Using banana peels as a natural pesticide.........

[Palm Dave]

Has anyone had any success using banana peels to get rid of harmful bugs on your outdoor tropical plants?

Ive tried them on my hibiscus bushes and coco plum hedges (just hanging the peels from the plants' branches). The peels turn black in a short while and seem to have improved the health of these plants. Aphids and mealy bugs have been my concerns and they've disappeared after the hanging banana peel treatment.

[palmislandRandy]

Welcome to the forum, Dave! I've never heard of the banana peel method, but rotting fruit peels would seem to attract insects?? If you want to try a natural method, try making a coffee "tea" spray. I can see the everglades from my house!

[tjwalters]

Welcome to the forum, Dave! I've never heard of the banana peel method, but rotting fruit peels would seem to attract insects?? If you want to try a natural method, try making a coffee "tea" spray. I can see the everglades from my house!

Maybe they're attracting predators. (Nowhere near the Everglades. )

[Palm Dave]

Welcome to the forum, Dave! I've never heard of the banana peel method, but rotting fruit peels would seem to attract insects?? If you want to try a natural method, try making a coffee "tea" spray. I can see the everglades from my house!

Actually the banana peels dry out and turn black in about 3 - 4 days in our South Florida heat this time of year. Rather than attract insects, the peels seem to repel them. My family doesn't drink coffee, but we do eat a lot of bananas. I've found that ground-up, dried banana peels dropped on an ant colony will destroy the colony by killing its queen (the worker ants think it would be a good meal for her, instead it makes her swell up and die); this works especially well as a fire ant treatment. Anyone from Texas is welcome to try this and provide the results. I lived in rural Texas, near Weatherford, and fire ants were a huge problem during the summer. They are attracted to electrical current in switchboxs outdoors and blew the a/c cutoff switch at our home. The electrical current flowing through their bodies causes them to experience a "sweet" taste and their dead bodies build up on the electrical contacts by the thousands until they cause a dead short in the switchbox. Wham, no a/c; their bite is nasty,too, and can cause scars.

On a completely different topic: Living near the Everglades, have you tried growing any air plants in your hardwood trees?

[palmislandRandy]

I remember being told to wash my hands after eating bananas because they were sprayed with a pesticide to repel or kill any thing hiding among the bunches . I never knew if that was true.....could it be????? I have a couple of air plants, but the park behind me is loaded with em!

[Palm Dave]

I remember being told to wash my hands after eating bananas because they were sprayed with a pesticide to repel or kill any thing hiding among the bunches . I never knew if that was true.....could it be????? I have a couple of air plants, but the park behind me is loaded with em!

Something I've just learned about banana peels, they are great for soothing poison ivy rashes. You can reduce the discomfort from poison ivy (or poison oak) by rubbing the inside of a freshly peeled banana peel on the rash. Try it, you'll like it.

Palm Dave

[Palm Dave]

One of the most unusual uses for bananas is beer.

Banana beer is an alcoholic beverage made from fermentation of mashed bananas. The alcohol content is about 4.8% alcohol by volume. This type of beer is produced and consumed in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The leavening agent is sorghum or millet flour. On August 11, 2003, Wells Banana Bread Beer won "Favourite beer for women" at the Great British Beer Festival.

In Kenya, banana beer is known as urwaga; in Uganda as lubisi.

Making:

Banana beer is made from ripe (but not over-ripe) bananas.[ To accelerate the ripening of bananas, a hole is dug in the ground, lined with dried banana leaves which are then set on fire. Fresh banana leaves are laid on top of them, and then the unripe bananas. These are then covered by more fresh banana leaves and trunks. After four to six days, the bananas are ripe enough. This method only works in the dry season. During the rainy season, bananas are ripened by putting them on a hurdle near a cooking fire.

There are two types of banana that is used for banana beer: the harsh tasting igikashi and the milder tasting igisahira. The banana beer mixture consists of one third igikashi and two thirds igisahira. The ripened bananas are then peeled. If they cannot be peeled by hand, they are not ripe enough. After peeling, the bananas are kneaded until soft. The juice is then filtered to get clear banana juice, which is then diluted by water. Sorghum is ground and lightly roasted, and then added to the juice. This mixture is left 24 hours to ferment and then filtered.

After filtering, the beer is packaged in glass or plastic bottles. In commercial production, the beer could be pasteurized first before packaging to stop fermentation and extend shelf life.

Commercial East Africa brands include:

Wells Banana Bread Beer

Mongozo Banana Beer

Raha

Palm Dave

[Palmə häl′ik]

Hmmm.

I throw peels and pieces into my staghorn fern atleast twice a week for the Potassium breakdown, and all they do is seem to attract gnats all the time... Sometimes when I walk by the stags, I wish that I didn't throw the peels in!

You've gotta get them 'magical' peels eh? - ...tell us more. Maybe FULL SUN?

~Ray.

[Palm Dave]

Hmmm.

I throw peels and pieces into my staghorn fern atleast twice a week for the Potassium breakdown, and all they do is seem to attract gnats all the time... Sometimes when I walk by the stags, I wish that I didn't throw the peels in!

You've gotta get them 'magical' peels eh? - ...tell us more. Maybe FULL SUN?

~Ray.

Ray,

I have a large staghorn fern in the 14 year old oak tree in my front yard, also. My neighbor told me about the benefit of banana peels for Potassium for the staghorn. I've only put a total of three banana's worth of peels into the top area of the staghorn, recently. No gnats, yet; perhaps your treatment of twice a week's worth is too much of a good thing. Do you have any plants that have a black residue on its leaves; perhaps a hedge or a gardenia? If you do, try hanging the peels inside the plant on its interior branches. This does not require full sun. None of the plants I've treated have full sun for more than a couple of hours (at midday). Do you have fire ants?

[Johnny Palmseed]

I remember being told to wash my hands after eating bananas because they were sprayed with a pesticide to repel or kill any thing hiding among the bunches . I never knew if that was true.....could it be????? I have a couple of air plants, but the park behind me is loaded with em!

I read somewhere that there are certain banana growing places that are not very selective in their fertilizers. There have been traces of human waste found on fruit from these locations. I don't remember where this was or even if it was true. But if it is, ugh!

[palmislandRandy]

I remember being told to wash my hands after eating bananas because they were sprayed with a pesticide to repel or kill any thing hiding among the bunches . I never knew if that was true.....could it be????? I have a couple of air plants, but the park behind me is loaded with em!

I read somewhere that there are certain banana growing places that are not very selective in their fertilizers. There have been traces of human waste found on fruit from these locations. I don't remember where this was or even if it was true. But if it is, ugh!

That's the exact reason I always peel my bananas before eating!

[Palm Dave]

I read somewhere that there are certain banana growing places that are not very selective in their fertilizers. There have been traces of human waste found on fruit from these locations. I don't remember where this was or even if it was true. But if it is, ugh!

[Palmə häl′ik]

I didn't mean twice a week every week...

I don't buy them that often to do that...

Prolly, twice a week, once a month...

But what I'm getting at is while the bananas are breaking down up in the Stag, gnats are attracted to it... just like any other rotting fruit hitting the ground type deal...

~Ray.

[Palm Dave]

But what I'm getting at is while the bananas are breaking down up in the Stag, gnats are attracted to it... just like any other rotting fruit hitting the ground type deal...

~Ray.