Why not take the excess fruit to a food bank. I did that one year with my mangos and they were thrilled to have the fresh fruit.

Thanks Keiki, that's a great idea. Unfortunately most of the fruit is at the top of the tree and unreachable. The fruit that's causing the problems are the ones that drop into the courtyard, they all are half-eaten by the rats (the tree seems to drop damaged fruit, it's rare that I pick up a good one) or damaged when they hit the ground.

Could you top it? Take the height down so that you will be able to reach the majority of the fruit. If you can not do it yourself maybe you could hire someone.

Yep only so much starfruit you can eat...

We use a pole picker for fruit.

Here is a link that might be useful: pole fruit picker

The long pole picker doesn't work because of all the small branches that are in the way. I call my Carimbola a 'terrorist tree'-- and then I mulch with starfruit. You can't top the tree, it is too tall and strong. Cut it back, trim it, scalp it; and it will just grow back. I trim off the branches under the tree that I can reach and the next rain, it just grows back.
Also, it is a nice tree, gives good shade in the summer.
With the fallen fruit, my back yard smells like wine. (Have you thought about making wine?)
theo

For extra good star fruit it makes a lovely jam. There is one tree near a power line that was dramatically wedge topped (it lost two-thirds of the the foliage in a wedge shape around the lines) that is still fairly productive and casts shade on the house.

In my city we can call and they will send someone to put rat poison out. This is a free service and is successful, and oh yes, I need to do that again.
theo

I was overrun w/rats and went to HD and bought bait-traps, and placed them around the yard.... within the week they had all been emptied of bait! They are now on the re-load and we'll see how much they eat this time.... I sure hope they are as good as the label says! LOL, sally

Thanks for all the advice! I don't want to use rat traps, as I have two dogs. It's a temporary solutions anyway. We've gotten used to having rats in the tree while we sit outside at night (I'm surprised how brave they are) I just don't like them living in my plumbing vents.
I do have a pole picker, but it does get tangled in the thick branches.
If anyone lives in the Venice area and would like to pick star fruit to their hearts content, let me know!