Do you experience in this moment that your garden is eaten bare of mucilaginous yellow-brown monsters? Sadly you are not the only one. And you can hardly count on any relief in many years.

The mollusc brown-spotted killer banana that the scientist more correctly call pentanian swamp-bending (A. Rion Lusitanicus), is a species than unfortunately has immigrated to northern Europe the last years. In its home country the species has no larger spreading and does not makes any serious harm, but in the northern Europe with few natural enemies the problem has accelerated. By import of bird feather cushions in ventilated steel containers, specimen of this animal has reached northern Europe in living condition. By their enormous ability of reproduction, they have now spread to almost all European green surfaces north of River Seine.

Characteristics

The brown-spotted killer banana thrives best in damp environment. In daytime it keeps away, but when the dew falls in the night it crawls out of its underground hideaways. It is not unusual that a beautiful and dazzling garden get totally demolished by the mucous monsters during one single night. When everything is eaten up they move to the next garden and new delicacies.

As earlier mentioned, the disgusting creeps reproduce quickly. One single specimen is able to get 700 000 offspring during a summer. A notable thing is that the pentanian swamp-bending is viviparous.
 
The offspring grow fast and may be some decimetres long only some week after the birth. The biggest specimen found in Europe was 33 cm long, but ordinary animals are 20 – 25 cm long.

You better not touch the bests without wearing thick gloves. Their bodies secrete corrosive and stinking mucus that may irritate sensitive skin.
 

Damages

The noxious animals attack above all gardens. Both vegetables and flowers are rapidly and efficiently destroyed. Early spring flowers in the nature as wood anemones are also an attractive food. Magnificent flowering anemone groves in the wonderful month of May will not be a sight for the new generations of Europeans. Softwoods and grains cultivated in large monocultures have on the other hand a certain chance.
 

Cannibalism

An unsympathetic characteristic that makes the species still more vigorous is that these molluscs are cannibals. When an individual became weakened by disease, stronger relatives will immediately attack it and eat it. In times of lack of food, larger specimen of the killer bananas simply consumes their smaller and weaker friends.
 

Means of Controlling

Even if the situation seems hopeless, it is of value that everybody helps to keep the number of vermin as small as possible. Garden shops are selling traps. You can also build your own traps of curtain rails and empty old flour parcels.

Assure that the few natural enemies to the killer bananas have the possible best living conditions in your garden environment. Especially important are frogs and toads, grass and viper snakes together with hedgehogs. Even birds like crows eat the brown-spotted marauders.

The Future

We have to be realistic and realize that gardening has to take time-out while the problem gets a solution. But we must also prepare us for a worse situation. Luckily the mucous creeps are sensitive to cold. But now several researchers are warning that the brown-spotted killer banana may mate with northern relatives. If so, we have to fight against veritable super killer bananas. Revolting and gluttonous disgusting things which will be a difficult treat against our closest environments.