Call your County's Vector Control and ask them to do something about the problem.

Westelle has a good idea. Assume you have spoken to the neighbors already.

Rats won't be around unless there is something for them, and the seed is what is attracting them.

Yep. Santa Clara County Vector Control. You are paying for their services through your real estate taxes. They do good work, and are very responsive, and nice to boot!

OMG, i watched a show on tv yesterday about a lady in Los Angeles that had a rat problem for that same reason,only she was the one feeding the birds and squirrels etc.She had to call in the "Verminators".They caught sooooooooooooo many in her attic etc.She couldn't sleep at night because of them running thru the attic and walls.Really creeped me out!! But they were finally able to get rid of them for her after many trips and traps to her home.

So i say get on it now before you end up like her.Call rhe Vector control people.
Kathi

You have to get rid of those rats before you plant or else they will eat all your new plants before the next morning. When we moved here from back east and saw mice as big as rabbits with lots of babies I call the state inspectors and was told these were Roof Rats. I was told to get 1 1/2ft. lengths of maybe 3" PVC and in waxed paper put cornflakes, peanutbutter and a Mouse Bar which is a poison bar I get at Home Depot. The idea is that the PVC be small enough so animals won't get in but the rats will and they don't have really hard bones so can squeeze into small spaces. That's how they got into my car engine which was parked in the garage and ate up the engine wires. We have a built in spa so we can put the bars into the door because the rats ate holes into the walls. They ate holes in my sister's attic and ran into the walls. Nasty little creatures but the bars more so than the pellets do an amazing job overnight. We have neighbors who won't take care of the rats or snails either and it's a toughy. Do it fast before they attract the coyotes and racoons..

Thank you everyone for the advice and suggestions. Fingers crossed we can get it under control.

Ha. We have several sheds in the back-40 of our yard where we store stuff. We decided to clean one out.
I figured there was a rat or two in there. Mainly because I could see some droppings. Sure enough, when I moved some junk, a rat scurries away. "Oh well", sez I.
Then I am carrying an old acoustic guitar that is beat up and worthless out of the shed. Acoustic guitar, no strings, soundhole in the middle of the body. Much to my surprise as I'm carrying this guitar out, much to my surprise (can't emphasize the surprise part enough), out jumps a rat out of the soundhole and runs away. I almost jumped out of my skin. I guess a guitar body makes a nice rat home.
If you've got a mass of ivy nearby, rats like to live in there too. Or in some palm trees. Near compost piles. Under lumber piles.
I'm thinking of having some rat control done. The local cat was pretty good at getting them, but she's getting older now and lying in the sun and looking cute are her main contributions of late.

Can't resist adding somewhat off-message.....We had one drowned in our pool this morning. Yuk!! It was either D-conned or dropped by a crow trying to fly the rat carcass back to it's nest. I've found a cat to be the best solution.

It's rat season once again!

Just how bad are rodents? I see the occasional mousie in my compost, which I have to admit makes me smile.

Are rats very destructive, or are we just hard-wired to hate 'em?

If you want to do it yourself, there is a product called Quintox, which is supposed to have no secondary kill. I've never used it myself, as I have always used the old fashion traps, with peanut butter. But I hear it's really safe.

Karin

Here is a link that might be useful: Quintox

Traps with peanut butter work best for me. I used to put down poison, but I have so many rats the poison disappeared like candy and it actually got expensive replacing it.

The worst part of the traps is pulling out the dead rats. I take a grocery store plastic bag in each hand, yank the dead rat out of the trap and then reverse the bags and with the rat inside, twist them up for the garbage. That way you're not touching any of it...

Karin Thanks very much for mentioning a rat poison that has no secondary kill, i.e. when an owl eats the poisoned dead rat or mouse it doesn't die.

Or when a dog or cat eats the poisoned dead rat or mouse it doesn't die.

min

Hi All-

Just a note on the secondary killing:
The promotion of any rodent poison as "safe" is untrue. The claim is based on just enough poison to kill the rodent, which is far less than rodents eat. Yes, it is like candy and the rat eats several times the "safe" amount. When the rat is staggering around (pre-death) an owl, hawk, bobcat, mountain lion or pet can catch the rat and ingest enough poison to kill the predatory animal. My vet has pets euthanized every summer because they have been poisoned by D-con. I can't believe this junk is still on the market.
Here's a link to an article about the secondary poisoning of mountain lions:

Here is a link that might be useful: Deaths of two mountain lions blamed on use of rodent poison

Adopt a cat

To answer lisascenic, rats are shockingly destructive! I also thought they were cute until they moved in to my garage/storage area. They pooped and peed EVERYWHERE, they chewed holes all over the drywall, especially around the outlets, they ate bites of everything--including half a GOLFBALL and all the molding, they made a nest in my $1500 Sleep Number mattress, but the worst was the excrement. They navigate by following their trails of it, so there was a smear of it three inches high all around the walls and the countertops. Plus under the counters they had chewed nests into the carpet. I had to remove everything, throw out most of it (including the Sleep Number), and Lysol all the walls, all the counters, all the cabinets and steam clean the carpet. I ended up catching about 12 rats, adults and babies. All this in about 6 weeks' time.
The best traps are the black plastic jaw-type traps sold at Lowe's!
Carla in Sac