Histoplasmosis Is Not A Fun Guy

While histoplasmosis in not a fun guy, it is caused by a fungi. A very dangerous fungi called histoplasma capsulatum that can make anyone sick.

There are times in life where we all think, “that won’t happen to me.” But, as we all know, life has a way of humbling even the strongest among us. Take for instance Matt Light, a former NFL player for the New England Patriots.

It’s not that Matt wasn’t a humble guy to begin with. He’s actually very well known for his amazing charity organization, The Matt Light Foundation. His histoplasmosis story is truly an eye opener though.

Matt was working on tearing down a barn in Ohio this last year. Matt made a pretty rookie mistake and didn’t wear any safety equipment. The story on the news talks a lot about moldy hay being the culprit, but I have a hunch that some bats had made that barn their home for many, many years. My hunch says that Matt was exposed to the bat guano which carries histoplasma capsulatum. In either event, read the news article and watch their interview with him about his histoplasmosis story here.

Histoplasmosis: Safety is the Name of the Game

Using defense as your offense is the best “play” in our book. Histoplasmosis is a serious illness that should not be taken lightly.

Here are just some of the safety precautions that we take when coming in contact with bat guano:

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  Respirators – And we’re not talking about just a little dust mask. That simply won’t cut it. We use a full face respirator that can filter particles as small as 0.3 microns.

• Bagging – We wet the bat guano first with a special solution to keep the dust down as much as possible no matter which collection method we use. We try to always use an industrial vacuum cleaner with a high-efficiency (HEPA) filter to bag contaminated material whenever possible. If we have to shovel or sweep it, we double bag it in 55 gallon trash bags.
• Limiting Access – We only allow authorized cleanup personnel to be present and no smoking, eating, or drinking is allowed in the work area.
• Safety Equipment – We wear disposable protective gloves, eye protection, hats, coveralls and boots when appropriate.
• Health Screening – We make sure our cleanup crew is comprised of healthy individuals with no allergies to dust or birds.
• Prevention – Probably the most important thing we do is to prevent the bats from re-establishing the roost. There is no point in doing guano cleanup and treating for histoplasmosis if you don’t remedy the root cause first.

We Want You To Be A Fun Guy

Tackling a bat problem can seem daunting. Tackling a guano problem where the risk of histoplasmosis is very high is even more daunting.

We are happy to help you solve this problem without putting your own life, or that of your family, staff, or customers, at risk. We want you to stay healthy and be a “fun guy”.

Call our customer service department today if you need help with a bat problem, a guano cleanup, or a histoplasmosis problem. We’re here to help.

Your Local Bat Removal Specialist,

Michael Koski