My aunt had a monkey problem, she put a rubber snake on her house roof. The monkeys have never returned. Whether it was the rubber snake or another factor, i don't know.
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My aunt had a monkey problem, she put a rubber snake on her house roof. The monkeys have never returned. Whether it was the rubber snake or another factor, i don't know.
I rarely advocate for the eradication of pests... But I have little time for vervet monkeys. They literally beheaded each one of my parents ducklings - every time the mother duck had a batch. They often raided the house. On hunting farms in the karoo I visit farmers complain that almost all bird life vanished with the arrival of the monkeys. They're numbers almost ALWAYS go up where they go. They need to be kept in check..
Personally, I'd dispose of them quietly if it's safe to do so.
Paintball, solid or pepper balls? Will it work? Only for a while I suppose, and probably still have the monkey-huggers after you. Still probably illegal in an urban area?
Could have been a genet too.
As Adoons mentioned, things are much easier on a farm. I have a troop of vervets that sleep in trees less than 200 meters from my house. After an initial period of conflict, during which I shot 4 or 5, we are now reasonably good neighbors. My dogs keep them out of the yard. They often forage very close to the yard trading insults with the dogs through the fence.
We have quite a lot of predators, including caracal and black eagle, that prey on monkeys and their numbers stay fairly low. Baboon are a different matter and we need to take steps against them quite often.
^^ People who don't live it don't comprehend it. Like hunting, it's a blood lust.
Reality is most of us really value nature and it's resources, most of us are conservationists as well, for without it, we have nothing to hunt.
Couple of mornings ago, I was on my way to get the newspaper, 5 am, and a movement on the roadside caught my eye. A pygmy mongoose, looking around bewildered, separated from his mates. What to do, you can't tell it to go down instead of up. Down is where they live, up is toward traffic. Everyday this week I have been wondering if it went well or badly for the creature.
Most wildlife we can even encourage in the suburbs, they are a joy to see and always wary human contact.
The vervets, as explained by so many, just do not gel well amongst people. No way around it.
Further to my previous post.
We owned a flat on the South Coast and initially never had real issues with monkeys. Yes they would occasionally pass through but would also scatter when confronted. As time went by there was a marked change in behaviour and aggressiveness, it seemed that this went hand in hand with three things.
Firstly people started feeding them because they are cute. Then there was a drought and of course this pushed more monkeys into the urban environment because food was freely available and they didn't need to forage, pretty soon the monkeys no longer returned to their more natural habitat.
The third factor came in the form of a crazy monkey loving woman who started a group of "monkey watchers" i.e a bunch of retired folks with nothing better to do than keep an eye on the troops and report anyone who was chasing the monkeys from their properties for animal abuse. I shit you not, this lady called the police on me when I chased a monkey out of my flat and it fell from the balcony stating I was killing an endangered species. I have since sold the flat and believe things have only gotten worse.
During our last stay there a large male entered our flat and when confronted by my wife charged at her. She was very lucky as I entered the room just as this happened and without think drew my firearm and pointed it at it. The look of surprise on its face was priceless and it made a beeline for the door. I would not have hesitated to end it had it continued its attack as I had seen first hand what it looks like when a monkey actually carries through an attack.
That attack happened to one of my colleagues during a project we did in the Transkei and the monkey bit off half of his ear and caused a deep laceration on his scalp. These animals are not your friend and will as stated previously easily maim and/ or seriously injure a child or woman. Also keep in mind large male monkeys have almost no fear of women or children.
Monkeys have no place living amongst people. If people don't want to kill them then they should not feed them nor should they get their panties in a knot when other people use non-lethal but still painful methods of encouraging them to find other pastures. I fully support being allowed to use paint markers or paint balls shot from slingshots to discourage troops from visiting your garden, unfortunately this isn't always as effective on habituated troops in which case culling becomes the only viable option.
Spent most of my life at the coast, yes they came through every now and again but as long as food was not easily accessible they moved on. Keeping windows closed when away from home, dogs and not leaving food lying around was the only prevention required.Sure they grabbed the odd thing but on the whole my personal experience was that they are far more afraid of us than the other way around. I have seen more run over and mutilated by pellet guns than I care to mention. Yes they can bite and a child sitting with food could be an issue but as for being a threat to an adult human with a stick, stone or even nothing my experience has been the complete antithesis. Not saying that others have not experienced things differently just my personal take.
Their aggressiveness when they have lost their fear of humans is a problem, and it is a problem caused by the "monkey huggers." Close by we have a primate rehab. Once they are healed from injuries the baboons and vervets are freed to go. Now we have a situation where domesticated or semi-domesticated ones roam the area causing problems for neighbouring farms. Those monkeys are used to humans, so they are not scared. Now they are getting hungry and the only place to get food they know of are humans and/or human homes.
I have shot some of them from my roof, even 2 in the packhouse that attacked our farmworkers and another neighbour had his 3 yo girl bitten in her bed! Also shot it in the house with his SD pistol.
In this instances humans are creating the problem. Aaagghhh, check the cute little monkey, lets feed him....
The facility I heard is in the process of getting closed down by authorities.