I was wearing an N95 respirator, but once I got into it I was seriously wishing I had put on a Tyvek suit. After several rounds of sweeping and cleaning and scooping and vacuuming, with an exhaust fan blowing dust out through the window, I took my clothes off in the laundry room and went straight to the shower.

Now Michael is in there bleach mopping the whole room. We're gonna let it dry out before going back in and doing more work.

Rat shit around here may contain Hantavirus and Leptospira bacteria.

The nests are also home to "kissing bugs" (family Triatominae) that spread Chagas Disease. The kissing bugs feed on your blood and poop on your skin. When you itch the bites, possibly unconsciously in your sleep, you can spread the feces into the wound, providing an entryway for the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that causes Chagas disease.

I knew this was gonna be a big, gross job, which is why I had put it off for so long. But doing a search for what illnesses pack rats in Southern Arizona might carry, plus the increasing smell, was enough to convince me that It Is Time.

And just for fun they were cockroaches living under there too.

By the way, here's a pro tip for sealing up plumbing intrusions and making them rat proof and cockroach proof:

Wrap the hole with multiple layers of quarter inch or half inch hardware cloth nailed or stapled to the surrounding wood and wired tightly to the pipe. Create a multi layer wire cage in the opening. Then fill the whole space with spray foam.

Rodents will not be able to chew through this, it will keep out roaches and you get the added benefit of sealing against airflow.

This is what we will do around the drain pipe when we replace the bathtub. I'll post photos when we get around to it. But this method is cheap, easy and very effective.