Possum in residence...

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

 

Ahh! might make a banana cake now I'll have some spare*

*Banana has been Possum trap 'bait' up til now.

Oh Possum!

Let me introduce Apple Blossom, she is such a frequent squatter in our roof space that the girls have named her. Apple Blossom is a Brushtail Possum, Kate gives a good tongue in cheek description of them in her post here, so I won't bother, she is far more amusing than I could be (tho she does go on a bit it is worth reading to the bottom cause she gets quite interesting).

She is a bit cute and autumn is babies time for possums so we can't just fling her out on her ear but I really don't want her in my roof. There is some small print legal stuff here too - they are a protected species and you need a permit to trap and remove them.. and they must be released with 25 metres of where you caught them - This makes it very difficult to get rid of them because of course they just come back! 

 And we know it is Apple Blossom because see that sore on her nose? she got that the first time she spent the wee hours in the cage (after she had finished the banana) by rubbing her nose against the wire (I do feel bad..) this picture was about the third time she was lured in by a banana.

Every few days I hear the familar thump, thump, thump on my ceiling, sigh and go find a banana.

After each trap and release we race about the place trying to find and fix her entry point. Anything a possum can fit its head through is big enough to squeeze the rest of it through.

Yep, that is a sump box (and yes, it is a very long way up! we work into the early evening round here)
These were the last possible entry points we could think of... now we wait and see.

Today my beloved took the day off and built a new home for her (plans here and here)

It involved climbing trees and tying fancy knots

(Just so you know I did a bit of sawing, holding things still, smeared the whole thing with homemade beeswax polish and ran up and down stairs a bit being a very handy apprentice)

We left her a few bits of apple as a house warming gift...I do hope she likes it and moves in!

Possum

Cute isn't he? Since we moved to our current house just over three years ago we have had so many possums in our roof that we bought our own trap. My sister feeds her family of possums but that is because she doesn't have them living above her head! They fight and make disturbing screeching mating calls, urinate everywhere (and it smells horrid) and I'm quite sure that our erratic loungeroom lighting has quite a bit to do with them tangling their toes in the wiring.
They are seriously easy to catch, it literally only takes minutes (they must have very sensitive nostrils). Take a slice of bread and smear it with peanut butter and some jam, set the trap and wait. You should soon hear thumping as it's bounding little body dances across the beams and then SNAP! the door shuts. Cute but not too bright. This morning I let this juvenile male go up a tree near the dam and he made light work of the climb.