I smell a rat

Yes, today was the day when I finally saw an Indian rat up close. Luckily, it was not in my guest house room, but was in the room where I work and use the atomic force microscope (AFM). Of course I squirmed when I saw it and was shocked. The graduate student looked at me and laughed, and asked "are you scared", I said "Actually I'm disgusted. It's gross" (but hell yes I was scared!). And then the rat ran out and squeezed through a partition separating two lab rooms. So I suggest blocking it, and the grad student just laughs at me as if its no big deal. Then the rodent comes back in through the same hole and runs behind the desk, exactly where all the electrical cords and wires are for our instrument. I don't want to make a big deal about it, because it seems normal to him I guess, and I'm tired of getting laughed at. Although, in all the people's houses that I've stayed at throughout the years that I've been coming to India, I haven't seen a single rat/mouse. Plenty of lizards and moths and cockroaches though. Then I think, don't these rodents chew threw electronic wiring and cables?? This AFM is probably the cheapest and oldest in use in its class, and actually they might not even make parts for it any more . .

This room is supposed to be sealed pretty well and the area needs to be "clean". The definition of clean is of course different than what I'm used to and what it should be defined as for (ideal) nanoscale experiments and imaging. Also, there are no shoes allowed in the AFM room. We have to take off our shoes in the foyer, a few doors between the outside and AFM lab room; this of course is a good idea b/c its dusty outside and we don't want to bring in that dust into the lab room. So my shoes are not allowed but rats/mice and their feces are??