I have had fruit trees ( dwarf varieties) in my back yard. I have since gotten rid of most of them. I had an exterminator out and they set poisonous traps and the rats were gone for about 4 months, but now I have found droppings again. I cannot afford to have the baited traps again. Way too costly even though they worked. Is there nothing cheaper to get rid of them permanently?

Answer:
There won’t be a “permanently”…imagine your neighborhood like a checker board and your property is one of the squares, once you clean out the rodents in your square, the rodents in the adjacent areas will move into your unoccupied lot. You can find bait stations on the web , probably around 10 buck plus shipping. Any of the baits you find at the hardware store can be used in them, go with the blocks rather than the pellets or bags.