Hi Lola
Good to hear that you have a tenant in your hog box.
You definitely don’t want to disturb them in the nest box. Especially in case Little Earl turns out to be Little Lady and has babies in there. A female may desert or kill very small babies if disturbed. But even with a male, it may cause him to move on elsewhere. To them the house is just a structure, suitable to make a nest in. If it got too messy, or there was too much build up of parasites, they would likely move on and make a new nest elsewhere.
Once you are absolutely certain that there are no hogs using the box you can clean them out and kill any parasite eggs with boiling water (never use chemicals). More info. re. cleaning hog houses: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/cleaning-out-boxes/
If you think you could very quietly and without any disturbance move the hog poo in the entrance then do, but otherwise leave it. Hopefully if it’s a nest of youngsters, there will not be poo right inside. But, no, hogs aren’t in the habit of clearing up poo – except by mistake. It is more likely to eventually get flattened! But I don’t think they think of it in the same way we do.
