Chili Pepper Fences Keep Elephants At Bay

Farmers in East Africa are combating elephants by rubbing chili peppers and engine oil on their fences.

Elephants never forget -- especially about the burning intensity of chili peppers.

And that fiery fact is helping farmers in Tanzania, who are being forced to deal with rebounding elephant populations coming onto their land and eating up their crops.

That's a big problem since the giant pachyderms can eat up to 660 pounds of food a day, according to Newser.

Electric fences have been deemed too dangerous and expensive, but farmers have found good results from a lower-tech solution: chili peppers mixed with engine oil -- a spicy concoction that sticks to fences, even in heavy rain.

"[The elephants] will mull it over and often circle two to three times," farmer Said Longwa, 52, told the Wall Street Journal. "But once they get a real whiff of the chili, they snuffle and sneeze."

Even better: They leave.

The spicy strategy is being rolled out across Tanzania and other parts of East Africa, but since it's possible the elephants will adjust to the chili, experts are studying other methods to truncate the animals' damage, according to Inquisitr.

Some of the methods include putting radio collars on problem elephants, and setting up lines of beehives spaced around fields.

Elephant expert Lucas Malugu told the Wall Street Journal that pachyderms hate being stung by bees flying up their trunks so the beehive barracks are set up. When an elephant goes where it shouldn't, the villagers "shake the hive and release the bees, sending the elephants running."

From our partners

• 6 People Saved By Their Enemies - www.cracked.com
• 25 Crazy Celebrity Workouts And Diets - Guyism.com
• Experts: Decriminalize ALL Drugs! - Newser.com

Comments

[shawman65]

11:49 AM on 04/17/2012

Look, Oprah got her nose done...

[hangr54]

10:44 AM on 04/17/2012

Will that work on Republicans?

[ontariogirl]

10:11 AM on 04/17/2012

I'm thinking of trying some of this on the skunks that keep visiting. Kind of spice things up a bit.

[Lazerusman]

08:31 AM on 04/17/2012

If you clear a path. Dig a ditch deeper than what the elephant's trunk can touch the bottom. And canot touch the other side....the elephant won't cross it.

[KathyTS]

08:23 AM on 04/17/2012

But will it work to ward off Republicans?

[agb1953]

05:21 AM on 04/17/2012

Seems like it took a long time to figure this out. Were the elephants keeping it a secret that they didn't like hot peppers?

[ckdogs]

01:40 AM on 04/17/2012

It shows that killing is not the answer.

[Anybodyseenthepopos]

11:17 PM on 04/16/2012

Great. Now I'm hungry! Hold the motor oil. I like my chili peppers straight, no chaser.

[numerains]

09:52 PM on 04/16/2012

As they say, elephants never forget! Good luck to the Tanzanian farmers with the chili pepper and motor oil repellant.....talk about strange distractions.

[EmpressT]

07:57 PM on 04/16/2012

What a brillant non violent way to keep the elephants out of the crops.
Not sure if the bees are to happy about it. Now wait are these african killer bees....lol

[rocland99]

05:10 PM on 04/16/2012

why is this on Huff food?

[EmpressT]

08:05 PM on 04/16/2012

Farmers, crops, red hot chilli peppers etc...

[Acorn Tree]

04:03 PM on 04/16/2012

i cant wait for the elephants vs bees scifi movie

[BuckyJamesDio]

03:53 PM on 04/16/2012

I thought maybe they were sending Anthony Kiedis and Flea out there to turn them away.

[stephendelong1]

02:44 PM on 04/16/2012

How is this weird news, it's fantastic news that will save elephants from being culled and Africans can become self sustaining.

[Ame Hughes]

02:56 PM on 04/16/2012

Africans are self-sustaining, they've been sustaining themselves for hundreds of years, but interference from settlers who care only about themselves, plus war and genocide have forced many of them to have to look to the brave volunteers who go out and help them.

Do some research on some of the indigenous tribes in Africa, and you will see that they can take care of themselves, as well as cooperate with wildlife organizations.

[David Moye]

04:31 PM on 04/16/2012

The methods being used such as chili peppers and bees, fullfill the main criteria of weird news: News that raises the eyebrows or makes the mouth drop.

[chesapeakegary]

05:30 PM on 04/17/2012

Maybe the farmers could create some "Hot Pepper Mines".....so as the clods come a looking for a Snack...they step on one of thows Babies and just watch the run for the hills.....also get um on the run, using a Crop Duster using Hot Pepper Dust....Make it easy, make it work.

[peachfuzz]

02:00 PM on 04/16/2012

"experts are studying other methods to truncate the animals' damage ..." ha ha good one.

[numerains]

09:55 PM on 04/16/2012

Cute one Peachfuzz!