Swept up rodent droppings and panicking about hantavirus
Dry sweeping rodent droppings can aerosolize infectious particles, leading to intense panic about contracting rare diseases like hantavirus when flu-like symptoms follow. This fear can completely consume someone's thoughts with worry about dying.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Setting traps out
- 2flushing the contaminated material down the toilet
- 3searching online for information about mouse droppings and associated diseases
- 4considering or seeking advice to see a doctor
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I swept up cotton rat droppings. And I'm freaking out”source ↗
“I've been probably a week or two and I have diarrhea vomiting and I'm just really scared I could have contracted hantavirus.”source ↗
“all I'm thinking about is dying rn from some rare disease.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Finding a used bandaid or mystery fibers in shared laundry
- 2When is it safe to unbag electronics after pest treatment?
- 2How to sanitize a house for Giardia without bleach
- 3Why do roommates put unwashed dishes on the drying rack?
- 3Freaking out seeing worms in puppy stool after deworming
- 3How to move out of an infested home without bringing bugs with you