A Rat In Your House - Dangers And Action?

[joko]

after a catalogue of error and idiocy from a roofer - who left my gutter uncovered and across and actually through the inside of the roof - meaning in heavy rain, pipe it overflowed and flooded my kitchen
to get to see where all the water was coming from i made a hole in the wall of the attic space (which had already been somewhat formed from a previous different leak) and was able to to see the problem
roofer came back and covered it - water stopped, problem solved - or so i thought

for some reason a rat decided then to climb up the drainpipe(never had a rat in the 15odd years ive been here) - i heard it making an almighty racket - but thought it was a pigeon - it came through the guttering and out into my roof space ... and through the hole...
didn't notice until saw little pile of white dust on each step leading back up to the attic room - it had been in my food cupboard and emptied a packet of pasta 'n' sauce! every single piece of pasta had gone.

couldn't see any droppings whatsover anywhere so was a bit confused - even thought (hoped) it was a pigeon!
i put a heavy board over the hole - but didnt secure it properly - the hole it 2ft up so figured it wouldn't be able to push it away - it did...
it is now pretty secure.

so anyway it has been inside at least twice to my knowledge - though of course it could have been in a few times until it realised to go down stairs

problem is, the attic room has recently become my wardrobe room - its a small box room.

and there are droppings all over the place - so far about 30.
problem is i hadn't finished organising it so lots of binbags and piles of clothes in mid sort.

i think i have got most droppings up now - they are all rock hard so been there a couple of days at least

my question is what do i do about the clothes? - there is a hell of a lot of stuff and i have absolutely no idea what has been touched by a rat or not....
its not just my own clothes - of which i do have a lot anyway - but also fabric for sewing, costumes etc, and also work gear.

is it ok? - there are no smells or wet marks - so far as i can see as yet anyway - but i wouldn't see it on dark stuff anyway.
i know only a few things can have been wee'd on really.

i can't possibly wash everything - i don't have a machine

what do i do?!


rats are NOT incontinent - they just don't care where they wee or poo, though they do tend to do it more if scared.

what do you think?

thanks

[Tuvok]

Speak to a pest controller and see what they say.

But here's a thought - don't know if it would work, but try a black light (ie. uv)

[bednobs]

i suppose it's completely up to you joko - it you are willing to take the chance tgen don't clean them. If you really can't stand the thought you might have rat excrement on your clothes, it might be time to buy a washing machine

[jewellerjim]

Wash them - rat urine spreads weils disease and that is a killer.

[joko]

i know there's no poo on the clothes because the droppings are hard pellets and leave no marks or anything - like rabbit poo - i am more concerned about the wee really as that would soak in.
if i knew which ones i'd certainly wash them - its just it would take many months to wash everything in the whole room

i do intend to buy a new machine at some point - i have 2 here - both broken at the moment.

i suppose i will just have to see as i go along for now - and not wear anything that doesnt smell clean