TriStateWildlife

  Humane Animal Removal, Exclusion & Remediation

Have an Animal in the House?!
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Attic Decontamination & Restoration Services | On Call 24/7!

When animals have been found living inside your home, decontamination is an essential part of the animal removal process! Even though every animal may have been trapped and relocated, you're still left with all of the contamination that they've left behind, including urine, feces, blood, carcasses, and parasites. These are all breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria, viruses, and even life threatening disease, according to the USDA and the Center for Disease Control.

Unless these contaminants are properly removed, they can remain in your home forever. Many of the infectious diseases can lay dormant for years, continuing to pose detrimental health risks to anyone who may come into contact with them. Even simply breathing in the contaminated air that may find its way into the living space of your home can lead to serious health problems.

In addition to the numerous health risks, the odors that will permeate the house, will also serve as an attractant to the rest of the local wildlife population. The same horrendous odors that can quickly become unbearable for humans, may as well be a neon sign, that your attic makes a suitable home for nuisance wildlife. Because of this, a thorough cleanup process is necessary to not only protect the health of your home and residence, but also to prevent further infestations.

Noises in the attic? You may have animals living with you! Call (866) 977-4607

Westchester Raccoon Trapping & Removal - Google+ Updates

       

Westchester Raccoon Trapping & Removal - Port Chester, NY

Our Westchester Team took some amazing photos this week during a raccoon removal project in Port Chester, NY. Most homeowners don't realize they have a raccoon problem until the noises in the attic grow past a certain threshold. In nearly 80% of raccoon removal cases, a pregnant female has moved into an attic to give birth and raise her young in a safe and protected environment. After the babies are born, the sound grown to the point where homeowners finally take notice. Unfortunately, there's a lot of time in between for damage to occur... Continue Reading on Google+

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Contamination Based Health Hazards

There are countless health risks associated with the contaminates left behind during an animal infestation. Many of these come with serious consequences when contact, however minor, is made. This is why any and all areas infected with hazardous material be quarantined, until it can be treated and removed by a trained professional with proper protection and equipment.

Aside from contamination based illnesses (Listed Below), Fire Hazards are the biggest risks associated with animal infestations. Many of the nuisance wildlife that take up residence in your attic will chew on everything, including insulation, support beams, and electrical wiring. These electrical issues account for 26,000 fires, and nearly $1 Billion in property losses each year in the United States. About half of all commercial fires involve frayed or faulty wiring, and animals that chew are one of the biggest culprits.

Serious Health Risks Include:

Histoplasmosis
Histoplasmosis is an infectious disease caused by inhaling the spores of a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum, which is commonly present in Bat droppings. When dry bat dropping are disturbed (sweeping them up), the fungus spores can become airborne and breathed in. Histoplasmosis can appear as a mild, flu-like respiratory illness and has a combination of symptoms, including malaise (a general ill feeling), fever, chest pain, dry or nonproductive cough, headache, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, joint and muscle pains, chills, and hoarseness.

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome
Squirrels excrete the virus in their urine, saliva, and droppings. A person may be exposed to hantavirus by breathing in contaminated dust after disturbing or cleaning rodent droppings or nests, or by living or working in rodent-infested settings. Fever, muscle aches, shortness of breath and sever cough can develop, quickly progressing to the point of hospitalization.

Leptospirosis
Humans are infected through contact with water, food, or soil containing urine from these infected animals (i.e. squirrels, rats, mice). The disease can also be transmitted through direct contact with urine, blood or tissue from an infected animal. The bacteria can enter through broken skin or through the soft tissues on the inside of the mouth, nose or eyes. Symptoms include fever, headaches, weakness and vomiting.

Murine Typhus
An Acute infectious disease that is transmitted to humans by rat fleas and feces. The symptoms include fever, headache, and rash, body aches & pains, chills.

Salmonella
Bacteria which cause disease in humans and animals and is Transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces. Salmonellosis can lead to severe cases of gastroenteritis, enteric fever septicemia (blood poisoning) and death.

Dead Animal Carcasses
When an animal dies inside your home, rat/mouse poison is often to blame. Dead animals cause terrible odors and their corpses become breeding grounds for flies and other disease vectors. Dead animal removal is usually a matter of following our nose to the wall, ceiling, soffit, or other, often inaccessible areas of your home, to cut them out.

 

• Again, these health risks are very serious and should be treated as such. Only trained professionals, with proper safety equipment, should ever attempt to remove hazardous animal contamination. Be sure to keep children and pets away these contaminants, until they can be carefully removed.

 

Attic Decontamination & Restoration Process

Our goal is to restore your home to the way it was before any animals ever moved in. The smells, allergens and all hazardous contamination that accompany an infestation will be extricated.

• Before the cleanup process can begin, it's important to quarantine the contaminated area. This will help stop the spread of hazardous material into the rest of your home.

• All of the insulation contaminated with feces, urine and other debris is bagged and removed from your home. This is done using Hazmat grade safety equipment covering our technicians full body.

• We remove all of the droppings left behind by the animals with use of HEPA filter vacuums to elemenate the possibility of air contamination and maintain a healthy environment.

• A licensed technician will disinfect the entire space with an antimicrobial enzyme to rid your home of diseases; bacteria, allergens, as well as kill the fleas and other parasites. This is completed to the standards directed by the Center for Disease Control.

• Lastly, we re-insulate with material exceeding building code requirements. During this step of the process, there is no need for you to leave your home. We are careful and thorough, taking note of recessed lighting, wiring and other areas of concern.

Attic Decontamination Case Studies

Bedford, NY Attic Decontamination (Squirrels)

A Homeowner in Bedford, NY called, concerned about loud noises in the attic during the day. Based on their description, it was safe to assume they had Grey Squirrels... and a lot of them. Our initial inspection confirmed just that. There attic showed an amazing level of damage and contamination. All of the insulation had been shredded over time. Support beams had been chewed on, as had all the boxes being stored in the attic space. There wasn't any obvious wire damage, but there was fecal and urine everywhere. The smell was overwhelming.

Extensive Squirrel Damage in a Bedford, NY Attic   Chewed Beams, Insulation and Garbage Debris  Squirrels Died in the Insulation After Eating Rat Poison  All Contaminated Attic Insulation Removed and Decontaminated  Bays Filled With Brand New R30 Insulation

After a week long trapping program, we had caught and relocated eight, large grey squirrels. We sealed around the entire roof line during the trapping process, ensuring no new squirrels to get back into the attic. Once the house was animal-proofed, we began decontaminating the attic. We removed 37 industrial sized bags of debris in total. We also removed 3 dead squirrel carcasses, that showed obvious signs of poisoning. After cleansing the whole space with anti-microbial enzymes, we replaced all the insulation with top of the line, R-30, Faced insulation.

It took a lot of hard work to restore this attic, but the results speak for themselves!

Hazardous Contamination Gallery

Blown Insulation Contaminated by Squirrel Colony   All Insulation Being Removed by a Specialist   Two Dozen Bags of Insulation Cleaned Out   Cleaned and Decontaminated Attic Bays   Entire Attic Space ReInsulated With Fresh R-38

Contaminated Insulation & Electrical Wiring   Squirrel Damage - Westchester - Torn Insulation    Raccoon's Toilet Found in Attic Crawl Space   Typical Squirrel Contamination - Urine, Feces, Grease and Hair   Bat Dropping in an Attic Vent - Falling onto the Porch

Dead Squirrel - Poisoned in an Attic   What a Squirrel Hole Looks Like From The Inside   Flying Squirrel Skeleton in Attic Insulation   Extensive Bat Contamination - Risk of Histoplasmosis   Chewed Wiring and Extensive Contamination!

Hazardous Feces Covering Entire Attic Space   Nyack, NY Attic Decontamination & Restoration    Dead Rat Decomposing in an Office Ceiling    Contamination Often Piles Up Very Quickly!    More Chewed Electrical Wiring - Very Dangerous!

Extensive Squirrel Damage to Attic Space    Chewed Boxes of Irreplaceable Family Storage   Birds Nesting Damage In a Rockland, NY Attic    Birds Killed in an Attic by Nesting Raccoons    Decomposed Mouse in an Old Exterminators Trap

Damage Caused by a Small Bat Colony in an Attic   Extensive Attic Damage Caused by Raccoons   Chewed and Contaminated Electrical Wiring   Dangerous Feces Contaminated by Roundworm   Decomposed Squirrel - Terrible Smell in the Attic!