Just something to keep in mind with the wire ideas, rats can fit through things that are the size of their head. If the head fits, the rest of the rat can too! That being said, perhaps some really tight wire? I've also personally had luck with decoys (I've got an owl who's head turns with the wind as though it's looking around, as well as a snake that looks ready to strike- the snake isn't realistic colors, but has a very realistic shape). I live right on a canyon so there are all types of critters out there (including things that eat rats and other possible pests like rabbits). We also get red tail hawks flying around. I like the idea of attracting more local predators to take care of the rats- owls especially for the evening hours as someone had mentioned. Perhaps if it gets really bad you can do something with motion detectors that active lights and/or jets of water? Just something to startle the rat off and make it think things aren't safe. I've heard of people doing that for larger things like raccoons, not sure if it would work with rats.

I just came across this thread and thought I could add ideas. I fought the rat battles for 3 or 4 years, collecting over 80 rats in snap traps along the way (yes, I actually kept count). I tried most everything and have concluded that there is only one effective, sustainable solution: eliminate their food sources. They WILL move into your home if there is food nearby, and if not, they will eventually move on (some of my neighbors are now fighting the rat battles). At one point, the rats were so intent on using my attic as home and breeding grounds that, after I sealed off all access points, they literally ate a hole in a cedar shake to regain access. That's when I concluded that you really can't block all access routes - you have to eliminate there reason for wanting to be there. For me, it was mostly bird feeders. I intend to follow up on scarleta's post about the $100 bird feeder. I miss the birds, but each time I put the feeders back up, the rats are back. I've been without feeders for a year, and the only time the rats returned is when I started putting food scraps into my unsecured compost bin. Good luck!

This post keeps coming back, like the flu during school semesters. I have grown Devil's Trumpet for two years now. (Anyone bother to notice this is was written 3 gardening seasons ago?) I chose it because thorn apples cause a bad trip - hallucinations - more often than death. Didn't work. Squirrels haven't tried it. Then again, squirrels have stopped bothering us. We covered our tomatoes with fruit tree netting and squirted the little suckers unmercifully, when they got under the netting anyway. It was funny. Their natural reaction was to run upward, but the only escape was to run down and out. Soaked little tree rats. I think we tramatized them. They go by our yard over the telephone pole wires, and stare at us, hard, as they go by. One little movement from us has them running for three more yards before they pause. lol Not total triumph though. The squirrels didn't bother our plants all summer (two little diggy spots, but that's easily resolved by adding stones, glass marbles, or rose cane.) Instead, late blight wiped out our tomatoes and are now going for our peppers. I'm originally from South Jersey of "Jersey tomatoes" fame, so I'm passionate about tomatoes. Here it is, August and no more homegrown tomatoes this year. As for worrying about poisoning the critters with thorn apples. I did consider the fall out. IF it killed them (and I assumed they'd take a bite and decide it didn't taste good, so would get sick and hallicinate, teaching them stuff in our garden isn't good), by the time it killed them, it would have digested enough and they would have been too bad looking, so there would be no critters eating it that aren't also invasive to the area. (Starlings and pigeons. Two other cirtters that deserve no fretting about.) The logic of not killing a species that has outgrown its territory eludes me. The same "logic" is used for deer, oppossum, racoons, and a variety of other species that just don't work in a city. Because politicians worry about animal activists, instead, people in the city are in danger from "harmless" animals. Rabies has come back as a problem easily correctible. Cars run into deers on a major city thoroughfare. And squirrels? Well, those suckers destroy roofs, crawl spaces, and wiring when they seek new nesting areas by invadig our homes. All things rectifiable, if animal activists would simply realize, an overflow of critters in a city is bad for the people living there. Not like squirrels are on the endangered species list. If anything - too many. A shame, they are tasty, but shooting in the city has its problems, too. (People worry about invading critters, but not hungry people.) As for not wishing that on a worse enemies - cool. Your life has been good. My worse enemies have caused enough physical damage that I wouldn't mind making them sick and have them hallucinate on thorn apple either. I wouldn't intentionally poison them, but if they were foolish enough to eat one, I wouldn't warn them about the danger until they chewed a couple of times. It's really a matter of degrees on what enemies have done. What's been done to me deserves jail time, at best. There was a day when those enemies would have been killed for their actions. Never underestimate waht "worse enemy" is to some people. Now, don't mind me. Keep arguing back and forth. This post keeps returning because, face it, "Tree Squirrels are Winning." I just hope others learn how we stopped being hassled by them.

Biggest difference is price, both of materials and labor. Thin vinyl soffit is basically the same as vinyl siding. There are two kinds that are intermingled when installing. The solid and the vented. Vinyl is probably the least expensive to buy and install. It does expand/contract with temperature extremes and has to be installed using J and F channel. Vinyl soffits on a house with vinyl siding looks soso. It does look cheap on houses with other types of siding, IMHO. I have installed a lot of vinyl soffit. Composite like decking material composite? No way. PVC like Azek is really good---but so expensive as to be prohibitive. To use Azek as soffit material on the average 3 bedroom home would cost several thousand dollars in material alone. It would be virtually maintenance free, needing a good power washing once a year or so to clean any mildew/mold. Just for an example of cost, my better half wanted a white picket fence around the flower garden---about 100 feet. 36" high with 3" wide pickets spaced 4" apart, 3" wide top rail and a 2&1/2" wide bottom rail and 48" posts in the ground cost over $450 in just material. And that includes no labor making each picket from longer stock and dog earing each one. A cedar fence, primer, and white paint would have been less money.