Possums
 

Ok its not as informative as tea bags!:D

We had a possum in the roof (I live in Sydney Suburb) we border onto forest, but can get the things most places. The possum man came round this morning, tidied the holes in the roof the possum made and blocked him in we hope. Laid a trap that will catch him and then he has to put him up our gum tree to sleep it all off for the day in a possum house we pay for. (Possum has to stay on your property as they are territorial and protected). Hopefully this means he will stay in his new house and stop coming in ours at 4.15 every morning. They are not so cute when it is possum poo all over the loft and roof in your own home.

Total cost estimated $200, and I believe we get to pay again if the thing makes more holes and gets back in. That is my information. Anyone got any more possum stories?

PS on the subject of Teabags - Which by the way my Mum on visit here went without her PG Tips or Tetleys (cause they are not always in supermarket) any way she swears by Nerada, and I think she went through lots of brands to get her cuppa right! She lives in Spain and gets all visitors to bring out her Tea Bags. Me personally I buy shops own brand, cheap as possible, I like my tea weak as nats pee and tend to wave the bag at the cup so not paying for anything expensive to colour my water!

Cheers

Re: Possums
 

Not a great story.... but I walk to work in the mornings, and this morning I saw a dead possum on the pavement. Poor thing must only have died last night because it hadn't been scavanged yet. Little thing looked so sweet. It had the most amazing littly grippy feet. I love possums. Sad start to the day.

(the day got worse when I got in to work and an email from my mum informed me that my 15 year old brother's getting a big toe removed)

Re: Possums
 

Sad news about your bro! Hope it all goes well for him. Nope not a nice day you are having.

The possum we have is not a cute little thing it is rather larger than a large cat and the claws are not something I would like to tangle with. I have no issue with it - just want it to live outside my house and not chew my beams!

Re: Possums
 

I was walking back from the gym at lunchtime and saw a baby parrot that had fallen from it's nest being killed by a big crow.

Now that was disturbing, it ruined my day.

I was pretty upset when I splatted a bettong with my car out there.

Re: Possums
 

Nature at work , possums beautiful creatures , we stuffed their enviroment, that gives them the right to stuff ours [ceilings]etc , just dont go sticking your hands in their holes ,[ in trees] :( .....:D :beer: MM

Re: Possums
 

Give me a possum any day to a feral cat which eats any thing and every thing , feral cat in this country have wiped out hundreds of species of lizards , native mice and large insects , possums might wipe out the odd fruit tree.......:D :beer: MM

I went camping to North Queensland and camped on the beach under trees. Woke up and thought it had started to rain. decided to get my boots in from outside, but when I put my head out I came nose to nose with a possum. Scared the living pooh out of me. After calming down realised the trees were full of possums and they were urinating all over my tent. Had a good laugh about it and enjoyed seeing the possums, even though the tent honked for days after.

Re: Possums
 

I read about a guy on KI a few months back, who makes stubbie holders out of feral cat pelts :)

What you need, is one of these.

Remember - save the bush, give possums the push

And we must not forget Dr John Walmsley of Warrawong Sanctuary who has the famous feral cat hat!

Liked this site -
http://www.a-zofwomen.com/Recipe_189...icoot+Soup.htm

Larissa
Vegie meself, but if you're gonna kill 'em you might as well eat 'em...

remember, us ozzies sent the possum to New zealand in exchange for all the dole bludgers you sent us........:D :beer: MM

I find the road kill in Oz very disturbing, havn't told the kids that one yet:scared:

My brother's place has possum family as sitting tennants.

They turn up at the back door every night at 6.30 to be fed. If the offering is not to their liking they will come into the kitchen and stand on hind legs peering into the fridge!

Unfortunately Mr & Mrs are currently going through a trial separation with mother and child in the roof space (co-habiting with a rather large and bad tempered carpet pyhton).

Mr Possum (aka Bilbo) occassionally forgets why he's in the dog house (actually a horse shed) and attempts to re-kindle the romance. This errupts into an almighty ruck making WWF Smackdown look like a slight argument in a bus queue.

I don't know how long tjis has been hoing on but Bilbo has literally had half his left ear chewed off.

It's all pretty amusing when it's not your house.

Latest Update

Possum went in cage last night, possum man back this morning, it was a mother and her baby. We now have a rather large possum house on our gum tree (looks like overlarge bird box). Mum and baby installed, hopefully to sleep all day today - possibly check out the entry points to our roof tomorrow morning 4.15, hope it cannot get back in. I wish no harm to the possum and hope it is very happy in the new house. I agree totally about the feral cats (horrible beasties), have a friend up Port Stephens way who is very happy to shoot these vermin as often as possible.

So why are you allowed to trap and kill possums in NZ but they are protected in Aus?

Cheers

Possums are not native to NZ. The flora in NZ is like a fruit bowl to a possum compared to the harsh eucalypts of OZ. Hence there are over 80 million of the buggers there. The possums do a lot of damage to the native NZ flora which is why they are considered pests.

Australia and NZ are prime example of why it is dangerous to take animals across continents.

Try and visit Kakadu before the Cane Toads kill all the fauna.

I used to feed possums on the balcony each night in the house before last (I haven't in this house.. we've only just moved in) .

We had one which we called Nick. He was pretty tame. Eat about anything (my pot plants included!... hence the name nick, plus he had a nick in his ear.. probably from a fight) . He used to come right up to the door.. if we had opened it he probably would have strolled right in too like your brothers possums... cheeky thing he was

He wasn't scared of my cats (too big for my cats to hurt him, in fact I have heard that a cat will come off worse. A friend of mine had his cat ripped to shreds by a possum.... dogs kill more possums than cats. and as for koalas... look at the figures. number one killer is cars, number two is dogs, number three is diseases.. they are also too big for a cat to kill) In fact the possum used to come looking for one of my cats (one cat was scared of him, the other used to sit next to the glass and watch him) . Favourite food of theirs were bananas... go wild for them. Easy way to check if you have possums around, put a dish if chopped bananas down... possums can sniff it out for miles.

Personally I enjoy having possums around after all we are in their environment. I'd much rather have possums as neighbours than people :)

I live in area with koalas (my home backs on to a reserve) .. dogs area real pain in the b*tt when it comes to the koalas around here. In fact dog owners can recieve huge fines in my area if they don't contain their dog when there's a koala on their land (about a $3000 fine)

Easy way to pick up a possum if need be, chuck a thick blanket over them. Or if you want to trap them yourself to move.. get a trap from the RSPCA.



cheers:)

Re: Possums
 

Was rather unamused after going through 10 hours of imagining my brother going through life with a missing big toe (how would he wear flip-flops? How would girlfriends react? :scared: Would he be able to balance when he's already over 6 foot tall?)...only to find out that my mother had failed to type the word NAIL after the word toe.

That's what you get for living in a different time-zone and not being able to call as soon as you get emails in the morning.

LOl LOL LOL

:D :D :D

Re: Possums
 

Goodness I am so pleased - I did not how to respond yesterday when you stated your brother needed his toe removed.

I was wondering the same things, balance etc. I am now with Diane - LOL so glad it wasn't the whole thing.:D

I'm very glad too. It would have been awful! I kept imagining what had happened to create the need to remove a toe, that would have to be pretty awful too.

Cheers for your concern, I'm sure little brother would be flattered. :)

P.S. LOL from me too when I realised the error! My mother should learn the skill of making oneself clear. :D

Re: Possums
 

oh no!! How sad!!

I was steaming down the Gnangara Road yesterday doing 90k when a pink parrot decided to cross the road, I slammed on my breaks and let him pass safely to the other side. When one is lost, another is saved.
:D

Re: Possums
 

Oh please don't tell me that this was on North Terrace ??!! On my way home the other night I saw one scavenging on the pavement on North Terrace. I was worried that it would try to bolt across the road to the park and spent about half an hour walking along next to it waiting until it crossed the road so that I could "escort" it across. Eventually it just ran up a tree so I wasted my time.

I'd hate it if it was the same little possum. It did seem very slow though and was eating all kinds of junk that it found lying on the pavement so maybe it was ill.

:(

we once had a couple of possums come flying through the open window during a particularly heavy thunder storm - frightened the life out of us (and ruined the night of passion!!!!!!!)
mental note; close window during storms...................'specially if its ''one of those nights''!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sue:) :D

Re: Possums
 

Sunlover, I don't think it was your possum, I saw it in the parklands near the Womens and Childrens, just near Finniss St.

I'm surprised a possum was so brazen to eat from the road, they're normally so shy, probably was ill. Ah well, everything has to die at some point, just a shame if it was hit by a car and not succuming to old age.

Re: Possums
 

Thanks for that Nara, I hope "my" possum was just tame and used to humans (and their food) rather than ill. !

Because Possums in New Zealand ,were introduced from Australia ,by greedy humans trying to set up a fur trade, just like some silly pommie bastard , introduced foxes and rabbits to Australia because he missed his traditional hunting.....God we would have to be the dumbest Creatures on this planet........:D :beer: MM