After monkey raids claimed hundreds of pineapples at her hillside farm in Yunlin County’s Linnei Township (林內), Liao Yueh-ying (廖月瑛) started using “Jigsaw” scarecrows, which she styled after the fictional serial killer from the horror franchise Saw, to protect her crop.
Marauding bands of wild monkeys have eaten or smashed about 260 pineapples between the middle of last month and late this month, Liao said on Thursday.
The loss was particularly galling, because it was almost harvest time, she said.
Photo: Chan Shih-hung, Taipei Times
“It feels bad to find unripened pineapples that the monkeys had picked up and thrown away, but it is even worse to see what is left of the ripe ones,” she said.
Seven or eight years ago, monkeys used to appear singly or in pairs, which posed little trouble to farmers, but they have recently started to appear in packs of 30 or more, Liao said.
Worse yet, the monkeys have no fear of people, she said.
Using firecrackers was somewhat effective, but impractical, as it would have cost the farm about NT$13,000 until harvest time and requires someone to be on patrol at all times, she said.
It was her son, a high-school student, who gave her the idea to use scary scarecrows.
Using “Jigsaw” masks, mannequins and plastic rain cloaks, she made several scarecrows, she said.
There are also several “Hulk” scarecrows, inspired by the Marvel comics character, around her farm, she said.
The scarecrows seem to be effective and she has not seen a monkey in the three days since she put them up, Liao said, adding that she plans to put up more scarecrows and change their positions frequently to keep the monkeys away.
“I do not know about monkeys, but they gave me a good scare,” a local resident said.
“Farming is difficult enough without having all these monkeys mucking about,” Linnei Mayor Chang Wei-cheng (張維崢) said. “Top government officials should rethink their wildlife protection policy.”
The township office said it is increasing the budget to help keep monkeys off the farms and buy firecrackers, he said.
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