What you need are some rat snakes! We had rats in the palms at our home in the Keys. At night the rat snakes would climb up the trees and get the rats.

Get an old fashioned spring rat trap. Like in the cartoons. Use peanut butter as bait. Snap. Instant death.
I like the idea of a trap over bait poison. I have a trap but never used it so I'm a wiennie. My neighbor put out bait and it took the rats a long time to die.

I just heard that Bounce fabric softener sheets work wonders to keep rats and squirrels out of attics. Haven't tried it so I don't know but it could be worth a try to put a few sheets in the palm tree and see if it keeps him away.

Let us know if it works!

Kate

A friend of mine who is a professional pest control person , uses the old fashioned , large spring traps for rats .
She soaks cotton balls in bacon grease and stores this in the fridge .
She says , rats and mice can lick off the peanut butter but if you really wrap the small piece of cotton around the trigger , the critter has to pull to get at the cotton and thus --- SNAP !!
She said - don't use too much cotton . You just want to get their interest .
Check the traps daily . Use several traps - not just one .
If you find a full trap , you can just remove the trap , wearing gloves , and dump the whole thing in the trash .
Otherwise , you can remove the dead animal and re-use the trap .

From the website below :
The tree can also be protected by tying several rat traps around the trunk of the tree with the triggers pointing down. Use expanded trigger rat traps on trees and fences. Be sure to tie the traps securely to the trunk before trying to set the traps. The next time a rat tries to climb the tree it will get caught and killed or at least given a good scare. Set rat traps only from dusk to dawn to avoid accidentally killing non-target species like squirrels and protected birds , such as wrens, woodpeckers, chickadees, etc. These animals are diurnal (active during the day) while rats are nocturnal (active during the night).

Here is a link that might be useful: Control of Roof Rats in Fruit Trees