"anita" wrote in message
...
Hello,
We just bought a house recently its aboiut 25 years old and needless to
say
has a lot of work TBD.

We've discovered mice/rat droppings in the house and I am terrified that
they are living in the ducts. I am working on an comprehensive pest
elimination program (the pest control companies I spoke to just tried to
seel me a plan to come back and poison bait the rodents). but all I've
read
indicates that we have to be really pro-active in this.

That would be quite interesting...mice in a sealed system....IF its still
sealed..


My question is this: once I have eliminated the current infestation and
reasonably fortified ourselves against further ones, can I just wipe out
the ducts with a 10% bleach moistened rag ?


You could, altho, it wont do much.


Our ducts are metal but I dont know if it has fibreglass inside it- is
there anyway to tell ?

Yup....look.
Seriously...you look inside them.

I talked to some duct cleaning companies and they just said they would
vaccum it out, but the literature on hanta virus says that to NOT vaccum
the droppings of which I imagine there is truckloads in the ducts!


Duct cleaning, in most cases, is a total scam.
If the ducts are that bad, for whatever reason the correct method is to
replace them.

Any ideas on what I should do about the potential of mice living/droppings
in the ducts ?

Call a qualified HVAC company out to evaluate your situation.

Is there some tool/device that I can buy/rent out to look into these
heating ducts?

The Inspector runs about $2500 for the good model. I do not know of anyplace
renting these as the company does not want them in the hands of non trained
persons outside of the HVR trade.

Normally, if your system is complete, and not in need of repair, there is no
way for mice, or any other critter to get into the duct system, or your
heating/cooling unit. IF they are, there are other issues to worry about.
The ONLY ones I have seen that have critters in them, are ones that either a
panel door was off of, or one that had flex duct touching the ground. and
the animals had torn through it.

Duct cleaning is a scam most of the time. Lots of people want it, thinking
its a good thing, and the companies make it look so wonderful and such..but
its rare, and I mean RARE that you need it. If the system is in good working
order and been taken care of properly, the supply ductss should be clean,
there should be no mice or rats or snakes or coons running in the
duct...being that yours are metal, and probably not insulated on the inside
you would hear them running around and it would be amplified.

I would call a qualified HVAC company out..have them evaluate your
situation, go ahead and have your system serviced completely, meaning a
complete coil flush and check things like the condition of the duct, unit,
etc and if you are still worried about viri and such, get a quote for a new
duct system, AND a set of UV-C band lamps installed in the ductwork to kill
anything that might be in the airstream.





Thanks
Anita