This article tackles how to clean mouse droppings from a carpet in the right manner.
The processes involved in cleaning up mouse droppings isn’t as simple as sweeping the floor. Mouse droppings are dangerous and harmful to health when direct contact is made.
As such, one ought to be careful not to contract diseases such as hantavirus, typhus, Lyme disease, and salmonella.
Your carpet may appear neat from the outside; nevertheless, you’d find foul-smelling droppings on lifting the carpet. This is one of the reasons why experts recommend inspecting underneath rugs after suspecting mice infestation in our homes.
A mouse is doubtlessly adorable and yet a ferocious pest. While it struggles to survive, it leaves damages and makes the environment unhealthy with its stinky droppings.
There are confirmed cases that the smell of mouse droppings can cause nausea, trigger allergic reactions, and attract bacteria-carrying parasites into the house.
Medically Certified Ways to Clean Mouse Droppings from a Carpet
So let’s say you’ve not been able to get rid of mice in your house naturally; once you see droppings on your carpet as a result of mice infestation, then follow the following steps to clean it up.
Mouse droppings on a carpet
Discard the Mouse Nest
The first practice on how to clean mouse droppings from carpet is to discard the nest. It may be quite inconveniencing tracing a mouse nest, but without that, you’d be cleaning the droppings every day. Below is a working practice towards discovering a mouse nest before cleaning the droppings.
Try to follow the droppings under the carpet; it may lead to the mouse nest.
Concentrate on the corners of the wall.
Go to the darker portions of the house and listen carefully for squeaks.
Get to the kitchen and lift moveable furniture with your gloves on.
Declutter house items and move them out for inspection.
The nest of a mouse will be found either under the lockers or refrigerator after searching the spots above. One major characteristic of a mouse nest is that you’ll find even more droppings in the area. If you’re fortunate, you may find it trying to scamper for safety.
Allow Ventilation to Set In
Leave the windows and doors open for ventilation. Droppings from Mouse often make the room feel heated due to the chemical compounds in their feces. The windows should remain open for as long as the droppings are yet to be flushed. This is an ethic when beginning the cleaning of mouse droppings from the carpet.
Don’t forget to take off the windows and door blinds to quicken the ventilation process. Meanwhile, this activity may attract a couple of flying insects into the house. So, after the cleanup, you’ll use an insecticide to kill invading insects and cleanse germs in the home.
Uncover Your Carpet
Pull off the carpet or uncover the spot where the droppings lie. There is a possibility that the droppings are not only present in one place under the rug. Lift every edge of the carpet that relaxes on the wall.
Note: Endeavor to have your hand gloves on to avoid picking the droppings and nose mask to prevent inhaling the likely infected dust.
Depending on the nature of the carpet, you may consider folding it. Rugs may be harder to wrap, which means you’ll only have to bend the edges towards the center of the room. If possible, take the carpet out and allow the sun to heat the part that lies on the floor. Spray solutions like cider vinegar or bleach all over the carpet to kill germs and make the carpet room-worthy again.
Apply Disinfectants on the Spot
Disinfectants are an excellent way to get rid of the bacteria and viruses in the droppings before cleaning. It will also prevent the likely infected dust from getting into your body. It is not healthy to inhale the dust as viruses from mouse droppings may contaminate it. Here are a few solutions to consider disinfecting with.
Bleach
Bleach is best when concentrated as 1-part bleach to 10 parts water. Do not directly apply bleach on the spot to avoid burns and wastage. Apart from apply bleach on your carpet as a disinfectant, Do you know that bleach can be used to repel rats?
Vinegar
A perfectly natural source is apple cider vinegar, commonly known by the abbreviation ‘ACV.’ If you have white vinegar around, you can substitute for ACV. Be careful not to make direct skin contact to avoid skin burning/irritation from the acetic acid in vinegar. Make sure vinegar is undiluted for sustained effectiveness.
Commercial Disinfectants
For any commercial disinfectant you purchase, follow the recommendations when applying the solution. Some may require that you mix the solution with water before spraying or using it to wash the littered spot.
Thoroughly Mop the Spot
Put on your hand gloves and maybe a nose mask. A nose mask isn’t mandatory at this point since you’re wetting the surface.
If the acidic strength of the disinfectant used is strong, try to dilute or don’t allow it to contact your skin. It will cause skin irritation or skin burns instantly or after.
Use your foot to pressurize the mop or cleaning material to remove hard stains leftover by the droppings.
Repeat this process for all the corners of the wall and the edges the Mouse uses to run riot.
As you progress, apply a small quantity of detergent on stained spots that are tougher to clean.
Start from the beginning to give the spot a final mop and rinse to conclude the process.
The practice, considering how to clean mouse droppings from carpet, will be to remove the rug entirely. Allowing the carpet to remain indoors may limit the cleaning process and still expose the house to problems with mites like black pepper mites and even fleas.
Wash Other Areas of the House
The Mouse may have littered other parts of the house and not just under the carpet. Extend the cleaning to other areas of the house and equally make use of disinfectant while cleaning. Do you know you can obtain a gleaming white sparkle while performing this disinfection exercise? It’s simple; just get cotton pads, dampen the cotton pads with apple cider vinegar extract and rub any surface you wish. Apart from the whitening, germs leftover by the Mouse is equally being eliminated.
If you are using bleach, you can do the same by dampening the cotton pads and cleaning the surfaces with it. Try not to make skin contact and do not allow children or pets near the solution.
This is the final stage on how to clean mouse droppings from the carpet. As you can sense, it is the perfect method of clearing mouse droppings under the carpet without getting an infection.
Replace the Carpet and Other Items
Finally, clean the items outside, and when the floors and surfaces are dry, replace the items. Try not to clutter the arrangement and make sure you seal all cracks to stop future mouse attacks.
You may then use insecticide all over the house to kill invading insects. Even after the process, you still must be on the lookout for mouse activities for at least three days. Also, repeatedly survey the formerly littered spot for mouse droppings. If you can’t find any, it means the house is clean from possible contamination from rodents.
How to Remove a Dead Mouse under the Carpet
You may likely find a dead mouse under the carpet while removing the droppings. Do not handle the Mouse or wet it ordinary water.
Spray disinfectants on the body of the dead rodent to kill possible germs it could transmit.
Use a well-covered pack to cover the Mouse.
Pour alcohol on the spot where you picked the Mouse to soften the floor stain.
Dump it in the garbage and keep the trash a few walks away from your doorstep.
In this manner, you’ve removed the mice without contacting any infection that risks severe health problems.
How to Clean Mouse Droppings in other Parts of the House
Cleaning other parts of the house will be quite demanding. One person may not be able to finish, which is why you require assistance from other members of the house. Follow the steps below to quickly get rid of mouse droppings in different sections of the house correctly without contacting a disease.
Steps to clean mouse droppings
Put on nose guard and hand gloves.
Move pets and younger children to another room or a trusted neighbor’s apartment.
Take out moveable items to be desiccated.
Leave the windows and doors open.
Spray disinfectant in all the spots, whether you find mouse droppings or not.
Mix available disinfectant with water and detergent and wash all surfaces with it.
Allow the surfaces to dry and replace the items. Endeavor to clean the materials used in the cleaning activity, before taking them inside.
A few hours later, performing the final sweeping of the house.
The steps shown above are how to clean mouse droppings from a carpet in other rooms without getting infected. You may then employ hygienic measures to keep mice away from the house.
The Dangers of Mouse Droppings on a Carpet
Exposure to Hantavirus
Mouse droppings may contain hantavirus, which is harmful to human health. However, mice do not get sick from the virus, but it comes out of their bodies through their droppings. When humans breathe in the dust rising from the droppings of the mice, they are likely to contact hantavirus and become sick.
Contact with Typhus
Typhus is an infectious disease carried by lice which live on mice. When mice litter droppings around under the carpet, typhus is likely contained in the droppings, which become unhealthy for humans. Its symptoms include skin rash, headache, and fever, which show up only after a week or two.
The smell of mice droppings causes humans to nauseate. People with sensitive stomachs may likely throw up instantly or faint temporarily.
Rapid Diseases Spread
The viruses contained in mouse droppings can spread very fast, especially when there are pets and young children in the home. When they come in contact with the droppings, they can easily transmit to others who also infect people they come in contact with.
