Evelyn- i understand that there has been a rodent explosion because of the changes in the weather patterns. we have had a terrible time with roof rats here in northern california. we also have a natural garden but we didn't want rats!
if you or your neighbors have nut or fruit trees, they feed the rats, and if any of your neighbors leave pet food outside, that also feeds the rats.
the only successes we have had is when we use traps or a Rat Zapper. maybe you can import another black snake.
have you done a search of topics about rats on gardenweb?
min

thanks min for your reply. there are no fruit trees around us.
I have set up 2 live traps (I had bought for squirrels in the attic in the past) but the rats don't go in :-/
I will do more searching on topics about rats.

rats are so smart we have never caught one in a cage trap but they will go into a Rat Zapper if you leave it set long enough at night. just be very very careful that kids and pets can't get to it !!! i suppose it will kill birds too but i haven't had that happen.
no, i have no stock in the company, it's just that we have found them to be the most effective traps aside from the wooden victor kind of snapper.

good luck! min

I've trapped rats in a live trap. I bait it with field corn.

Rather than try and place the corn on the plate, I just put it on the ground and set the trap on top of it, making sure the corn is on the far end of the plate, so the rat HAS to step on it to get to the corn.

Good luck!

Make sure you check it a few times a day, in case something GOOD gets in it. The rabbits around here, love field corn & I've trapped a couple of them, by accident while trying to trap the rats. A bunnies skin is so thin, they can get hurt if they try too hard and for too long of a time to get out. Fortunately, I've not ever had a badly injured one.

thanks for the tip on corn, I'll try that, I have some cracked corn for the doves (I of course stopped feeding)
And that may be the problem with my traps, I find the bait (banana with peanut butter) gone and the trap is not tripped.
Since I work from home I can check the trap a few times a day :-)

does your fence line run up to your house? if it does, i wonder if you have rats up in your attic- especially if the squirrels left convenient holes for them. they can be quiet for a time until there are a whole lot of them running around in there, which happens pretty quickly.

we have used "safe" poison -NOT the kind that kills
anything like owls or dogs who might EAT a poisoned rat.
we use one called Fastrac and it is working. there is another brand called "Assault' that also kills ONLY the rat, not your dogs or birds. (just make sure the fresh poison isn't available to kids, pets or birds.)

good luck to everyone with rats- they are such cute but nasty little critters. min

oh great, don't jinx it LOL... yes the fence goes to the house wall. this would truly be a nightmare!!
no squirrels yet, the subdivision's trees are still to young for squirrels to want to come visit.

thank a bunch for recommending the poisons, this is very worrisome for me being a dog owner. And especially my Beagle, she loves to sneak in the bushes and all the weird places. What if the rat drags the poison to a secluded spot and leaves it there for the dog to find it *shudder*

that's why we dump the poison out of the little package so that the rat or squirrel can't take the whole thing to where a dog can get it.
they will eat right through the package but you just can't count on them leaving it right where you put it.
min

I put out 3 green cubes at different places, all three were gone the next morning. So far I did not find the dead rats :-/

I've had some unwelcomed visitors to our bird feeders too. I stopped filling the feeders for a while and went weeks without a sighting. I thought the hawk I'd seen and an orange cat who has been hanging out in our sideyard had taken care of the problem, and while I haven't seen a mouse I did spot one rat last night and there were two tonight. Not good. I was really hoping the natural predators were working and I am wishing the previous owner of the house next door (with a wooden deck off the back) hadn't gotten hysterical and killed any snake she saw (she swore they were poisonous, but they were common garden snakes -- just what you want to control other critters under that deck).

I have two dogs and one would definitely go after anything she could. All our neighbors also have one or more dogs and a couple are older and/or small breeds. I hadn't even thought about one of them eating a poisoned rat before reading this. We also have a lot of squirrels and birds as well as all kinds of other critters in the area who could come around at night (possum, skunks, and raccoons are the most common, but we can get a fox, coyote, rabbits -- even a deer). I don't want to hurt or kill any of those (I would smell a trapped or wounded skunk outside my kitchen door too much for too long).

We're in a severe drought here, so I hate to not feed the birds, but maybe I can move the feeders or scatter some seed near the wooded path across the street -- get it away from the houses. We had some mice that have not been seen for weeks now and they were definitely coming from the yard next door. I suspect they were living under the deck at the back of the house, especially since the previous owner got hysterical about snakes, thought anyone she saw was poisonous and had someone come kill anything she saw. The current neighbors are almost never home and are not maintaining their home and yard very well. I'm sure that isn't helping, but it also means I'm not likely to get much or any help or cooperation there.

The rats are also seen going under the fence but also over it and up and down the tree -- which is probably how they have escaped my the visiting cat. I've seen a tail go down in that corner, but I don't know where they go from there. Our garbage is on that side of the garage, but in closed containers and in bags inside of that. The recycling is in open bins for now, but we will be moving to a wheeled cart soon. In the meantime, everything is rinsed and there are no signs of interest or activity around the bins.

I looked at the Rat Zapper on Amazon -- seems less likely to attract birds, but do you think I'll get squirrels too?

Any other ideas?

i can't promise a young squirrel wouldn't go into a Rat Zapper but chances are no, and especially if you only set it at night.

in the daytime you can angle the opening into a corner so the squirrel or bird can't see the bait but a rat will smell it and go in. we use small pieces of peanut butter sandwiches and have caught a LOT of rats and mice.

i did kill a bird in a Victor snap trap one time so i don't use those outside any more. \-; min

I'm ready to get one and have been thinking about positioning. I hadn't thought of just setting it out only in the evening. Sometimes they come at the same time that squirrels are out there, and that's generally when we see them.

I have heard that a Rat Terrier is the way to go.
If you see one rat there are 100 that you don't see.
When we farmed we had hundreds of them and couldn't get rid of them, but didn't try the dog.
Where we live now they come out of the cornfields in late fall to hole up in our pole shed under the hay. I put out TomCat poison.

The best trap is the large, simple, cheap wooden "snap trap." They are sold in hardware stores.

To use the trap:

BAIT IT with pieces of apple, potato, raw bacon or with peanut butter spread on a cotton ball. Make sure the bait is attached to trap.
ATTACH IT firmly to the ground or solid place to keep the rat from dragging the trap away.
PLACE THE TRAP near where you have found the droppings. Make sure the trap is safe from people, children, pets or animals who could get hurt from it.

Just get a jack russell.