodent infestation. Cleaning droppings up properly helps to avoid bacterial or viral diseases.

Their waste could include arenavirus, hantavirus, murine typhus, salmonellosis, histoplasmosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis or cyptococcosis. The same thing goes for bird and bat infestations, in which the waste residue needs to be removed and disinfected.

How to Clean Up Rodent Waste

Before beginning to clean up a space, open the doors and windows for at least a half an hour to ventilate the area. Spray urine and droppings with a disinfectant or bleach water mix and let it soak for five minutes.

You can create a bleach solution of one part bleach to nine parts water. If you use a commercial disinfectant, follow the instructions on the back for dilution time. Use a paper towel to pick up the waste and dispose of it in the garbage. Be sure to disinfect any other items that rodents may have contaminated.

Continue cleaning up by mopping floors and wiping down countertops with disinfectant. Steam clean or shampoo carpet and furniture infected by rodents. Wash bedding and clothing in hot water that has been exposed to rodent waste.

Rodent Infestation Clean Up

If your home was the site of a heavy rodent infestation, you’ll need to take special precautions. Hire an extermination agency, local authorities from the health and safety department or a specialist in rodent cleanup to get rid of the waste and prevent the spread of rodent-borne diseases.

Professionals have the right tools and equipment to properly remove the waste and sanitize your home. Rodent infestations do happen, but you don’t need to worry about diseases as long as you follow the proper procedures for cleaning up rodent waste.