I have to say first that I was sooo sorry to resort to poison and truly spent a small fortune on natural options...everything from peppermint, balsam & cedar oil, to a homemade spray from garlic, hot peppers, ginger, vinegar, & soap - even fresh cab Fresh Cab Rodent Repellent (4 Pouch Box) Net Wt. 10 Ounce, - even 3 electrical devices Hoont™ Powerful Electronic Outdoor/Indoor Animal & Pest Repeller - Motion Activated they just walked passed and never skipped a beat to demolishing my garden. I cannot stand to see any living creature suffer, however, I knew that I had a true problem here when I went out late and watched a darn herd fly from my compost bin (which I quit using months ago and bought a new one off the ground and enclosed YIMBY IM4000 Dual Chamber Tumbling Composter, Black). Who knows how many there were, it was just a mad scurry!The perimeter of my back yard fence is covered in a huge lush mix of greenery from both sides of the fence, I cannot control all places for these critters to live and thrive. I bought this and 2 Tom Cats Tomcat Rat Killer II (Kid and Dog Resistant Refillable Rat Bait Station, w/ 15 Bait Blocks) to see how things went.These are two very different poisons.* Bromethalin is a rodenticide (Tom Cat) which poisons the central nervous system, ultimately resulting in increased intracranial pressure, which damages neuronal axons. This damage to the central nervous system causes paralysis, convulsions, and death. This one, like most, are anticoagulants related to warfarin (the drug called Coumadin). These drugs, eaten by the rodent as an overdose, inhibit vitamin K and lead to a loss of clotting activity over several days (clotting factors require vitamin K). The ultimate result is hemorrhage.So, that being said, you can understand the cautions to your pets or children and these things smell like pet food. I have been DILIGENT with my dog and I actually carry him past anywhere near this area and put him down on a leash. All dog exercise is currently at the park until this duty is long over with.The rats do not even bother with the refillable stations. I have one with the Tom Cat bait and the other with the Ramik pellets and the rats are too smart and seem to know this is a trap. So I cut the bottoms off a few liter plastic bottles and a few jar lids as little trays as I don't want this stuff directly on the soil. They still haven't touched the Tom Cat cubes, however, they have DEMOLISHED the Ramik bait. 4lb bag in 4 days! I was refilling the containers 3+ times per day. Yesterday, I had first sign of its working.Be prepared for a sight that may be disturbing and heart wrenching at the same time. It was a rat on my drive early yesterday morning, in convulsions. Yes, it tormented me and I did what I believe was kind and covered it and gave it a smack with a hammer over the head. Yes, I cried like a baby, and so I mention this, because if you can't handle this, then just know before you decide.PLEASE be aware that if there are natural predators in your area, such as fox, feral cats, owls, hawks, etc. that these poisoned rats will poison the creature that eats them as well. I say this as I live in a dense urban setting and we deal with this as an epidemic and I have never seen any predators and, this is probably why it is a problem. I only pray that what I have done harms no other.Hope this is helpful:)UPDATE 8/26/15 1 star removal:I'm on my 3rd bag of this stuff and the chore of refilling the 6 trays that I have scattered throughout my garden has slowed down tremendously. However, I have moved over from battling rats to battling mice. Now, the same concept applies here to mice as well, but what has become a major chore is not refilling the trays but keeping it in the trays. The rats are large enough to pick up these pellets and eat the whole thing, but the mice are not. What the mice are doing is dragging these nuggets out of the trays and nibbling on them leaving bits all around the trays on the soil (yuck!) and dragging them to different areas in the garden. I have to dig up soil and debris around the trays constantly and go hunting very careful for any rogue nuggets that were drug away. I mention this because it's a pain in the **tt and I have to be double/triple careful with my dog. I was planning on using these indoors this winter with a chronic mouse issue, but ABSOLUTELY no way I can control where these could end up and it would leave me paranoid for the safety of my dog. So this winter, I will have to use the Tom Cat indoors because the bait is a larger chunk that was designed to keep the bait inside the bait boxes. I will just have to frost them with peanut butter to hopefully make them more appetizing to mice.