[the grouve]

Do the scientists here know of any safe and harmless ways to prevent monkeys eating all your bananas?

Bananas from your plate inside the home, but also bananas from the trees in the garden?

Please no suggestion like the French man that I live with, he suggested: "Mai, we kills one, puts him on a stick outside and zee monkies will know, not to come ere anymore!" []

So ideas harmless and safe please.

[BenV]

Depending on how much space you have, you could plant a ring of chili plants around the borders - this has been shown to be an effective means of reducing crop raiding on farms that border forests in Indonesia.  Getting a dog to scare them off is also very effective.

Once they're inside your home, I've no idea!

[Don_1]

Hmmm, this is a tough one! I have never had a banana nicked from the fruit bowl by a monkey. What's more, I have never seen a monkey in my garden, and even if I had, banana trees are pretty scarce in London, so not a problem I will ever need to address.

How about hanging cut onions or garlic in the trees? Or is that for vampires???

[blakestyger]

Keep them in the fridge.

[Don_1]

Keep them in the fridge.

Might need a rather large fridge for the trees eh!

[DoctorBeaver]

I had that problem when I lived in Africa until a snake moved in. The monkeys didn't like that and bogged off.

[Bored chemist]

Are monkeys clever enough to know a rubber snake from a real one?

[DoctorBeaver]

Are monkeys clever enough to know a rubber snake from a real one?

I don't know. If it was an animated model that may fool them.

[RD]

Are monkeys clever enough to know a rubber snake from a real one?

Bits of garden hose are probably not going to deter them ...

Snake Avoidance in Feral and Laboratory Reared Squirrel Monkeys

Abstract:
The latency of food retrieval and other behaviours in the presence of a live boa constrictor and other snake-like stimuli was observed in three groups of squirrel monkeys (adult feral, adult laboratory reared, and immature laboratory reared). The principal results were as follows: 1. Both of the laboratory reared groups retrieved food within about five or fewer sec in the presence of any stimulus, including the live snake. 2. The retrieval latencies of the adult feral group were longest in the presence of the live snake, the next longest in the presence of rubber snakes painted either gray or an approximation of the boa constrictor markings, and shortest in the presence of various rubber tubes or a gray block. This result suggests that avoidance of some snake like stimuli in the adult feral squirrel monkey is determined more by shape than by markings. 3. The habituation of the snake avoidance response was rapid for all stimuli, but occurred more slowly for the live snake than for the two rubber snakes. 4. Of the various behaviors observed in the interval between the presentation and the retrieval of food, visual scanning was predominant and occurred during 74 percent of this time.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/beh/1973/00000047/F0020003/art00006?crawler=true


Lion dung apparently works, but you need fresh stuff...

'We have massive baboon problems,' Jennifer Scott of Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards told me with a mixture of resignation and exasperation. I thought I'd heard everything in the wine business, but I've never met a winery owner moaning about African monkeys before. Parrots, wild boars and kangaroos yes, but never baboons.

The animals at this winery in South Africa's Western Cape like the taste of grapes and are prepared to do anything to get at them. When Scott had an electric fence installed, the baboons wedged a piece of wood between the wires and climbed through it. She thought she'd found a deterrent in the shape of a consignment of lion dung from Tigerberg zoo, but as the smell dissipated the baboons came back. 'You need a constant supply of dung,' she sighed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/apr/30/foodanddrink2