Raccoon Feces Removal Hamilton

Whether you live in a rural area with trees and shrubs around or in a built-up urban area, it is likely that raccoons are part of your local wildlife population. Raccoons are very common in Canada, and they quickly adapt to always changing environment. They tend to live in community and establish community latrines — places where they repeatedly go to poop and pee. These sites are highly dangerous because of the disease-causing organisms they carry.

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How raccoon feces look like

One characteristic feature of raccoon feces is that they tend to cluster at one place, as raccoon love communal living and usually go to one site to poop. Raccoon feces are usually dark in colour, but the coloration is dependent on what the animal consumed last.raccoon poop


Typically, raccoon feces measure about two to three inches in length and has the same diameter as a nickel or dime. Fresh feces are usually tubular in shape and have blunt ends, just like dog feces. However, pieces of seeds, berries, and nutshells can be seen in raccoon feces, and it is one of the easiest ways to tell a raccoon feces from a dog feces. But old feces look more like debris, so it’s difficult to tell them apart.

The dangers of raccoon poop

Raccoon droppings contain so many pathogens that can cause dangerous diseases, so it is not good to get in close proximity with the feces, especially if you are not wearing protective masks. The poops often contain bacterial organisms, giardia lamblia, and most importantly, the raccoon roundworm.

Bacterial diseases

Coming in contact with raccoon feces puts you at a danger of contracting certain pathogenic bacteria, such as E.coli and salmonella species if you mistakenly swallow particles of the feces. These organisms often cause serious diarrheal illnesses that may be accompanied by fever and vomiting.


This condition is caused by the protozoa Giardia lamblia. You can also contract it by handling raccoon poops that contain infective giardia cysts. Giardiasis often comes with diarrhea and vomiting.

Baylisascaris procyonis

Raccoon roundworm is the most dangerous of all the organisms in raccoon feces. The worm lives in the intestine of raccoons, where it sheds thousands of eggs each day. When the eggs are passed out in raccoon poops, they form cysts which are highly infectious. Worst of all, these cysts are resistant to harsh weather and common chemicals, so they can survive in the soil for several years.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that the cysts can cause serious diseases when inhaled or mistakenly ingested. The disease is called neural larva migraine when it is affecting the brain, ocular migraine when it causes blindness, and visceral migraine when it is causing liver enlargement.

Raccoon poop removal process

It is recommended you avoid raccoon poops since the risks of getting infected are high. The best thing is to hire a professional wildlife technician. If you insist on removing the raccoon feces by yourself, endeavour to take the following precautions when handling the feces:

  • Always wear protective clothing
  • Wear a face mask: an N95-rated respirator is good; get one from a nearby hardware store
  • Put on disposable gloves
  • Wear rubber boots that you can scrub when you finish, or use disposable booties to cover your shoes

Feces removal

The raccoon feces may be indoors or outdoors, so the way you remove the raccoon feces depends on where the feces are located.eces

For indoor latrine, do the following:

  1. Keep a bucket of hot, soapy water and a sponge
  2. Spray some water on the latrine area to prevent dust from carrying the infective eggs to other places
  3. Use a shovel or any other hard scoop to lift the feces into a plastic bag
  4. Now, use the sponge to scrub the area and rinse with the hot soapy water
  5. Put the sponge in the feces bag and bury, burn, or double-bag it and send to a landfill

For outdoor latrine, this is how to remove them:

  1. Spray some water on the latrine to avoid stirring up dust or debris
  2. Use a shovel or rigid disposable scoop to gently scoop the feces and other contaminated materials into a plastic bag
  3. Close the bag tightly and burn, bury, or simply double bag it and send to a landfill

Area disinfection

The roundworm eggs are resistant to common disinfectants. So you need to decontaminate the area with heat. For outdoor area, use a propane torch or boiling water to treat the surfaces. Avoid using propane torch indoors. Instead, use boiling water for surfaces that can withstand heat.

A surface that cannot withstand heat should be repeatedly scrubbed with warm soapy water or 10% bleach to dislodge any leftover particles. Then, rinse repeatedly with warm soapy water. When you finish, disinfect the shovel, your boot, buckets, and other materials used with boiling water. After that, wash your hand very well with soap and warm running water.

Reasons why you need professional help

raccoon poop cleaning hamilton

The right thing to do when you spot a raccoon latrine in your home is to call a trained wildlife expert to check your home for raccoon presence and remove anyone found. The professional will also fix any gaps raccoon made in your property and make your home raccoon-proof to forestall future raccoon invasion.

The wildlife expert knows the best way to safely remove the raccoon latrine without disseminating the particles all over the place. It is only professionals that can completely decontaminate an area that has been contaminated with raccoon feces since they have the right resources for doing that.
