I cut down some trees and made a woodpile somewhat near the house.
Big mistake...this is where they started-tree rats, as you stated. They made their way into the garage, then chewed through the sheetrock like it was nothing, and got into the interior walls.,p> Then up to the attic, down into the basement.
I used traps, poison, shot them...it took a while.
We had all our trees trimmed way back from the roof so they had no more access. Took 3 months to get rid of all of them. Apparently our neighborhood was overrun with them. Our pest guy used a bait that makes them slowly bleed out. Our neighbor said he kept seeing them crawl across his back yard and would kill them with a hoe. lol
Haven’t seen one in awhile. Hope it stays that way. I hate the nasty things.