Is there any possible way we can rid ourselves of the ''problem'' of possums in Canberra?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Or are they just too cute to be a pest?
If there is an issue that divides the citizens of this city, it's what to do about the ''evil fur balls''. That's the term Anthony Toms uses to express his frustration at having his garden raided.
Toms is the partner of ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr, and is challenging the ACT government to change the law and allow possums to be removed.
''If only someone in the ACT government had the stones to do something, hey Andrew,'' he says on a Facebook page he has created. At the moment possums are protected animals and can only be taken about 50 metres away from the house they are terrorising.
Even New Zealanders rue our possums. The brushtail possum was imported there in 1837 to establish a fur trade and is now regarded as a pest. Numbers have been reduced by poisoning and trapping.
But what would be the point of taking the noisy possum from your ceiling cavity in Canberra out to the nearby bush? Another one would soon find the vacated lair.
In the bush capital no one can stop possums raiding gardens or scampering over roofs - on houses built on a once remote, grassy plain.
But there is hope for keeping them out of the ceilings, where they make such a mess.
It's not exactly possum magic, but the proposal goes like this:
As recommended by the ACT government, you employ a professional possum trapper who finds the entry points into the ceiling. The trapper will seal all the entry points except one, where a temporary one-way door is installed.
Since possums are nocturnal, they will go roving at night and are then unable to return to your roof cavity.
But possums are territorial and are unlikely to leave the vicinity. Rather than have your intruder sniffing around other roofs, you install a box in a tall tree as a home for it.
But that's madness, isn't it, just encouraging a pest to linger?
Maybe, but the reality is we're stuck with them - you can't legally trap or kill them.
One of Canberra's licensed possum removalists, Neil Harvey, is promoting the practice described above - giving the possum the boot but showing some consideration for it, too.
He works full-time on possums problems, and his background in metal roofing and roof plumbing is of great assistance when he is trying to plug holes in eaves.
As an illustration of the magnitude of the nuisance they cause, a month ago he had 40 jobs on his books.
''The problem is getting worse because every year there is another generation of possums getting kicked out of the family home by the mother because they like to live by themselves, so then you've got a new generation of young looking for homes to reside in as well,'' he said.
He was called to a house in Narrabundah this week where he sealed the roof cavity and installed a box for the possum in the bough of an oak tree on the nature strip, about five metres above ground level.
He used to work for the ACT government trimming street plantings and removing dying trees. "I thought it would be great to accommodate possums throughout the suburbs in street trees with possum boxes, and maybe take a bit of a load off people's houses, because possums can be quite destructive and try to get back in by tearing at things and smashing things,'' he said.
"Most people like the possums, but they get a bit fed up with being awoken by them and are worried about damage to the ceiling. They don't want to lose them altogether and they're quite happy to have a possum box installed.''
Recently he was called to a house where a possum jumped through a bedroom window at night.
''It was about 1 o'clock in the morning that one came through a lady's bedroom window and landed on the bed,'' he said.
"She turned the light on and saw beady eyes. She threw shoes at it but it didn't budge, so we removed it by hand about 10.30 the next morning - out of her bed.''
Harvey relies on heavy gloves for protection when he sets about capturing a possum. ''We grabbed that one and put it down near a tree.''
One of his success stories is at Higgins, where the residents are handfeeding a baby possum that lives in a box he installed.
Home owner Dennis Bevan said two possums entered the roof cavity when it was partly opened during renovations.
After a call to Harvey, hey now has a possum box installed on a post near his carport.
"Once we put the box up, one of them moved in and I am assuming the mother has gone and left the baby,'' Bevan said.
''It comes and stays every second night and my wife feeds it - it loves bananas but also watermelons, pears and grapes.
''Now it's at the stage where my wife can pat its tail.
Unlike other home-owners in Canberra, Bevan said his vegetable garden had never been raided. "I reckon they're cute,'' he declared. ''There's nothing wrong with them, they're harmless.''
That's not a view shared by Toms, who said the ''little bastards'' chewed through chicken wire to reach his veggie patch. He is campaigning via social media to pressure the ACT government to change the law.
''Should protection be removed in the ACT?'', is the question he has posed on the page he created on Facebook, Possums are pests in Canberra.
''A 'cull' perhaps?,'' he writes. ''They eat most things I plant - every night they are defecating and urinating on my decks, front and back, waking me most nights.
''I want the law changed in the ACT to allow problem possums to be removed from my property.''
Nina Bruns deals with possums every day in her job as senior ranger for Canberra nature parks north district. ''Usually it's advice over the phone,'' she said. "Some people want them gone and others are quite happy to have them live in the area, just not in their roof or in their house.''
Her advice to people with possum problems is to watch at dawn and dusk to work out where the animal is coming and going from the ceiling cavity.
If the possum has to be caught to be removed, it should be released within a couple of houses away.
''This is to ensure the possum is not displaced from its own home range,'' Bruns said. "Canberra has a such a high density of possums - move them any further away and you are releasing that possum into another possum's territory.
''We do have quite a healthy population in Canberra - they're right throughout the suburbs, and usually in the more established suburbs with big oak trees and where people have lots of fruit trees.''
She agrees with providing a home for the possum - but not in your roof cavity.
"If you are displacing it out of a roof, it needs some shelter to be able to sleep in the daytime,'' she said.
''So if you provide a possum box, it's more likely to maintain its territory and you and it can live happily alongside each other.
"Another reason why possums aren't allowed to be relocated any further is when you get rid of one possum - because the density is so high - you are almost guaranteed to have another possum moving to that then-vacant territory, and that doesn't actually solve your issue.
"So if you give the possum a home outside your roof, you will still have a possum but it's maintaining its own territory and stopping other possums coming over.''
Bruns said deterrents available from hardware store were usually an ammonia-based powder or spray.
"Some people find them useful, others don't. It all depends on the individual possum that you have,'' she said.
Homeowners should trim overhanging branches in the garden to stop easy access to the roof.
ACT Territory and Municipal Services said the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) was the best known of all the possums because it had adapted to living in cities and suburbs.
''It especially likes the leafy suburbs of Canberra,'' the agency said.
''They are nocturnal, sleeping during the day and coming out at night to feed - mainly on eucalypt leaves and flowers. However, they also eat fruit and common garden plants.
''They particularly like rosebuds. The compost heap is also highly attractive to possums for an easy meal of fruit and vegetable scraps.
''Possums normally make their homes in tree hollows but if none are available they will use any suitable, dark place including the space between the ceiling and roof of houses and in garages. Here they can cause sleepless nights for humans beings below as they move about and interact with other possums.
The agency said possums could be delightful creatures. But ''their impressive acrobatics and cute and cuddly appearance [are] best enjoyed from a distance''.
''You can encourage them to stay in your neighbourhood by providing alternative homes such as nesting boxes made of a hollow log blocked at one end, or some other form of homemade shelter.
''It should be waterproof and placed four to five metres above the ground.
''Possums are protected under the Nature Conservation Act 1980 and it is illegal for an unauthorised person to trap or harm them. Trapping, removing or killing a possum without a licence carries severe penalties.''
All of which brings back memories of a once-familiar ghostbusters refrain:
If there's somethin' strange in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?
facebook.com/RossPeake