I said that block by URL did not seem to be working on my site, but I think I detected a pattern. The IP number seems to be blocked after two attempts. I also see a pattern on the visits, they seem to wait in between attempts to bring up the same URL, sometimes by minutes, sometimes by hours. The IP number remains the same. I guess they are programming their bots too.
Overall, I think the number of ill-hits seems to be lower.
Thank you,
Cemal