How To Clean Up After Mice Droppings

Proper Cleaning Of Rodent Feces (Droppings)

It's unfortunate if you come to find rat or mice droppings in your home. This is something that needs to be cleaned immediately and thoroughly sanitized. Rat or mice droppings can carry deadly diseases including hantavirus that we can catch simply by just breathing it in from their droppings, saliva, or urine. Prior to doing the sanitizing, you want to make sure that you eliminate any infestation and all chances of there being a recurrence down the road. Your next step will be to begin the cleaning process where you found the droppings. If you had a major infestation issue, it may be good to call professionals to help with the cleansing.

Cleaning Process For Rodent Droppings

The process that you use to clean up after rat or mice droppings needs to be very thorough and you need to be protected while you do the process.

** Removing the droppings

The area where you need to clean the rodent droppings needs to be properly ventilated by opening any windows and doors for at least half an hour prior to start cleaning and make sure to wear a face mask or ventilator while you are doing the cleaning, particularly if it's a large amount of droppings.
Avoid sweeping or vacuuming up the rodent droppings. Doing that will send the pathogens out into the air or trap them within the vacuum and on the broom. Rather, you want to use paper towels that have been soaked in a commercial disinfectant to clean up the droppings (10% chlorine bleach is also good) and pick the droppings up.
Take a mixture of chlorine bleach solution at 1.5 cups times 1 gallon of hot water and pour into a spray bottle. It's good to keep a face mask or ventilator in place when doing this to protect you from breathing in the solution.
You'll want to put on disposable rubber gloves and then spray this solution directly onto the rodent droppings until they are completely saturated and let them soak it up for at least five minutes.
Take paper towels and pick up the soaked droppings and put them in a plastic bag that can be sealed shut and put it in a trash bin with a tight lid that will be emptied quickly. One outside of the home is ideal.
Rats and mice will often nest within the insulation in the attic. You'll remove the droppings as in the previous steps described. Any insulation that is heavily soiled or has droppings imbedded in it needs to be removed and placed in plastic bags that can be sealed to be disposed.

** Cleaning once the droppings are gone

Using the 10% chlorine bleach wipe down all of the floors and surface counters using paper towels and a mop. You can use 3% hydrogen peroxide if you feel that bleach is going to be harmful for your floors.
After you've finished mopping and wiping down the surfaces, spray them with pure white vinegar and wipe them clean. You then want to soak the mop in the bleach or a commercial disinfectant and rinse it out in hot water. The paper towels, rubber gloves, and anything else that needs to be disposed of should be placed in a plastic bag and sealed up prior to disposing.
The next step is your furnishings and clothing. Any clothes that you wore to clean the rodent droppings need to be placed in the washer with laundry soap and washed in hot water along with the shoes that you wore. The furniture that may have had rodent droppings on it needs to be steam cleaned or shampooed.
Wash your hands thoroughly using hot water and disinfecting soap scrubbing under your nails and over your wrists. Don't use alcohol-based sanitizer as your solution to clean your hands. This is not effective enough to do the job.

** Making sure the rats are gone

You need to use industrial strength traps that are going to help to remove the rats out of your house. You don't want to use any types of poisons which will kill them inside your walls and other difficult spots where you can't find them to get them out. Keep the traps going until you no longer have any coming out.
Put on your disposable rubber or latex gloves when you find the dead rats or mice inside your home and spray the rodent with disinfectant or one part of bleach to ten parts hot water. Let the body soak in the solution x 5 minutes.
Pick up the dead rodent inside of a paper towel and seal it into a plastic bag and then put that bag inside another plastic bag and seal it and dispose of it in a tightly sealed trash can ideally outside to be emptied.
Follow the steps as you would have for the rodent droppings only be more thorough with your cleaning of the floor and surfaces after disposing of the dead rodent.

These steps are very precise and methodical to be followed distinctly in order that you don't have any remaining after effects from the mouse or rat droppings. Not following the proper techniques to rid your home of resultant devastation of a rodent infestation leaves you in harm's way for serious health issues. The areas where they were living were undoubtedly covered in urine, feces, and saliva. You could be susceptible to a wide range of nasty diseases or infections.

Preventing rodents from getting into your home is easier said than done a lot of times. These creatures can get into a hole the size of a dime. Taking measures to make sure all access points are sealed up inside and outside, keeping trash picked up and lids tightly on the bins, and making sure that there is nothing to entice them is a good way to keep them out and prevent you from having an unhealthy mess to have to contend with. Read more about Mice/Rat Extermination in Toronto & GTA.