What should I do if monkeys come into my home?

Monkey in house: what to do now

A macaque on your kitchen counter is a shock. Still, the animal mostly wants what you want: a short visit. It came in looking for food, and it will leave sooner if the way out is obvious and nobody stands in it.

The NParks Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS) advises staying calm and quiet, not staring at the monkey, and using a stick to hit the ground to coax it towards the exit. Build everything else around those three points:

• Open the nearest door or window wide, then step away from that path.
• Move children and pets into another room and close the door behind them.
• Speak softly or not at all. Shouting and sudden movements make a tense room worse.
• Stand side-on and look at the floor or the exit, not at the monkey's face.
• If it has grabbed a loaf of bread or a bunch of bananas, let it go. That food is lost.

Once it has gone, shut the window it came through and check the other rooms before you relax, in case it was not alone. If a monkey will not leave, or seems hurt or stuck, the Getting help section below gives the number to call. Our home emergencies FAQ covers other urgent problems around the home.

Why macaques visit homes

The macaque Singapore homeowners meet most often is the Long-tailed Macaque. AVS says these monkeys come to homes near forests looking for food, which is why visits happen in some neighbourhoods and almost never in others.

Picture a terrace house with a garden that backs onto secondary forest, a condo block facing a nature reserve, or a low-floor HDB flat beside a wooded slope. In each case the forest edge is a short climb away. To a hungry macaque, a home with an open window and a fruit bowl in view looks like an easy meal.

Landed homes tend to have more ways in: back gates, outdoor wet kitchens, roof terraces and fruit trees in the garden. Each one needs its own check. Our landed homes FAQ answers other questions that come up in that kind of house.

Securing windows and doors

Keeping a monkey out is far easier than getting one out. AVS recommends installing window mesh or grilles, closing windows and doors when monkeys are around, including bathroom windows, and latching pet entrances.

Bathroom windows are the ones people forget. They stay open all day for ventilation, sit out of sight and lead straight into the flat. If yours has louvres, close them fully when monkeys are about. Kitchen windows that face greenery need the same attention.

Mesh suits windows where you want air but no gap. Grilles are the other route, and our comparison of invisible grilles vs traditional explains how the two styles differ. Before anything goes up, ask the installer how the design copes with small hands reaching through, and whether the opening sections can be locked.

A pet flap is another quiet way in. Latch it whenever monkeys are seen nearby, not only at night. For fitting mesh or grilles, quotes depend on your window sizes and the material you choose.

Food, bins and fruit trees

Food is the only reason a macaque bothers with your home, so the surest way to keep monkeys away is to leave them nothing to find. AVS advises:

• Store food out of sight.
• Carry food in cloth bags rather than plastic.
• Double-knot garbage bags.
• Secure bin lids with a bungee cord.
• Harvest or cover the fruit on your trees.

At home, that means the fruit bowl moves into a cupboard and the bread goes into a drawer. Groceries come straight indoors after the market run, instead of waiting at the gate while you look for your keys. A household with a mango or rambutan tree in the garden should pick the fruit as it ripens or cover it.

Tidy bins help in more than one way, because the same habits deny a meal to rodents too. Our guide to rats in the home covers that side of things.

Do not feed them

Feeding wildlife is prohibited under the Wildlife Act, as AVS points out. That applies to tossing a banana off the balcony just as much as to a neighbour leaving bread on a corridor ledge.

Feeding also makes your own problem bigger. A monkey that finds food at one window has a reason to come back, and to try the windows next door.

If someone in your block or estate is feeding them, start with a quiet word, or raise it with condo management. Monkeys are not a pest control job, because removal is for NParks or its partners. For insects and rodents, see our pest control FAQ.

Getting help

For an injured, trapped or persistent monkey, call the Animal Response Centre at 1800-476-1600. The AVS macaques page sets out its advice on encounters. In a condo, tell management as well so other residents know. If your trouble on the ledges comes from birds rather than monkeys, our guide to pigeon deterrents covers that.

Questions