I've been holding off on having the courtyard patio fixed until I'm confident I have the rat and chipmunk population under control. So far they have racked up $1,200 in damage... and that's about to go up when they come fix these unilock bricks. 
They look cool, but to fix this, you have to remove a really large section as they are all connected ("unilock")... ugh!
I've setup some bait (sunflower seeds), put a few traps around the known entrances, and then perched myself 15 feet up above in my office balcony / sniper nest.
My secret weapon though is my Nest security cameras. I have then setup to text me if there's activity within certain zones. Seeing that I work from home, I'm able to react pretty quickly.
The EDgun Leshiy is what does the work from there. After some modifications,
click here for full story, I have made this the ultimate backyard friendly pesting machine!
Over the past couple of weeks I've just been getting baby rats and chipmunks. I know mama and papa rat are out there (given the presence of all the littles), but they got big for a reason... very smart (as far as rats go).
Here's a few highlights from the past week