Many people leave their pumpkins outside
Thousands of households across the country have carved pumpkins for Halloween in a tradition that families have enjoyed for decades. The activity involves scraping out the inside of pumpkins and leaving a spooky design before lighting them up with a tealight candle.
Many people leave their pumpkins outside to welcome trick or treaters but once the spooky day is over, the fruit is often left outside houses for wildlife to eat. What many people might not realise is this simple act can be dangerous.
The British Deer Society have issued a ‘please don’t dump’ pumpkin warning to people for November. They said: “Although leaving unwanted pumpkins out for wildlife to eat once Halloween is over may appear eco-friendly and is regularly recommended on social media, it can actually do more harm than good.
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“Pumpkins are not a natural food source for most wildlife. Although some animals may enjoy eating them, they could make others unwell, cause digestive problems, or even help to spread disease. Decorated pumpkins may also hold other indigestible items such as candles or plastic decorations which add an additional hazard to any animal that swallows them.
“They may also attract unwelcome vermin. As they take a long time to break down, discarded pumpkins can upset delicate woodland ecosystems and have a seriously detrimental effect on plants, fungi and the soil itself.”
The society have advised that while leaving pumpkins in the woods for wildlife is not recommended, there are plenty of alternative ways to make use of them once Halloween is over. One way recommended is to turn them into bird feeders or baking a pumpkin pie. Alternatively, the seeds can be toasted to make a delicious snack or put out for birds to enjoy, or dried and saved for planting next year.
One animal pumpkins can prove particularly deadly for is hedgehogs. The British Hedgehog Preservation Society suggests hanging your pumpkins in trees to allow birds and squirrels to eat the fruit and keep them off the ground so it doesn’t encourage hedgehogs to eat them.
