We bought a house with a really nice barn that has one big problem… raccoons.
The barn hasn’t been used in a few years and they moved in. Last time I was in there I heard babies in the walls. If removing the raccoons was the only problem that would be great but they have done damage to insulation and soffits. But that can easily be fixed. The part that is the hardest to figure out is how to take care of the overwhelming amount feces that they left. Has anyone had a bunch of feces removed and a barn sanitized? A company I found that does raccoon removal uses a paint to encapsulate the surfaces after cleaning and I don’t want my barn painted. I don’t feel it is something we can do ourselves because of the height and the health hazard.
I feel your pain. I had (as in past tense) drop down ceilings in the tackroom. They got in between the drop down ceiling and the wooden ceiling and destroyed it. I can’t really fix it until I figure out a way to keep them from accessing the ceiling. And there seems to be a steady supply of new ones to move in. Maybe a really big dog that lives in the barn is a solution. And yes - they crap everywhere. Don’t have any ideas though. Wish I did.
When I moved to my farm 30+ years ago --same problem you had --newish barn, unused, had become home to raccoons in lofts and soffits. I bought a live trap and set it, caught one, then another, then 33 more. Finally there were no more to catch. The solution was simple --keep the doors shut. The previous owner had left the big doors on each end opened. When they were closed, the barn was safe from anything bigger than a mouse.
As to the poop --I swept the mows, sprayed with bleach, and since I couldn’t reach the poop in the soffits --I did the best I could spraying with bleach. Eventually everything turned to dust, I guess because nothing is there any more that I can see.
Since then I have been vigilant about closing my barn doors. I keep cameras on in my barn and at my feral cat feeding station. There are still raccoons --they eat the food that falls from the cat feeding station. But they also eat mice so l leave them alone. I am surrounded by farms --mostly duck barns, small dairy, small chicken operations and big farm gardens --I think it would be impossible to totally eliminate all raccoons --there is one possum too.
I always wore a mask and gloves and still do when cleaning my mows. Once I had a dose of “farmer’s lung” which the MD mistook for lung cancer --after that --I wear a mask!
Thanks, the barn is always closed up but unfortunately there is damage to the some high areas where they can still get in. I’m going to set up a radio with a talk station to hopefully encourage them to move on. I also found some stuff online called NBS30 which is also supposed to help them want to move out too. The cleanup is just too much for me to safely do myself.
Same thing here. They have stole most of the insulation over the tack room and what’s left is ruined.
Are there any companies in your area that do crime scene and disaster type clean up?
I am sure they are not cheap, but they will likely have all the right tools to remove the fecal mess caused by the racoons, once you remove the raccoons themselves.
It is a fungal infection from breathing in moldy hay and other things in a barn.
Farmer’s lung is a type of allergic lung disease that is caused by inhaling mold spores in the dust from moldy hay, straw, or grain 1234. It is a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is a noninfectious reaction to certain types of mold spores in the air14. Farmer’s lung affects people who work on farms or handle crops and grains123. It disrupts the normal function of the lungs, where oxygen enters and carbon dioxide exits the bloodstream4.
I work part-time for a company (office work!) that does asbestos and mould remediation as well as flood clean-up. They do feces remediation as well, though no crime scene clean-up. They’re usually fairly reasonable for the feces clean-up, unless it’s a horrible amount. My boss said the worst to deal with is a house contaminated by cat pee. He priced one last week were they were going to have to tear out the sub-flooring.
I wish I’d asked him now about the best masks to use for raccoon clean up.
Oh my gosh, I need asbestos and mold cleanup too! (in the house) I’ll have to find a remediation comp like yours near me
If you’re in Eastern Ontario, drop me a PM and I’ll send you an email address. Hopefully you can find someone to give you a good package deal. Good luck!
I was so mad at my stupid raccoons. They sit on top of the roof to the tackroom and that is usually how they access it. I wanted to throw firecrackers up there when I knew they were up there. But it would have burned the barn down. I just need some sort of taser thing that would make the place uncomfortable for them so they would move on. A radio will not have any affect, unfortunately. No way to rig up hotwire either.
They can still get in if the doors are closed. The rafters (I think that is the right word) are open all along one side of the barn for ventilation. It is too hot here to completely close up the barn. And only in winter can you close the barn doors- it is just too hot without a breeze down the hallway. They can shimmy up a wall like you cannot believe. So they can get in from the hallway or from outside walls.
I have baby raccoons in my indoor now. One tried to cross on a rafter and crash landed. He laid there for a bit and then got up and walked off. They are indestructible.