It is the most natural instinct in the world: you open an attic hatch or a garage cabinet, find droppings, and reach for a broom or a shop vac. It is also the one thing public health guidance is unanimous about never doing. Dry sweeping and vacuuming send fine particulate airborne, and in the Southwest that particulate can carry hantavirus. The exposure happens in the first thirty seconds, before anyone has decided the job is a big deal.
The correct approach is the wet method. The contaminated area is saturated with disinfectant and allowed to sit, so nothing can go airborne when it is disturbed. Removal is by hand, in full PPE with respiratory protection, into sealed bags. Nesting material and contaminated insulation come out with the droppings, because the nest is where the concentration actually is.
Then comes the part that most cleanups skip: urine. Droppings are the visible problem, but in an attic or crawlspace it is urine saturation in insulation and framing that produces the persistent ammonia smell in the rooms below. Removing droppings without treating urine contamination leaves the odor and much of the biological load in place, which is why the smell so often returns a week after a cleanout.
Once the area is disinfected and deodorized, the last useful step is documentation of entry points. We are a remediation company, not a pest control company, so we do not seal or trap. But we photograph and record where the animals were getting in, and that record lets your exterminator do their part properly instead of guessing.