I think it is not wrong if I introduce the banana as the most famous member of the fruit family. Because many people love to eat a banana at any time of the day, you can easily grow banana plants in your garden.
But both gardeners and farmers are suffering from the same problem. Animals or pests are one of the major problems of banana farmers. Because, like humans, animals also love to eat banana fruits. Therefore, you have proper techniques to deal with them.
WHAT ARE THE ANIMALS THAT CAN DAMAGE YOUR BANANAS?
Many animals love to eat bananas, and it can damage your harvest. If you are a banana farmer, you may already know that you should protect your harvest. So, let’s check the common enemy of bananas.
- Monkeys
- Bats
- Birds
- Squirrels
METHODS TO PROTECT THE BANANAS FROM ANIMALS
METHOD 1: BAGGING
This is a widespread and famous technique to protect your bunch of bananas from animals. The bagging practice helps to protect your bananas from many animals, especially monkeys, bats, squirrels, and birds. However, there are many types of bagging.Traditional bagging, Early bagging, Individual hand bagging, Daypa bunch protectors are some of them.
STEP 1: SELECT A SUITABLE COVER
When you select the cover, you should consider several factors about it.
Material of the cover
When you choose a cover for bagging, the material is vital to consider. Polyethylene is the most common plastic-based material used to cover bananas.
But you may highly consider the bagging type that you are going to use when selecting the material. For instance, it is better to use high-density polyethylene covers in early bagging.
Perforations
The presence of holes should be essential because it will directly cause to avoid the multiplication of fungi unless the relative humidity inside the cover increase.
However, the size of the wholes can be varied. Generally, it can be 12.7mm every 7.6mm, 8mm, 6mm every 10cm, 3mm, or micro-perforations.
Thickness
Here it is better to have somewhat thickness in the cover. It will impact to protect bananas from animal bites. But do not go with thicker covers; it is not effective and only affects the cost and environment.
Color
You can choose so many colors like pink, black, blue, white and green. In addition to these, some farmers use transparent covers. But if your area has monkeys, it is better to go with colored covers. Generally, blue is the most common color that banana farmers use.
Banana bunch covers
1.ENPOINT Garden Bug Netting Bags
The ENPOINT Garden Bug Netting Bags is 29.5” x 21.6” (75 x 55 cm) in size. See through bag allows you to see the growth of the fruit. Moreover, the high gauge material prevents the entering of many pests. So, this is a great option to protect your banana harvest. Also this bag can be used for watermelon, cantaloupes, spaghetti squash, small shrubs, herbs etc.
STEP 2: INSTALL THE BANANA COVER INTO THE BUNCH
Basically, you should unfold the cover from top to bottom without damaging the fruit.
Step 1: You can tie a knot above the first bract’s scar
However, the knot should be tense and high to prevent water accumulation on the first hands, which can reason burns by magnifying the sun’s rays.
Step 2: Gradually unfold the cover
Step 3: then tie the knot above the first bract’s scar, and it should be high and tense
However, some farmers keep open the bottom opening. But this will highly depend on the perforations.
If you do not have commercial banana covers, you can use this for large blue-colored polythene bags.
WHEN CAN YOU PUT THE COVER ON THE BUNCH OF BANANAS?
Are you Searching for signs of emerging banana bunche?
Then give time around 2 to 3 weeks. After the bract emerges from the top of the banana tree and bracts pull away from the fruit, you can put the cover on. However, some banana trees take around 3 weeks.
METHOD 2: NATURAL REPELLENTS
Here you can use natural things to keep animals away from your bananas because many farmers and gardeners do not prefer to use mechanical and chemical protection methods. So as a solution, you can go with chili peppers.
This is an excellent natural repellent to protect bananas from animals, especially monkeys, elephants, and squirrels. The only you have to do is sprinkle the chili pepper on banana plants.
Similarly, some farmers tend to hang the dry fish on banana plants to protect their fruits from especially monkeys. Similarly, they keep small sealed packets filled with small pieces of dried fish without bones.
When opening the packet, monkeys tend to rub their hands to get rid of the stench. Sometimes this continues until they are bleeding. So, this bad experience causes them never to enter the same field.
METHOD 3: USE TOY SNAKES
You can keep or hang rubber and colorful snakes on banana trees, especially in vulnerable places. However, it is better to change the positions of the snakes. Because monkeys are intelligent and this practice will be helped to avoid knowing the truth.
METHOD 4: USE TRAPS
Traps are also a common technique for protecting bananas. If animals, including monkeys, face this unfortunate experience, they will never come back to your field.
METHOD 5: SMOKING
Most farmers follow this technique too. Because it is low cost, they burn dung or another alternative to emit smoke here.
Further, they add chili peppers for more effectiveness. In addition to that, if you burn sticks that dip in phenol, it surely supports keeping monkeys away from your field.
METHOD 6: SHRILL SOUND
Many animals hate shrill sounds. So here, you can also try this easy technique to prevent damage.
