Feral Cats & Roof Rats

Has anyone got information or stories about how a feral cat colony can be
used to help wipe out or at least keep in check Roof Rats? Here in the
Phoenix area (at least East Phoenix, parts of Scottsdale, and now Tempe)
Roof Rats have become a problem. Despite laying down traps, cleaning up food
sources like dropped fruit (from the citrus trees) and such, Roof Rats are
moving into other areas. From what I have read the ideas for getting rid of
them is vast. It seems predators can help at least keep the rats in check
but not totally eliminate them. Predators such as owls, hawks, and cats
(even though cats will often have trouble with the adult rats, they can take
care of the juveniles) seem to be good ideas besides snakes. When the
Arcadia area was having problems with the rats the city of Phoenix seemed to
think cats were not a good suggestion but I think a feral colony of cats
could be of some help.

The only problem I see with using cats is because rats seem to carry disease
but yet so far every rat that has been trapped by the County (Maricopa) have
not had any diseases. The other problem that cats might face is the use of
poisoned traps which could be very harmful to a cat if they eat a rat that
has the poison in their system. Also cats tend to eat their kill so they
might be a bit full from eating a good sized rat. But could a colony of
feral cats (which we do have here in the Phoenix area) be a good form of rat
control if the rats are healthy? I'd like to know your thoughts.

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