Troublemaker tenant:
Brush-tail Possum

Some people might feel blessed to have possums living nearby, but most of us think a cute face is just not enough to make up for the poor housekeeping, late night stampedes and shameless raids on garden beds.

Like all Australian native animals, brush-tail possums are fully protected. So what do you do if your efforts to live in harmony and mutual respect just aren’t being reciprocated? The solution depends on the type of possum tenant you have.

1. The vandalising outdoors possum

This possum eats your parsley before you get to enjoy it and bulldozes his way through pots and ornaments with no concern for breakage. You’ll need to apply some creativity to deter him from mischief:

- Plant some trees that you are happy for the possum to snack on. This may distract him from your more precious plants or at least reduces the damage

- Spray the favourite plant with a bitter product. Boil quassia chips, minced garlic or chilli flakes, and fill the water into a spray bottle, alternatively make a spray out of crushed hot chilli and water.

- Spread camphor or naphthalene flakes around the garden. They also taste bitter and may repel your possum

- Trim back tree branches from fences and walls that he uses as a runway. Your possum is lazy and does not jump huge distances.

- Place sheet metal collars, 60cm wide and 60cm above the ground, around the trunks of fruit trees.

- Build a floppy fence around flower beds or the vegie garden. Use 80cm wide, heavily galvanised chicken wire, bury the bottom 20cm and support the remainder on vertical lengths of flexible, high­ tensile fencing wire. Bend the wire to curve the upper section outwards. When your possum attempts to climb the fence it will bend over and then spring back.

If possum poo or wee on porches or pavers are the problem, there are four steps to follow:

- Let’s be fair: check first whether the offender might not be a rat or a spraying cat.

- If you are certain the possum is to blame for droppings under a tree, cut off all access as per above

- Locate and remove all scent markings with household bleach

- Don’t tempt your possum. Block access to any readymade snacks such as pet food, vegetables or ornamental gardens, compost bin or birdseed

2. The self-absorbed indoors possum

This possum can give the worst behaved teenager a run for his money. Living in the roof, nightly parties and stampedes paired with complete oblivion of hygiene and tidiness limit your options for happy cohabitation. Someone has to move out, and ideally that would be your possum.

Here is how to deliver the eviction notice:

- Firstly, determine if you have identified the right culprit. Bats, rats, mice and Welcome Swallows love the sheltered life in roof spaces too. If it sounds like an elephant’s stomp rather than a pitter-patter, you are probably right to suspect a possum.

- Offer an alternative home with a cosy nest box in your backyard. Click here to find out how to build one. Check the box regularly to make sure you are not accidentally sheltering some less pleasant troublemakers like European wasps or Indian Mynahs.

- Find out how the possum gets into your roof and block the access. Watch your possum’s movements after dark or check your roof during the day for gaps or tell-tale possum hair where the possum squeezes into the roof space.

- Wait until the possum leaves the roof for the night and seal all access points with timber or chicken wire before he returns. To him it will still smell like home, so if you want him to relocate into the new nest box, make sure you remove all scent marks from the roof space with bleach.

- If you must do this work during the day when the possum might be asleep in your roof, you might have to install a one-way door flap at the possum’s access point. Rather than being trapped inside, the possum will be able to leave but not return. Licensed pest controllers can supply you with a door flap.

Trapping and removing possums requires a license, and the success is questionable. Unless you possum-proof your roof, a successor will soon move in and the party nights start all over again.