OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Possums

I'm sick of the possums running across my roof at night and this drives my dog nuts and he barks at them at any time of the night, often about 3/4am. It doesn't really bother me but it isn't fair on the neighbours and I don't want to have the council jumping all over me. I have ordered a couple of these owls and I was wondering if anybody knows if they are effective or not.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Scare-O...Rodent-Bird-Pest-Deterrent/273045839619?

Norm, Welcome to the world of pesty pests. Here I have chickens and our possums are a major problem. I have already relocated 4 of the beasts last month. They are digging into my barn and killing my chickens. At least they only kill one or two at a time, unlike the mink that was killing them and piling them up. It killed 11 chickens twice before I caught him and terminated the pest. Smart little weasel relative, he keep tripping the steel traps but couldn't get the live animal trap though it wasn't for him trying. He was bouncing the trap al over the place.

I even had a Raccoon killing my chickens but that apparently didn't agree with him as I found him dead in front of the barn. Boy did he leave a big hole in the side of the barn where he chewed his way in.

Wish you luck on scaring the pests away though the owl hooting might cause the dog to bark too.

Hi AVB,
You sure seem to have a lot more pests than we have out here, biggest problem for chickens is foxes and they are all through the citys.
With the possums running all over the roof I;m concerned that they may damage the solar panels because the noise they make running across the roof is alarming, not sure what sort of boots they are wearing.
Hopefully the dogs won't be worried by the owl, time will tell

Hi AVB,
I am going to hang a bag of mothballs in each tree and see if that moves them on. Have you tried this, not sure if it would worry your chickens or not.

We have a family of possums that reside in the trees around the front and rear yards here.

One is a baby that sometimes rides on it's mother's back.
The problem is after giving them treats they now come on the ground and walk right up to you expecting a treat.
I was sitting in the front porch the other night when I went to swat a mosquito on my leg and didn't realise one of the critters was right at my feet and scared it half to death and it scurried away all of a sudden.

My father keeps giving them our food and before you know it there's no cereal or bread for us to eat, which is why I now don't tell him if I see the possums.

I don't have a problem with the possums as far as possums go, it is that they drive my young dog nuts at anytime of the night ( old dog couldn't care less) and it is the noise they make when they run across the roof. And then I'm concerned about the solar panels and this brings up another potential problem with cockatoos that come in in flocks to get in the cypress trees and chew/eat off the seed nuts from them. I'm concerned that if they get bored they may decide that the solar panels might be something worth destroying. I now have the 2 owls up on the roof and moth balls tied up in 5 of the trees. See how we go tonight

G'day Norm, AVB, and MF
Hello possums!

It is a rich texture that ODK would discuss 'possums'.

Norm, I feel you need to sit your young dog on your lap
and quietly explain the animal kingdom, maybe with some
Peruvian pan flute playing in the background.



I have found PowerPoint presentations are way beyond small dogs.

Thanks for the conversation.

----------------------
Jack

p.s. Will Norm solve this problem?

Hi Jack,
There is a wide spread of info available on here, you nearly always get an answer, if not an answer you get suggestions or conversations happening and if last night is anything to go by I think it has been a complete success. Dog ran out a couple of times, did a couple of barks, just out of habit I think and then would come back inside. This was all before 10.00pm, but as the possums weren't there he lost interest. Now my problem is I don't know what did the job, was it the owls or was it the moth balls

So far this has been a 98% success because I have only heard 1 possum run across the roof at 4.30 this morning so if anybody has a possum problem I think this is a very good fix to move them on. Not sure if it is the mothballs or the owls but as I only put 3 mothballs in each tree and I only did 5 of the trees I am surprised at the result

So it's goodbye Possums.

Now to move on to disrupting the cockatoos and their annoying habits. Hopefully the owls will have the right effect but if not I will have to step up my plans a bit

So far I have had reasonable success with getting rid of the possums but there is the odd one at night which sets the dog off this is 98% better than it was, so this is my latest attempt because it is able to move around in the slightest of breeze. Lot of work but hopefully this will fix the problem for good.

I took these shots of mother and her baby last night.
The baby still rides over the mother's back despite it's growing size, even as she climbs the tree.

So now the dog has spotted the owl moves around so now he is barking at that. Hopefully he will get sick of that

Well they are back, at least the owls worked for a week, looks like I will have to trap and dispose of them or the dog has to go.

Like the hi tech counterweight.

Getting rid one or the other can be a tough choice. Could work on the dog they usually easier to train than regular wildlife but relocation of the possums will only be temporary cure as more will move in if it is anything like the O'possums here. I just relocated 4 of them 20+ miles away but more take their place later.

Yes AVB, the counterweight gets more comments that the rest of it, I keep getting asked "is that a brick?' I have since mounted it on top of the arm so it is not swinging in the breeze and it can slide in and out so I can get the balance right.
It had been good and peaceful till last night and it was back to screaming at the dog half the night to get back inside. I knew early in the night it was going to turn ugly when they were back to running across the roof. I have an ultrasonic so called repeller on its way hopefully that will arrive tomorrow to see how that goes. It is driving me nuts

Yes pests do get on my nerves too. At least they not killing your livestock as the O'possums here do to my chickens. I think I got them thinned out here for a while.

The brick is okay as long you got it where it would come off and put a hole in your roof. Here I just had my roof a few months ago due a hole in it but that was from storm damage.

Hi AVB,
Brick is safe now it is bolted on. We had some very strong winds a couple of days ago and I thought the owl was going to loose its head but it hung in there even though it was spinning hard back and forth, not knowing which way to go. I'm thinking of fitting a solar motion detector light on the brick so that when the owl moves or its head wobbles the light will shine on the owl. That should give the possums something to be concerned about

Hi Norm,

The only thing I have heard that works is motion detection lights used in conjunction with a motion detection sprinkler but I have not
tried this myself so can't confirm it works.

https://www.sureguard.com.au/shop/product/scarecrow-motion-activated-sprinkler-solar-powered-1414

Cheers
Max.

Thanks Max,
I will keep pushing on , I WILL eventually win

Hi Norm
l can say from firsthand experience that the motion detection light at my place did not worry old poss one bit .
The only owl that will really scare old poss is the powerful owl as he likes eating them . See if you can cut something down of put something up so they have to go another way .

Possums have not been too much of a problem for the last couple of weeks, not sure what the reason is. Waiting to see what the new neighbours do about the cypress trees but if they remain and the possum problem continues I will resort to a scrambled egg with 3 asparin mixed in

Be carefully with a mix like that as many desirable animals will eat eggs. Personally I prefer live traps and use only deadly force as a last resort; except in the case rodents like mice. For those use regular mouse/rat traps and feed the trappings to the chickens that way I don't poison my chickens or other wildlife.

Matter of fact I working on clearing my shop of mice. Yesterday morning I went to clear the trap and found a half eaten mouse in it where the mice had done it to the victim of the trap. I have heard and seen the dog eat dog comment to be true but I never seen it with mice before.

It has been reasonable for a while but last night was really bad so at the moment I am pretty angry. Don't know how many are there but there is a lot going by the noise on the roof . Not sure why they want to run around on the roof so I am going to have to take action. I even thought about running electric fence wires all over it but I would need to have an earth method across the roof as well, maybe chicken wire across the roof with the fence wires just above it. I have gone through packets of rat bait over the last couple of weeks because on one side I have a woman with birds and at the rear they have chooks. I said I would win but at this stage I think they are winning. Seems like the cockatoos don't like the owls because they have only come once since the owls went up

We think cloudy ammonia on a rag seems to keep them away. You might need a lot though

Jeff

This afternoon was good, sitting having lunch and I heard a chainsaw next door and within a couple of hours 9 trees had been removed and everything cleaned up. Marvelous what a team of young blokes and some good equipment can do Should be able to get a good nights sleep tonight. Anybody want a couple of owls and a hawk I didn't even get to put up, it was supposed to scare the cockatoos away

Hello Possums

Norm, I have been following Possumgate.
A great story!

My fear is that possums n your area are evolving ...
These are early days post tree felling ...



Cheers
Jack

Excellent news Norm - hope they don't take refuge in the roof

I was shown this video the other day, Immediately thought of your issue

Apparently there is a new wave of 'ethnic' humour - Contains a bit of language haha. Cracks me up every time

Here is the link to the point in the video - only a 5 second bit while he's up the ladder

Was a possum hunt in Kingswood country from memory - can't remember who got shot though

Jack, Boy now I think I found myself a new Avatar.