Pest Control: Health Risks Associated with Birds and Bats

Protect your church and ministry members from health risks associated with bird and bat droppings

If you need to clean up a mess left by a few bats or birds, please take precautions to protect your health. The Illinois Department of Public Health has issued these guidelines:

• Seal heating and cooling air ducts during the cleanup or shut the system down. Only authorized cleanup personnel should be present.
• Allow only healthy people to perform the cleanup.
• Wear a respirator that can filter particles as small as 0.3 microns.
• Wear disposable protective gloves, coveralls, and shoe coverings.
• Moisten the droppings with a light mist of water to keep spores from becoming airborne and keep them wet.
• Put droppings into sealed plastic garbage bags. The outside of the garbage bags should be rinsed off before they are placed in a disposal container.
• When finished and while still wearing the respirator, remove protective clothing and place it in a plastic bag.
• Wash or shower.
• Check with local government agencies to verify that disposal of the waste is permissible through standard trash pickup.
• Modify the structure to prevent birds or bats from reestablishing the roost.