Coon Droppings

[Barnyard]

One of my hay lofts still has about a foot of hay/straw laying on the floor. This has been there since we bought the place eight years ago. The floor needs replacement in sevearl areas so I have not bothered with it. I am now getting around to cleaning this out so the floor can be replaced. The hay/straw is full of coon droppings. Can this be spread on the garden or should I dispose of it another way?

[Jim Becker]

I don't know, but this site gives you something to think about.
http://www.raccoonfacts.net/raccoon_droppings/raccoon_droppings.html

[beaconlight]

We had raccoons in the attic. It was a crawl space over the 2nd floor. I dropped moth flakes in after removing the cover of the roof vent fan. They left and I covered the vents on the side the entered and left through with hardware cloth. They never returned.
I would imagine you could compost and use the hay and droppings in the garden but I would wear a good breathing mask while doing so.

[Dale Shaw]

I would burn the hay and droppings in the fire pit, before spreading the ashes on the garden, after reading what Jim linked to.

[ricky racer]

I think that you should probably wear a mask when you handle the stuff so you aren't breathing in all the dust while pitch forking it onto a wagon, what ever you do with it.

[Barnyard]

Thanks guys. I did a little more digging and found these tidbits:

Don't use raccoon feces as a garden fertilizer
Use a shovel or rigid scoop to gently lift feces and any other contaminated material and place it into a heavy-duty plastic bag.
Close the plastic bag tightly and discard it in your garbage can.

I already had the gloves and mask part of it ready to use. Now I'll just bag it and send it to the landfill.

[krose]

After reading that article, I would not use it either.

[Stanton]

Good rule of thumb would be to use droppings/manure from only domesticated livestock (i.e. horse, cow, chicken) and never wild animals. Of course, with any manure, you should probably compost it or let it sit awhile to "tone down" before casting on your garden.

Hope your guests are not repeat squatters. With your dogs, I doubt they'd come around for long.

[Barnyard]

I am happy to report that the loft has been cleaned and all waste has been deposited in our local landfill. The pile consisted of the coon droppings, parts of shingles and wood from the roof that had collapsed several years ago, and bit of hay that had been there well before we bought the place. In all I filled about 25 large trash bags. Now it's time replace a large area the floor in the loft as well as the floor of the two tack rooms immediately below the loft. Those areas rotted away over the years because of the missig roof section. Just another project in my log journey to bring BOB back to life