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The article discusses how suburban backyards, with their diverse and reliable food sources, attract common brushtail and ringtail possums. It highlights the importance of using wildlife-safe physical barriers like fine-mesh netting and fruit protection bags to deter possums without harming them. Additionally, it suggests spacing tree canopies to make the habitat less favorable for these marsupials.
Wildlife-friendly methods to deter possums The diversity, palatability and food quality in suburban backyards attracts common brushtail possums and common ringtail possums to people's homes, according to Jason Van Weenen, ecologist at Green Adelaide.
Supplied: Martin Stokes"Even throughout tough times, in droughts, there is a reliable food supply for possums in those urban settings," Mr Van Weenen says. Favourable habitat structures such as fences, roofs and powerlines where possums can quickly retreat from predators are another factor as to why urban areas provide a "real refuge for the species," he adds.
While there are many methods to deter possums from your garden, Kylie Soanes, urban ecologist at the University of Melbourne in Naarm, says creating a physical barrier is most effective. She says barriers like wildlife-friendly netting with fine mesh are key to protect both, your crops from the opportunistic species and the animals from harm. Kylie Soanes says wildlife-friendly physical barriers are most effective to deter possums from your garden.
"Wildlife-safe netting is important because it's so easy for animals to get tangled in fruit netting," Dr Soanes says. Mr Van Weenen says wildlife-friendly fruit protection bags, crop protection cages and tree guarding to stop possums climbing up to the fruit or foliage are also effective methods for home gardeners to consider. Supplied: Margaret MossakowskaIf you have a range of trees and want to make your home less attractive to the native marsupial he recommends spacing between canopies.
"Keeping the canopies a bit separate so they can't just move from canopy to canopy can make a yard less favourable for a species like a ringtail possum," he says. Possums have been a long-term challenge for Sydney-based sustainability educator and urban gardener Margaret Mossakowska at her productive food garden in Denistone. "One way to think about that is when tourists come from overseas and visit you or stay at a place and the awe they have when they look at the native wildlife that we see every day, like a magpie, a sulphur-crested cockatoo or a brushtail possum.
" Whilst Ms Mossakowska doesn't appreciate possums in her backyard, she says it's important to garden around possums and for people to understand they will always be there. Supplied: Margaret MossakowskaDr Herbert says possums are an urban success story and deserve more appreciation.
"They're kind of the great Aussie battler who's managed to persist and they allow people to directly connect with biodiversity in their backyard. "
Possums Wildlife-Friendly Barriers Gardening Urban Ecology Habitat Management
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