NewRomeTacitus, I hope you don't mind my barging into your discussion with BurbankKarl.
There are date/palm tree rats which live in trees all over Los Angeles. Generally a date/palm tree rat's behavior is different than city rats which live everywhere else in L.A.
Date/palm tree rats usually enter homes in the winter or during rainy seasons. They come in through tiny openings, through a roof or vent, after climbing trees, crossing phone and electrical wires. They enter the home by chewing through plaster board and wood making the openings larger.
The date palm tree rats will run if you stamp your feet or make loud noises. They scurry like mice, showing much more fear of humans than typical city rats.
City rats are more aggressive. Even baby city rats will stand their ground staring at you with their beady eyes.
Both date/palm tree rats and city rats are dangerous because of the fleas. Still, if I had to encounter a rat, my preference would be the kind which live in trees.
I don't mind - I was really just relating how people's negligence can spread disease vectors in ways no one sane can counter. Every time I read about one of those "cat ladies" I fear for the health of all of the unsung heroes who have to deal with the cleanup.
Date Palm Tree Rats...all this time I thought those were what everyone called Squirrels. Seriously, they're not the rodents these reports have been about, but I wouldn't put anything past the opportunists passing themselves off as journalists in lower California. One report had a distraught mother having to shake the gnawing rats off of her infant.