http://cuqldfreeblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/living-with-possums-under-same-roof.html
(Full version with photos and pictures)
The Possum was caught in the garden, not in the man hole with the apple still hanging there.
In our monthly Yum Cha today, we chatted about life in Australia. One common nuisance popped up during our conversation. It is the invasion of privacy by possums.
Possum負鼠or袋貂 is a kind of Marsupial 有袋動物 uniquely exists in Australia. It is different from the果子狸 Paguma larvata we use to have in China and elsewhere outside of Australia although they look alike.
Possum of course live in the wild. But when their habitats are disturbed, in my case, the redevelopment of acreage around my area into high density residential area whereby all the trees are cut. Then, the made homeless possums will sneak into your roof by squeezing through the gap between the edge of the roof tiles and the gutter. They specifically target those houses with insulation which can make themselves a warm new home. If they live quietly there, it does not bother anyone. But the problem is , they normally will make a big deal of their presence by playing, or fighting on the roof at the odd hour of our quiet life 4am in the morning. You know, they are afraid of light, so their activity begin at sunset and end at sunrise. So, when all this home sweet home ritual amongst the family members at the end of their “day” happens above your head at 4am, you really will have gone crazy. I don’t know many people have the same experience but have put up with it for the hell of a life time?!
OK, you now have a proven solution from me. I learned it from a possum specialist but have improved it after a shock experience that the specialist may have never encountered.
I saw the note sticked on the notice board of a local shop that they can help to get rid of possum if they have become a nuisance to your home. They basically rent you a steel wire cage (as per photo) at a price of A$60. They will come to your come to help you set up the trap inside the roof near the entrance of a man hole. They will provide you with a granny smith apple. They will scratch the apple cut into half on the bottom of the cage to leave there a strong fragrant, and then hang it on the hook inside the cage. Normally you will set it up before sunset. So when the possums wake up and ready to get out at 6pm or so for their daily activity, they almost for sure will be attracted to the cage by the fragrant of the granny smith apple. If they are caught even before they leave your roof, then, you have to put up with the noise of struggling for one more night as you won’t want to get the cage down in dark at night. The service of A$60 will include also the removal of the possum. We thought this will be the end of our nightmare, but not long after, another possum moved in and we have to go through the renting of the cage once again. Eventually, the specialist had mercy on us and advised us to buy our own cage from a pet shop which so happen is near our home in Wishart. It costs us A$80 and it is proved to be a good buy because I have repeatedly used it to catch over 30 possums. They just keep coming one after the others when more natural habitats are destroyed around my area. The only problem of catching possums ourself with our own cage is that I have to do the removal of possums myself.
According to Australian law, they are protected animal. Council regulation states that if a possum is caught, it has to be released within 15 meter radius of where it was caught. What a senseless rule it is. Anyway, I relocate all the caught possums to the same spot in the bush area in Burbank besides a lake. I trust I have done them a favour by helping them to migrate to a new habitat area to rebuild their family there.
One incidence prompted me to change the said method of trapping possums inside the roof.
In the middle of one night, we were woken up by a phone call from the security company. They said the security system showed that our house was broken in. We were a bit confused and still thought the alarm bell was from one of our neighbour which always has false alarm. But soon we came to our sense that the alarm was really inside our home. The cause we found out next day in the morning was the cage had trapped a rat instead of a possum. The rat was comparative smaller as such they could protrude its mouth through the wire hole of the cage and reached out to bite broken the cable of the security system. It caused us a repair bill of A$300. Since this incidence, we decided to place the cage at the back yard where the possums will normally get pass. Of course each time only one possum is caught, but the family members will usually evacuate from our home as they know they are not welcome and it has become an unsafe space for them. It will also not attract possums in other area as they will not trespass into other possum’s territory which they will chart their boundary by leaving their smell on their path of access to the house. Thus one final tip to you is that you must clean the cage very thoroughly after each catch. Because the possum got trapped will release special odour when in a distressed situation to raise alarm to other possums.
OK, you are welcome to contact me for further information in relation to trapping and relocation of possums.
No comments:
Post a Comment