Masks, goggles and gloves
“Be very careful when you’re cleaning out where mice have been. You can get very sick (Hantavirus) from the dust from their droppings. Be sure to wear a good mask, they are very annoying, but they work.”
“I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendations of being fully suited up, duct tape your socks to your pants as needed, wear good work boots, cover your head, use eye protection, and get the best mask you can. Sealing your body from the yuck is really not overkill. Plus in addition to breathing poop and fumes and vermin remnants and dust, you will stir up irritating insulation dust if you clean an attic or come into contact with unfinished or damaged walls. Just my 2 cents, but staying healthy during the process should be your #1 priority.”
To note for animal hoarding situations in particular:
“Use Air Filter Masks. Not the flimsy paper ones. They are hot, they are sweaty, and they make breathing a little more difficult. But they will keep you from getting sick. Please trust me on this one.”
“At Home Depot there are two different departments that carry the heavy duty respirators/masks with the replaceable filters. There are some in the general area that are for dust from cutting wood, etc. and they are made by AOS. There are also 3M respirators/masks in the paint department.
“The only time I was able to smell anything noxious with the 3M mask was when I would wrinkle my nose or move my jaw so that I lost a good seal against my face, and I would catch a small whiff around the edge. Other than that they completely prevented any bad smells from getting through.
“The home depot website does now offer a full face type mask, and that might be a better option since some of us needed goggle too.
“The 3M masks have 3 different product codes that determine size. The 6100 series are the smalls, 6200 series are the medium, and the 6300 series are the large. Not all Home Depots have all sizes so getting them in advance may be a good idea.
“The 3M masks are the heavy duty $30-$35 ones with replaceable filters. There are actually different types of filters and I recommend the ones that are called ’Organic fumes.’
We used the 4-sided filters with the 6001 filters.”
“I would go one step further and recommend the kind of heavy duty mask that has replaceable filters. That’s the kind I used—my brothers recommended it because it’s much more comfortable than the disposable kind and you’re less likely to want to take it off. It costs about $35, I think, but it’s a useful thing to own for any future tasks that involve fumes. (I wore one a couple years ago when I was pregnant and wanted to help paint our new house.) I think they are approved for use with stuff as bad as asbestos, so they are really effective.
“The one downside—since everyone on our cleanup team essentially had ONE mask to keep track of; we had to be very careful about where we put them down whenever we took a break.”
“Put on Your PPE (Personal Protective equipment)Respirator 3M 6200 14$
Filters 3M 2097 11$ Note these filters are only good for 40 Hrs in a bad hoard change more oftenSexy white sperm suit 8$
non latex gloves Box 7$“With the masks the 2097 is the best that you can get, for the hoard it is a P100 rating but there has not been extensive testing of any mask in a mold environment so change those filters often. There is a Carbon filter in it and that takes the foul smell out.
“Don’t get them from Home depot; it is probably too expensive get them from a safety supply store and fake having a company to get no retail rates.”
Comment re: above advice:
“The 3M 6200 mask is the medium size. If you are petite, you’ll need the 6100. If you have a large face, you’ll need the 6300. Guys really need to shave pretty closely to get a good seal.”