Painted Pumpkins Should Not Be On Iowa Porches For A Dangerous Reason
It's easier to paint pumpkins than to carve them.
To this day, I can't carve pumpkins very well and it's easier both for kids and for me to try to paint them instead. Which is all well and good, but it that's your version of a porch jack-o-lantern, you need to rethink that.
It eventually kills presentability too. My ex put his daughter's painted pumpkins on their porch and I told him it wasn't a great idea because nature is going to do it's thing and sure enough, the paint chipped off and the pumpkin died and it looked like a gross orange blob on his porch.
Authorities Ask You To Keep Painted Pumpkins Inside
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking you to keep the painted pumpkins inside. Wildlife will eat the pumpkin and the paint can be toxic to them.
Don't hate on the squirrels, deer, and/or critters for eating the pumpkin, it's just nature doing it's thing. Would you say no to a free lunch?
Remember that animals will be eating your porch pumpkins if they're real pumpkins. You can't stop that. So make sure that you take out any kind of decorations in it (metal, plastics, candles, etc.) and don't use any flavorings.
I would suggest using the painted pumpkins as a cute fall centerpiece or accent pieces around the house. They're just as cute inside as they would be outside.
Remember that you can also use the pumpkin guts for stuff too, like soup or pumpkin seeds can make good bird food for your feeder.
If you're going to use the gourd, might as well get your money's worth from it.
Quad Cities Pumpkin Patches
Gallery Credit: Connor Kenney/Townsquare Media Quad Cities