The accumulation of feces from mice and rats can spread bacteria, contaminate food sources and trigger allergic reactions in humans. Once the fecal matter becomes dry, it can be hazardous to those who breathe it in.
For those who have wondered, “can you get sick from mouse droppings?” the answer may be more alarming than you'd think. Mouse and rat poop can be very dangerous, causing illnesses that could become deadly if not treated properly. Accidentally touching rodent poop remains the easiest way to get one of these diseases.
Although a rare occurrence, old mouse droppings may still contain traces of virus hantavirus. However, you should still exercise caution when cleaning or handling an infestation area. Mice can also carry other diseases with varying viability.
Summary: Rodent droppings pose several health risks, including infectious diseases such as Hantavirus and leptospirosis, as well as the potential for mold growth and attraction of other pests.
Diseases Spread by Mice and Rats
Avoid touching your nose, ears, or mouth, and always wash your hands (even with protection) once you're done. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is a respiratory disease caused by stirring up air contaminated by rodent feces. (Avoid sweeping up droppings!)
Rats and mice are dangerous from a public health standpoint because they can transmit disease through their waste. For that reason, properly removing rodent feces and urine is very important.
Mice droppings are typically small, about ¼-inch in length. You can tell if they are fresh droppings by the color. Newer droppings will be darker and shinier while older droppings will look chalky and dry. Rat droppings are similar in shape but larger, typically ½-inch to ¾-inch in length with blunt ends.
In addition, there are no reports of hantavirus infection in humans in Australia. Hantaviruses routinely establish persistent, non-cytolytic infections in rodent hosts and are maintained in the wild by rodent reservoirs.
Keep in mind that mouse droppings can begin to look faded and old around 48 to 72 hours after they're produced. The older they are, the more they'll dry out, fade, and become powdery.
The risk of acquiring hantavirus is extremely rare, even among people who are consistently exposed to mice and other rodents. The majority of exposures (70%) occur around the home. Hantavirus poses no significant health risk to WSU employees provided that simple precautions are followed.
In most recorded cases, symptoms develop 1 to 8 weeks after exposure. Early symptoms, such as fever, dry cough, body aches, headaches, diarrhea and abdominal pain, are similar to many other viral illnesses.
The chance of being exposed to hantavirus is greatest when people work, play, or live in closed spaces where rodents are actively living. However, recent research results show that many people who have become ill with HPS were infected with the disease after continued contact with rodents and/or their droppings.
Step 1: Put on rubber or plastic gloves. Step 2: Spray urine and droppings with bleach solution or an EPA-registered disinfectant until very wet. Let it soak for 5 minutes or according to instructions on the disinfectant label. Step 3: Use paper towels to wipe up the urine or droppings and cleaning product.
After rodent droppings, urine and nesting materials have been removed, disinfect other items or areas that might have been contaminated. After removal of droppings and debris, your Orkin Specialist may recommend mopping using a disinfectant compound or steam cleaning where there is evidence of rodent exposure.
Native Australian rodents (for example Hopping Mice) pose little or no threat to public health and should be left alone as they are protected species. However introduced rodents may infest residential and agricultural areas and carry disease.
Any man, woman, or child who is around mice or rats that carry harmful hantaviruses can get HPS. You do not have to already be sick to be at risk for HPS. Healthy people have become ill with HPS.
House mice do not carry hantavirus. Other wild mice, like deer mice, can vector hantavirus, but are most often found in rural areas, the desert, and mountains and rarely invade inhabited human homes.
There is no specific treatment, cure, or vaccine for hantavirus infection. However, we do know that if infected individuals are recognized early and receive medical care in an intensive care unit, they may do better.
However, the virus is shed continuously from them: into the droppings and urine they leave around the room, and into their saliva, which dries on anything they have chewed, such as nesting material. Out in the environment like this, the virus can live for several days.
If you notice a dark color along with some shine along the outside surface, the droppings are likely fresh. As they dry out, the droppings will take on more of a chalky or dried appearance. The color may lighten some with age, but dark brown is still what you're looking for to detect mice poop.
Mice need a place to nest and nearby food in order to survive and multiply. In a context where you abruptly remove the food, the environment would suddenly not be able to sustain such a large number of mice; therefore, mice would look for more favourable environments and many, if not all, would leave.
What are the symptoms of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome? Symptoms begin one to eight weeks after inhaling the virus and typically start with 3-5 days of illness including fever, sore muscles, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. As the disease gets worse, it causes shortness of breath due to fluid filled lungs.
NOTE: never vacuum or sweep droppings, nests or dead mice. This can create dust that can be inhaled. The dust may contain Hantavirus.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) IHC testing of formalin-fixed tissues with specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies can be used to detect hantavirus antigens and has proven to be a sensitive method for laboratory confirmation of hantaviral infections.