jack hagenaars

The gods must be angry...first a brutal winter and last night...one day before a garden tour....racoons hijacked my bananas.......chewed them up like a panda would a bamboo shoot....they were just coming up...and now are splintered to pieces....bloody hell!!!

harveyc

Wow, sorry to hear that, Jack!

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conejov

Sorry to hear about the Coons.

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sirmoebly

It sounds like you need to invest in a couple of Jack Russels, that would fix all your problems coons, rodents, rabbits. Sorry to hear that... they should come up again...

Magilla Gorilla

That sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry to hear that. I am kind to animals but screw the Jack Russell and get a gun! On the lighter side, they will come back. I have a 6 foot Double Mahoi ready to flower taken down by gophers. They killed the mother plant but I dug the corm up and now have six or seven one gallon plants.
Good luck.

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Andrew

Bob

I'll quote Andrew"THAT SUCKS". Sorry to hear it Jack.

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harveyc

I was thinking about this some last night and wondering why the raccoon went after your banana plants. We have quite a few raccoons around here and I've never heard of them doing damage to plants. We had quite a problem with them when we fed pets outside so we quit doing that as I didn't like trapping and killing them. When there was no pet food, there seemed to be no reason for them to come around. Since we live in the country, I don't need to worry about a neighbor attracting them with pet food. I still wonder what the raccoons liked so much about banana plants. I do know that winegrape growers near here have sometimes had grapes eaten by raccoons, but I can understand eating a juicy sweet grape better than a sappy/sticky pseudostem.

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Magilla Gorilla

I have to agree with Harvey. I have over 100 banana plants and have never had a racoon problem. Instead, they like my Guava fruit, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. They have never bothered actual plants. They would love my chickens though. I would call your cooperative extension office in your town. See if they have any ideas. I used a Havaheart trap when I lived in New York to stop the Racoons from eating my live stock.

Good luck!

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Andrew

JoeReal

The core of the pseudostem, the white pith, is edible. We are using that in several recipes. It has high fiber and absorbs many flavor that you put in. During World War II, my father (long gone now) used to tell us that they eat the pseudostem core and can tide them over. There's always plenty of "wild" bananas growing all over, and the core provides survival food. If there's fruit, that would have been a big bonus, but it was during the war so fruit on the tree would be very scarce.

Once the raccoon get a taste of the core... It might come back over and over until your clump is gone. So be careful how you dispose your left-over pseudostems.

harveyc

Have you been advising some raccoons, Joe???

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JoeReal

Rest assured that I don't do such things! Barbecued raccoons may be, with pseudostem white pith core on the sides please....

jack hagenaars

I think the problems actually starts with snails....we seem to have quite a few of them at this time of year..I think the racoons were going around the base of the bananas and tearing at the pseudostems to find snails and other creatures hiding under and in the fibre....escargot anyone? I think Ill put a wire fence around it until the nanners get bigger..then the coons dont seem to bother them...thanks for your sympathy replies...