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There are three quite serious diseases you will need to take into consideration before you start hunting out and moving around squirrel feces. Tularemia is caused by a bacteria that seems to be carried mostly by smaller animals — rodents, such as mice and rats, as well as rabbits, and also hares. The disease can be passed on to humans, not just via the fees the urine, as we just mentioned, but also by direct contact with an infected animal, bites from infected deer fly and ticks, and also drinking water that has become contaminated with the bacteria. It is a disease that can be treated with antibiotics, but in some cases it can prove fatal.



Leptospirosis is another disease you’ll need to concern yourself with, when handling squirrel feces and urine. Another bacterial disease, it can affect both animals (wild and domesticated) and humans. The earliest of symptoms with this bacterial infection are often similar to what comes with bother, less dangerous and more common conditions, making it easily missed by medical professionals. If the disease is not diagnosed correctly, it can't be treated, and then you enter into dangerous territory. This is a disease that will affect organs, such as the kidney and liver, causing total failure in some cases. It can also cause problems with the respiratory system, cause meningitis, and the most severe of cases, can even result in death.

Although wild animals, such as squirrels, can carry the bacteria that causes leptospirosis, other animals can too. Cattle, pigs, horses, and other farmyard animals have all been known to carry and transmit the infection, and rats and mice, as well as domesticated or stray dogs.

The final disease you will need to think about when dealing with squirrel feces, is typhus. Rats, as well as other animals (including squirrels) can carry fleas, and if these fleas are infected with a bacteria called Rickettsia typhi, flea-borne typhus, or endemic typhus, can spread, usually via the feces left behind by infected fleas.

What Does Squirrel Feces Look Like?

If you spot small raisins, or something that looks similar to a jelly bean, lying around, there’s a good chance you will have found yourself some squirrel poop. They’re about 5 to 8 mm in length, and they’ll be liberally scattered around. These creatures, just like others, such as rats and mice, drop their waste matter as they run around, so you will likely find squirrel droppings along the routes the animal takes. You can use the trail of feces to carefully diagnose the invading animal (if you didn't already know it was a squirrel), and also to find out where it is spending the majority of its time. If there is no poop, there's a good chance the squirrel is running around there quite so much.

Cleaning After Squirrels - The Feces Problem

Cleaning up after wild animal interlopers is never a pleasant experience, with a number of diseases to worry about. Squirrels are no exception to this rule, with a string of disease associated with the urine and feces of the animal. Tularemia, salmonellosis, and even leptospirosis — they all sound like made-up names, but they're real conditions that could affect not just you, but your household and farm animals too.



Squirrels defecate where they live, and if they've been living in your attic, your attic is also going to be where they defecate. This causes a number of problems, especially when it is left where it is. Mold can start to grow, caused by the moisture, and this can have a number of debilitating effects all by itself. As well as health concerns, mold and moisture in a building can cause structural problems, an unsightly mess, and even problems with electrical cables too.

Mold isn't the only thing you need to worry about, of course; the smell of animal waste will get worse the longer it is left, and the more there is of it, the more it will smell again. In turn, it might even attract other wild animals, and there is definitely more than a chance that you will get flies and maggots, especially if you have squirrel carcasses alongside squirrel waste.

Getting Rid of Squirrel Waste
The first thing that you'll need to do is physically remove the poop. This isn't a pleasant job and you'll want to protect yourself adequately. Eye and breathing protection is essential — goggles and breathing masks at the ready — but you will also want to wear a full suit if you can, and don't forget about the gloves. The good news? Unlike the poop of other animals, squirrel feces doesn't tend to just fall apart and crumble when you touch it, making it slightly easier to clean up.

The bad news? You won't want to touch it, even with gloved hands. Everything that you use to touch the stuff will need to be either disposed of (such as in a fire or thrown away), or cleaned thoroughly, until you can be one hundred percent sure that no disease threats remain. You might want to buy a dustpan and brush just for this very occasion, and one that you don't mind getting rid of after you're done. If squirrels have used your attic as a washroom, you will need to tear up and dispose of any attic insulation it has come into contact with, and then replace it.

There are two real methods of cleaning away the invisible bacteria that hangs around when the fecal matter itself has gone — good, old-fashion scrubbing with bleach and strong disinfectants, or using a fogging-based machine with an enzyme cleaner to ensure that quite literally every nook and cranny has been attended to. The latter is better, although the bleach and elbow-grease option is usually the easiest one. It is very important to remember NEVER to mix your cleaning materials. This can cause reactions that will be harmful to health.

For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How much does squirrel removal cost? - get the lowdown on prices.
How to get rid of squirrels - my main squirrel removal info guide.
Example squirrel trapping photographs - get do-it-yourself ideas.
Squirrel job blog - learn from great examples of squirrel jobs I've done.
squirrels in the attic