Nah, I like cats. It’s the terrier I don’t really want. 
I had a fellow from a basement waterproofing company here the other day and he tried to tell me rats will eat black snakes. I’m very dubious of that. Any insights?
So, you are still claiming the same thing you were claiming back on page 1–that ordinary, non-ratting shelter cats will help control Sanders’ rat problem.
But you have still not provided a cite from a pest management control website that indicates that ordinary cats will prevent reinfestation.
Your cites so far are useless, as they do not address the issue at hand. As I have already pointed out extensively, they only show that (A) some rats are deterred by the odor of cat, but that (B) some rats are NOT deterred by the odor of cat, and that (C) rats can learn to simply avoid the spot that smells like cat, and that (D) laboratory experiments scrutinizing test animals closely for tiny behavioral changes are not useful in the real world.
In order to prove your case, you must bring a cite from Pest Management people saying that the mere presence of a shelter cat in the house–NOT a specific ratting cat–can help control rat reinfestation.
And…please stop expostulating about “strawmen”. You’re wasting pixels cruelly, and there’s an increasingly critical pixel shortage on the Internet. Somebody else could use those pixels, yanno.
I await your reply with interest.
My understanding is that rats are carnivorous whenever they get the chance. And if you’re feeding live rats to a pet snake, standard procedure is to never leave them alone until the rat is actually dead and being devoured, because the average healthy rat can bite the bejesus out of the average pet snake, if the snake is a little slow on the uptake and isn’t armed with venemous fangs and a quick temper.
I wouldn’t leave my snake alone in a room full of loose rats. Seriously.
[QUOTE=Sanders]
Nah, I like cats. It’s the terrier I don’t really want. QUOTE]
Well, if you go the poison route first, make sure all the poison is out of the house before you get the cat, so the cat won’t get sick.
I grew up on a chicken farm…in those days, my brother would go ratting at nights with a .22, and there were always feral cats around farms to help control the rat population. In the present decade, in an urban area, neither is feasible, so I’d suggest you call the exterminator.
If you get the cat before you get rid of the rats, get the meanest unaltered adult tom you can find – otherwise the rats will rip a kitten or nice mellow pet cat apart. Seriously, call the exterminator.
Black snakes eat rats as part of their normal diet. Has a black snake *ever *been eaten by rats? Almost certainly. But my money is on the snake, every time. It’s what they do.
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Blackratsnake.cfm
Forget the high-tech so called “solutions”
Find a pregnant alley cat and move her in pronto. She will run them off in short order.
Many years ago I worked in a big mill building near Lake Street and Western Ave.
Place became infested with BIG NORWAY rats. The usual treatment for ordinary rats and mice was soda crackers spread with apple butter containing white phosphorus. The Norway Rats seemed to thrive on it or they were breeding faster the the death rate.
One day a very pregnant non-descript alley cat sauntered in and took up residence. We began seeing fewer and fewer rats of any kind. As long as she and her litter were there we had little if any problem with the rodents.
If you can’t find a pregnant alley cat a mongoose will do nicely.
How about a half-dozen snakes?
I’m sure this will get lost amidst the whole cat debate, but have you tried the Penn State Extension? Since you live near agricultural activity, they may be able to help.
BTW, just out of curiosity, where near Harrisburg do you live?
Robin
Yes, I am ressurecting a Zombie, but the newest column by Cecil is exactly on point:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080201.html
"*Cecil replies:
For generations reared on Tom & Jerry and their ilk, the story of the mouse’s struggle for its place in a universe of cats and cheese has acquired a resonance to rival the great themes of mythology and literature. But how much of the saga as we understand it is accurate? Let’s run it down.
* Mice and cats. Generally, yes, the scent of a cat, even one that's a crummy mouser, should help keep mice away. Over the millennia, mice and rats have evolved a strong aversion to the smell of cats and other predators; laboratory-bred rodents hundreds of generations removed from the wild will freak out upon catching a mere whiff of cat. Unless, of course, they're somehow reconfigured not to. In a study published late last year, for instance, Japanese researchers reported on a strain of mutant mice they'd whipped up that lacked certain crucial mechanisms for interpreting odors. These mice could smell cats just fine, but didn't know they were supposed to be afraid: confronted with a cat, they chose to investigate or even try to play rather than flee.
Another exception that proves the rule is the case of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, discussed here a couple years back when the topic was a possible link between cat poop and schizophrenia. A quick recap: T. gondii infects a variety of mammals, including rats, but can reproduce only when the host animal is a cat; one of its evolutionary tricks is to make infected rats act weird, improving their odds of being caught by cats and thereby allowing the parasite to spread. A key form of said weird behavior: T. gondii-infected rats not only fear cat odor less, they're actually drawn to it. So, since about a third of wild rats carry the parasite, having a cat in the house will repel the majority of rats but might encourage some in the minority to stop by. "*
Mice avoid the scent of a cat. (well mostly) Cecil sez so.
Hi vic! I’m also from Alberta. Now, though, I live in Baltimore, MD, which is known for having shit-tons of rats. I’ve still only seen one or two, and one of those was dead.
I tell people about the Rat Patrol and they think I’m fulla hooey.
We did. Actually, Terminix did it for us. They were pretty cheap, too, somewhere around $400/year.
$50 worth of rat poison took care of it for me. Certain rooms smelled pretty bad for about a week after that.
I bet you meant rats will not share the same space with mice, 
right?
It’s true that you won’t find rats and mice in the same house – once the rats start getting established. Because rats are a lot bigger, smarter and more aggressive than mice, and they’d be competing for foodstuffs, they can and will kill them every chance they get.
Actually, as brutal and unhumane as it may seem, when you’ve got the wild sort of rats in your house – or mice for that matter – you must go murderous, with the Victor necksnapper traps and glueboards and D-Con, or else engage the services of a couple of tough old barn cats or little terrier-mutt type dogs (and, of course, make whatever it is they’re feeding on inaccessible to them – storing your dry-goods foods in glass jars, keeping the garbage as nonexistent as possible, etc). Humane traps are a total waste of money; most rodents are too smart or skittish to go in them.
It’s always been disturbing for me to have make war on living creatures which really don’t mean any harm, and are only looking to eat and stay warm just as we are, but otherwise they will ruin your foodstuffs, destroy a lot of your property, and become a very unpleasant presence in general – which can even vector diseases to your pets and yourself.