Everybody poops—even pests.

Even if your first instinct isn’t to get an up-close-and-personal look at pest poop, it can be pretty telling for what sort of pest issue you’re dealing with. Best of all? Relaying some basic poop identification to our service department before your pest control technician comes out can even help your exterminator brainstorm solutions for your home before they even come out for your service call.

So, here are some tips for identifying the poop of some of Long Island’s most common household pests, so you can tell what sort of pests you’re dealing with…based on what they’ve left behind.

Mouse Poop

As a Long Island homeowner, it’s likely you’ve encountered mouse droppings at some point or another. Mouse droppings usually measure around ¼ inch long, and a single mouse may leave behind as many as 50-75 droppings a day. They typically have a granular shape and a dark black color.

Seeing mouse droppings is usually one of the first indicators of a mouse issue within a Long Island home. If you suspect you’re dealing with mice, you’re going to want to check the following areas for droppings:

Kitchen cabinets
Pantry
Laundry and utility rooms, as well as areas around large appliances like your refrigerator or water heater
Bathroom storage areas like cabinets and/or closets
Attics
Crawl spaces
Air vents
Exposed pipes
Holes in walls

Despite the underlying “ick” feeling that finding mouse droppings in your Long Island home can evoke, there are also some risks at play. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is one such risk. It is a rare infectious disease caused by inhaling hantaviruses found in rodent urine, droppings, or saliva. This syndrome can lead to life-threatening lung and heart problems and is most carried by the deer mouse. Because of this illness alone, it’s always of utmost importance to deal with a mouse infestation quickly and thoroughly.

Rat Poop

Rat droppings, though similar to mouse droppings, are similar, though larger. Looking at Long Island’s most common rat culprit, the Norway Rat, their droppings are usually rectangular with blunt ends. They’re around ¾” long, dark brown in color, and a single rat will produce 40-50 droppings a day.

Norway rats are poor climbers, so you will likely find their droppings on the ground level of your home. They typically nest inside basements, on first floors, under piles of debris, and in crawl spaces, so those areas are very important to check for droppings.

Like mouse droppings, rat droppings come with an array of health risks for both humans and pets, including, but not limited to leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, tularemia, and roundworm.

Squirrel Poop

If you find droppings in your attic that happen to be dark brown or black in color, around ⅜ inches long and ⅛ inches in diameter, oblong in shape, and with rounded tips, it’s possible you’re dealing with a squirrel infestation.

Squirrel poop looks very similar to rat droppings, though it will usually have a greater diameter. Like the other pests mentioned, squirrel poop also comes with its own share of risks, including salmonella and leptospirosis.

Roach Poop

Even though the previous pest poops we’ve covered have all belonged to furry critters, cockroach droppings can often be mistaken for poop of larger pests such as mice. Droppings from smaller cockroaches are around the size of ground coffee, whereas larger roaches have larger droppings that are dark, cylindrical in shape, and with blunt ends. The easiest way to differentiate between mouse droppings and roach droppings is that the mouse droppings have pointed ends, whereas cockroach poop has blunt ends.

When it comes to finding cockroach droppings in your home, they’re really going to be in the most common nesting and feeding areas, which often includes the areas underneath or inside your kitchen or bathroom cabinets, in attics, and around large appliances, to name a few.

It’s no secret that cockroaches will eat almost anything, including garbage and sewage, so as you can imagine, their droppings can carry a lot of disgusting pathogens you don’t want in your home which can cause allergies and trigger asthma attacks, among other health risks.

Don’t Get Pooped by Pests—Call Suburban Exterminating

We get it—no one wants to deal with pests (or their poop). If you’re finding droppings in your home, it’s time to call in the professionals at Suburban Exterminating to identify and control the issue. For a free inspection, call or text (631/516) 864-6900.