bear repellent discharged in motel room

Anyone have experience with cleaning bear repellent from carpet and upholstery?

No, I don't fear Kodiak bears where I live.

If I remember, from what I have gleaned about pepper spray, it is in a oil type solution.

Fred H wrote:Anyone have experience with cleaning bear repellent from carpet and upholstery?

Bear repellent spray contains capsaicin which is an alkaline oil, you need an acid rinse to neutralize them and clean them out, good luck Fred.

Bear spray is an oil based pepper spray so I think any good degreaser should work. You can break the oil bond but I don't think you can neutralize the pepper. What I would be more concerned with is exposure to the spray while cleaning. If this stuff gets airborne again while cleaning you are going to have a bad day. Don't forget about your blower exhaust. After extraction this stuff can become aerosolized in your waste tank. Even when diluted this stuff is powerful and will be painful. Good luck if you take this on.

Dp is right on the dot, it normally is just a capsaicin base. Power vent the space with strong air movers for a day and then soak the spots with yogurt. Work it in well and give it some good dwell time....then just clean as normal.

I have been certified with CS/OC/Capsaicin since 1986 and it still hurts to get hit with the stuff. The only thing that ever worked for me was yogurt or milk.

Think about it, capsaicin is pepper oil...what do you drink to calm down that burning Enchilada....milk. Same idea here, the milk products will absorb that oil and break it up.

Very good point Eric, I would fill the waste tank with some clean water prior to extracting that, or if you have a pump out, just make sure to use it to pump those cr@ps out. And yes be careful when cleaning, some of them might evaporates. Make sure charge good amount and ventilate the areas, putting an air mover helps to blow the evaporated capsaicin out of your face, good luck.

Thanks for preparing me for the worst.
I have not been to the room . I am going tomorrow.
This is in a big hotel with indoor entries and I know the windows only open about 6 inches at the most so ventilation is a challenge. I can't open the door and vent irritants into the corridor. Hopefully it's not as bad as it could be. We will see.

Rob is right, yogurt or milk works great, be careful with colored yogurts though, it may have dyes in them, milk can cause odors if left overnight, just some precautions since its a hotel, I'm sure they will frown on you if their customers smell rotten milk in there, lol.

Fred H wrote:Thanks for preparing me for the worst.
I have not been to the room . I am going tomorrow.
This is in a big hotel with indoor entries and I know the windows only open about 6 inches at the most so ventilation is  a challenge. I can't open the door and vent irritants into the corridor. Hopefully it's not as bad as it could be. We will see.

The bathroom exhaust fan (if properly vented) should be able to exhaust much of that air. Get an air mover on the floor (sahara or airpath) and run the exhaust fan...it should do it.

Go Fred.

How did it go Fred?

I learned that the incident occured a few weeks before I was contacted and that the hotel employees had cleaned the carpet with a rug doctor and that it took guests 3 or 4 hours in the room before they would notice any symptoms.
The hotel removed the suicide bar from the window so it would fully open when I was cleaning.
I did not notice any irritation to my eyes or anything else while I cleaned the room even though I wore no PPE except hearing protectors.
I cleaned all the edges and corners with  my PMF edger including the carpeted baseboard around the perimeter of the room. I used a drimaster 2 upholstery tool and  cleaned two chairs, a sofa, two throw pillows, and two lamp shades, and the valance for the draperies. They can take the draperies down for cleaning.
I was using a Mytee 1000 porty with roto vac 360 and Bridgepoints Prolon, remember that stuff? They discontinued it a few years back and went to clean free. I discovered that I still had and unopened gallon so I used it because I remembered how well it cleaned greasy restaurants Worked great.

Oh they told me not to run the AC while I was in there and that makes sense as it is no doubt full of the bear spray.

I was fortunate in that what I was dealing with was very minor contamination, it could have been much worse.

Well, the rug doctor's solutions or whatever they used already diluted the alkaline oil a little bit, that's why it's mild, in a way you're lucky, nonetheless looks like you handled it well by cleaning everything, the only thing I can think of is if the hotel guests still have complaint, it's the wall paper, that can absorb some of those stuffs, I know it's not your problem but just in case if they call you back for same issue, you can throw that at them.

Great point Dp, those wall papers do absorb a lot of odors. If that becomes their complaint, a good wipe down with TSP or even "Smoke Away" should do the trick.

If they still complain, just tell them to advertise that room as "bear-proofed" for those that are not fans of nature.

"Bear proof room" That's hilarious, lmao

dp1 wrote:Well, the rug doctor's solutions or whatever they used already diluted the alkaline oil a little bit, that's why it's mild, in a way you're lucky, nonetheless looks like you handled it well by cleaning everything, the only thing I can think of is if the hotel guests still have complaint, it's the wall paper, that can absorb some of those stuffs, I know it's not your problem but just in case if they call you back for same issue, you can throw that at them.

The room is painted not wallpaper and the manager said that they were going to wash the walls.

A local cleaner in town was getting out of the biz and said that his most profitable jobs were getting non smoking hotels rooms that were smoked back in service. He cleaned the carpets and left the fogger in the for 24 hours he charged 250.00 per room. Not sure if he was bulshitting me but he did sell me his almost new SS Upholstery for 200.00

I used to get the same as the nightly rate for the room....often around $175.

Oh, and I didn't use a fogger. Ran Ozone for 2 hours on, 30 min. off, 2 hours on followed by a portable air scrubber over night. Really wasn't that profitable considering the time and hassle unless you had several to clean.

Found bear poop in the driveway next to my van. Perhaps I should get some spray.

That's too damm close for comfort Fred.

Fred H wrote:Found bear in the driveway next to my van. Perhaps I should get some spray.

Sure it was a bear and not a roofer....just saying.

Fred will peeing around the perimeter of the front yard keep the bears away like the Javalina here in AZ

Got an emergency call from a theater we clean. Seems someone dropped trou and made a deposit in the isle. Must not have liked the film.

Must have been a "stinker"

  He pooped on it