Rats will eat thru anything plastic or soft enough to sink a tooth into. Setting and checking some nearby traps will give you an indicator as to what’s around. I use to get some mice in my boat during the winter in TN and they liked to unravel the edge of the carpet to make their nest. If I was to plug a hole, I would cut a grommet as previously stated but it would be aluminum and silicone into place. Part of your best defense is to not call it done til spring and check on it every couple of weeks to see that nothing is developing. And they like peanut butter in the traps.
Creativity is just intelligence fooling around