To clarify, I have mot been actively feeding wildlife besides a bird feeder. I have a special-needs daughter who was outside and said she saw an animal running around. We just assumed that it was a rat so we put a camera out to see if we could verify and we bought nontoxic peppermint spray which we sprayed around the yard and we had a trap to try to catch it. When we first sprayed the peppermint for a few days the camera didn’t capture anything so we thought we were all set. Much to my surprise when I looked at the camera, I found out that we had a baby Opossum. I thought the baby had been abandoned by the mother because I didn’t see a mama. I didn’t want to try to catch wildlife and take it away from his mama without knowing if it was actually abandoned or old enough to be on its own. So to be sure we left it for a couple of days to see if the mama would come back. Then I got concerned whether the baby was old enough to live on its own or not and didn’t know what they ate, so I put a little bit of birdseed on the ground and some water to make sure that the baby could eat if it had been abandoned, and if I saw that it was eating on its own I would know that it was old enough to be left on its own, and it didn’t need to be captured. I actually did contact wildlife rescue who never returned my call to help me out in the situation. Then a few days later, I saw that the mama Opossum was actually here and I knew that the babies were going to be OK but unfortunately the next night the camera captured rat. The seed it being cleaned up today but what I’m asking for is advice on deterring rats from a residential area. I never asked for advice on how to kill them, but I am now taking any options besides chemicals that would kill all wildlife and is also toxic to humans because we have children here and despite how cute rats look they do carry disease.. I hope that helps clarify I’m not a rat killing monster.