bananas are herbs= deliscious. My local squirrels see mine usually as a delicasy. The seem to mostly dig for the roots. I havent come accross rats however.If you dont want to hurt them go to your local pest control company and buy a live trap...catch em and relocate them.

We are having the same problem with Norway burrowing rats. Our neighbors have chickens - and not much we can do about that. Our professional exterminator told us that as long as the chickens are there, so will the rats. We are at our wits end with this situation. The neighbors have cleared their yard completely of hiding places, so that rats feed there, and then nest in other people's yards. After first spending $5k to retro fit our deck and install aluminum flashing, it wasn't installed deep enough and the rats burrowed under it. Out of desperation we did research into rat exclusion methods in the Midwest around pole barns and grain silos, and discovered an exclusion technique of a "rat wall" using 1/4" hardware cloth, and trenching. A trench is dug at least 12 inches deep, and hardware cloth is attached to the decking with lath screws. It is bent in either an "L" shape or a "U" shape lining the trench, and then the trench is filled in with either dirt of sharp gravel. Now we are gathering contractor estimates for installing this around the perimeter of our large low deck. In the same bid we're also asking for "hatch" areas to be cut from the deck floor to allow us to pop open areas, the exterminator can place bait stations in there, and gives us access to discourage any settling in. Wish us luck.

'coons come around the backporch, Momma just chase them off with a broom. -Forrest Gump

"black rats", better described as "Roof Rats" can be any shade of brown to blackish brown. http://seattletimes.com/html/homegarden/2008632463_zhom15fixit.html http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/mammals/Rodentia/Rattus%20rattus/IMG_saz_20111127_1920.JPG You need to clean up the bird feeders and do some rat control. Roof rats will invade houses and chew wires, destroy your insulation and generally wreck the place. Here is a link that might be useful: Rattus rattus