Possums? Help!?

[Jordy]

Ok right, so we have possums visit our house regularly.
being pains, climbing inside our roof, running across our colorbond, eating our apple tree.

Is it likely that they will destroy my Bonsai?

E.g. I wake up in the morning to find a gnawed stump?

are these scenarios possible? Likely? bound to happen?

Jordy.

[Japh]

The Victorian Government has a page on their website on Possum Repellents.

I'd try the Indonesian Fish Sauce with the Garlic remedy (using two methods in one must be better, right?!), and maybe a little blood & bone fertiliser wouldn't hurt either? Multi-pronged approach, I say

[Jordy]

Hmmm. I'll give it a go, if i can find some.
but i am a bit skeptical...

Where did you get yours?
Hehe we do have the possum trap but its been known for us to have a few at a time

i'd just Really hate to wake up one morning and go to water my bonsai half dead asleep to have the shock of staring at an empty ravaged pot.

[anttal63]

shotgun

[Jordy]

If only my mates were allowed to discharge one in a suburban area!

I'd have it covered!

[Bretts]

I guess it is possible that they are intrested in fertiliser left on trees. Fertiliser cakes. I guess this could result in a digging or a dropped pot but I did not think they ate trees
Peavers might make a dam in your fish pond?

[Jester]

Hi Jordy,I have had direct experience with multiple possums and my suggestion to you is: Get some traps fast and learn to set them up properly. I had one possum completely defoliate 6 Bonsai of varying species. I then borrowed a trap and caught 3 in one and a half weeks. I had a look at that link regarding alternatives and if it were me , I would'nt want most of those chemicals anywhere near my Bonsai especially with such a low success rate. Get some traps, catch'em and drive them like 25 miles away. And if you're thinking,...."Maybe I will just wait for a sign...if I wake up one morning and see that they've eat a couple of leaves, I'll go and get a trap" ........NOPE, when they come for your Bonsai, you will know!!!

[Bretts]

I wonder why I feel the need to write I could be wrong under my post. I might have to add it too my signature.

[Pup]

Put up a hot wire to keep the cat and dog in. As you know letting your cat and dog roam is against shire by laws. Pup
It also stops the five fingered discount brigade

[anttal63]

I guess it is possible that they are intrested in fertiliser left on trees. Fertiliser cakes. I guess this could result in a digging or a dropped pot but I did not think they ate trees
Peavers might make a dam in your fish pond?

sure do bretts. recently a ring tail, ring barked a mates lemon tree.

[bodhidharma]

Here in the highlands we get bushrats. those cute little pouched things.......they will ring bark your trees in one night. I have watched the little suckers do it. I catch then in a live trap and take them out into the bush reminding them they are bush rats. I also suffer with a rabbit problem(living in the bush) but they only prune my beginner trees. I think they actually do a good job. If i want pruning done i just drop my ongrowers onto the ground and lo and behold next morning they are pruned. I dont whether to move them on or pay them. I lie to you not.

[Bajiru]

The only effective solution I found was bird netting over the plants which need to be protected - and one more at the end of this post.

Based on what I'm about to tell you, you can be pretty sure that it will go after the bonsai. Probably everything except junipers and pines.

I live in an apartment on the first floor and have long window-box style planters hanging over the rail. I mostly grow various chillies including some specialty extra-hot ones.

Last year, a possum decided it liked the lush green tender shoots of the new branches which was bad enough. Each night, it would sneak about and pretty much coppice the plants.

Then it decided it liked chilli. It ate most of my crop including habaneros - the uber-hot yellow ones. It wouldn't eat a whole habanero - just take one bite of each and ruin the crop. I would have liked to seen the look on its face when it bit those as a matchstick-head sized piece fills one's mouth with a white hot burning sensation that last and lasts. It was biting about a third of each fruit.

It ate the Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, parsley, chives - everything except the spring onions and the garlic chives.

I tried:
* Fish sauce / oil & chilli & garlic spray
* Poss-off
* Oolong tea leaves
* Blood and bone
* Cat pee and poo
* Human pee (sort of worked).


I rang NPWS and WIRES asking for solutions. As protected animals there are rules about trapping, relocation, etc so that wasn't really an option. They recommended chilli powder. Not a chance in Hades of that working.

I bird netted the pots. It figured out how to climb on the netting and pull the plants through the net. If there was more space between the net and the pot that method would work.

Nothing worked. This little beast was unstoppable.

Two solutions remained:
* Modify a photo flash as a hot-wire and zap the fella.
* Axle grease.

I axle-greased the rails. First night the plants were unmolested. Second night there were footprints in the grease and the plants were unmolested. The little blighter hasn't been back.Happy days.

YMMV.

Cheers - Bajiru.

[Jordy]

lol

Human pee (sort of worked).

THAT is classic.

[bonscythe]

Personally, I don't think driving the trapped possum 50kms away would be an ethical way of resolving this situation. I understand the concerns but that is, in my opinion, not an appropriate solution to this issue. Unforetunately, I can't offer any other advice as I would of recommended ringing WIRES/NPWS(or their equivalent in your state) but that option seems to end up with chilli powder?
Little buggers!

[Bajiru]

The regs, for NSW at least, permit it only to be relocated 50 metres from where it was trapped. Taking them somewhere else apparently leads to death from stress caused by them having to fight for new territory. The fines for getting caught out doing something like that are apparently a bit steep.

50 metres should be OK for getting them out of the roof and then sealing the hole where they got in. A mate built a box up a tall post for one down the end of his yard, so now they live in the box, get fed sometimes and generally leave the plants alone. Better to have a trained and well behaved one around than a feral chilli and bonsai devouring monster.

Around here, a built up area of apartment buildings, fifty metres is next to useless. Behaviour modification via deterrent seems to be the only choice.

In a normal yard, I would go the bird netting. It's as cheap as, despite being not very visually appealing, but it's better than having years of bonsai goodness turned into possum poo.

Cheers - Bajiru.