Suburban Raccoons

One of our readers asked a question, “is breathing in air with raccoon feces bad?”

The answer is definitely yes! the picture on the left shows the proper way to enter an attic where raccoons have spent some time in a home and defecated in your attic.

Raccoon feces left in a hot dry attic dry out and crumble over time into fine particles that remain on top of the insulation until something disturbs them, such as air currents set up by someone walking through the attic, even if it is just to evaluate the damage. These fine particles are picked up by the air currents and of course, if you are in the attic and breathing in an unprotected manner, you will ingest these particles into your lungs. These particles contain roundworm infections called Baylisascaris. The eggs of this roundworm are very resilient and cannot be destroyed by conventional means.

Is Breathing in Air with Raccoon Feces bad

What Infections Can Be Picked Up?

Eggs ingested by humans will cause nausea, organ malfunction, blindness, loss of muscle control and even death in extreme cases. These are serious problems and easily avoided, so be very careful if you decide to enter an attic where raccoons have spent some time.

Animals such as bats and squirrels carry infectious diseases that can be picked up by humans. If you suspect that any of these animals are living in your walls or attic, take precautions before entering these spaces.

What Precautions Should be Taken

Take respiratory and physical protection measures before entering these spaces. Proper disposal afterward is also important as well to avoid contaminating other areas of the home or living areas. Remove insulation, bag it, and then properly disposed of. There are professional companies that specialize in the removal of this kind of hazardous material. Some people will attempt to replace their own insulation, however, you are literally risking your life if you do not take the appropriate precautions for removal and disposal.

Disposal of the insulation and feces or raccoon scat as some people refer to it, is also important. You cannot just put this stuff out in the garbage. Take everything to an incinerator to incinerate everything including the feces and the eggs of the roundworm.

Decontamination Services

There are companies that offer these types of services including replacing your insulation with new insulation up to the proper R-Value.

These companies provide the following services. The homeowner decides what steps to deal with this issue:

• Full inspection of all contaminated areas
• Evaluation of the R-value of the insulation in the areas where animals such as raccoons have been
• Recommend the amount of insulation needed to meet building codes
• Vacuum contaminated areas removing insulation and feces
• Installation of new insulation to specified levels.
• Permanent blocking of all potential entrances to the contaminated area.

They will use all of the required protective gear and proper disposal methods for dealing with your contaminated insulation.

The writers at this website strongly recommend that you not do this work yourself. Instead hire professionals with the protective gear, the proper removal methods, containment vehicles. They will also know the proper disposal methodology of the contaminated material. While it is going to cost more money than you probably planned, the alternative health issues are not very exciting. Spend the money and have it done right.

If you have a problem with raccoons invading your attic. There are also recommended methods to remove them as well and keep them out. Check out other posts on this website on the best methods to remove raccoons. Get them out of your attic as quickly as possible to avoid damage to your home.

Be careful and avoid you and your family becoming sick from raccoons!

 

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.