How to Combat Rats With Common Scents

Re “With the Cats Away, Beachfront Rodents Have a Field Day,” Sept. 9: As my daughter would say, “Duh!” Whose bright (not) idea was it to eradicate the cats? It is a fact that feral cats keep rats away. In many places in our country, the latest addition being the downtown L.A. flower mart, feral cats are kept for this purpose. They don’t like people and stay out of sight by day. When night falls, the rats don’t come out. In fact, because of the scent of the cats, the rats are usually totally gone within weeks.

We have cats on the jetty in Oxnard, and I, for one, have never seen a rat or a mouse. It is imperative that humans stop trying to change the balance of nature by the beach. It is imperative that regular feeding of any beach critters be stopped and/or banned--if common sense doesn’t prevail.

Ellen Becker

Oxnard