"The dirt" on Raccoon Feces

Although not a pleasant topic, there is a lot to learn about the dangers of raccoon feces that could be pertinent to your health and safety as a home owner.

When living in an urban development such as the Greater Toronto Area, the presence of raccoons on your property is difficult to avoid. At least 95% of raccoons carry a parasite called Bylisacaris procyonis, otherwise known as Raccoon Roundworm. These parasites produce eggs inside of the raccoons intestines, which end up in their feces. Although not harmful to raccoons, these roundworm eggs can be very harmful to humans. Most would not intentionally ingest these excrements, but once they dry and turn to a powder-like substance, the eggs can become airborne and ingested through your nose or mouth unintentionally. These eggs can even lay dormant in the environment for up to a couple years. But once ingested, they hatch into larvae and begin to infect their host and travel throughout their body causing very serious side effects such as nausea, liver enlargement, blindness, loss of muscle control, and even induce comas.

Luckily, raccoons are very tidy animals in the sense that they usually chose one spot to defecate, and will continually return to this same site. This location is referred to as a latrine. If you’re one of the unlucky individuals who has a latrine site on their property, it is important to deal with this situation immediately for the safety of yourself and your family. At Hawkeye we have trained professionals that can provide permanent removal of nuisance animals as well as completely sanitize, disinfect, and deodorize your latrine site. Our services will eliminate your chances of ingesting these eggs and deter the raccoons from returning the this same location.

Additionally, we remove dead raccoons - again, please don't do this yourself. Deceased animals also need to be handled with care.

Please visit the contact us section of our website so we can help you with your nuisance wildlife as soon as possible. Also, if you'd like to learn more about our cleaning process for large jobs, please see our section on “Steam Cleaning".