Possums are a regular occurrence in gardens across Australia. And while they aren’t a particular threat to humans, they can be a nuisance. They are also protected by Australian law. Therefore, possums can't be harmed unless there is a threat against you, and moving them can sometimes cause the possum to die.
Therefore, it’s important to deter possums rather than seek a way to eliminate them. In this article, we will look at what deters possums and the benefits of using environmentally friendly options.
What Damage Can Possums Cause to Homes?
Possums are nocturnal creatures that like to live in dens during the day. These dens can be created using a variety of suitable locations, sometimes a hollow in a tree trunk, a man-made nesting box, or perhaps space in the roof.
When they are located on the roof of a home, they can cause significant damage. They can bring food into the den, which can rot and cause mould. In addition, they can be relatively smelly, leaving their droppings that cause additional moisture as well as spread disease.
They can also cause significant damage to the building creating a hole to access the roof, scurrying about in the building, and other activities.
Luckily, compared to other pests such as rats and mice, possums don’t live in colonies. So if there is an uninvited guest to the property, then you are only dealing with one. You might get a couple of others if you are unfortunate enough to get a mum with her offspring.
Health Problems Caused by Possums
There are lots of reasons why possums are undesirable. One of these is the potential for diseases to be spread. Possums can carry ticks and mites that might spread to pets or humans, which can cause several potentially painful conditions.
In addition, they can spread diseases that can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, and more. These can be unpleasant.
How to Deter Possums from Roof Spaces
There are numerous ways to deter possums from roof spaces in your home. Here are some of the options that you can use.
Protect Plants
While you might want to protect the roof space in your harden, you might also want to learn about how to deter possums from eating plants. If you are providing a source of food to possums, they are likely to want to choose a nest site close to that source of food.
Protecting the food is one option. For instance, you
can use the Sentinel system from Envirobug that can protect gardens by detecting the motion near the plants and then using a mixture of sound, movement, and water to deter the animals from the area. This device is not just one of the best possum deterrent o
ptions on the market it can also help protect plants from rats, mice, cats, and birds. Therefore, you have a wide range of protections from just one device. However, the electronic possum deterrent doesn’t protect from animals that aren’t on the ground or close to it. Possums spend a large amount of time above ground in the trees and along fences. Therefore, you need some other options.
Use an Ultrasonic Possum Deterrent
Another option is to use an ultrasonic possum deterrent. These can be installed inside a home that releases a regular ultrasonic noise that's unbearable to the possum and prevents them from getting rest. As a result, the possum will move to nest locations. Ultrasonic devices are very useful because they aren’t detectable by humans and pets. They are designed to deter animals such as mice, rats, and possums. One problem is that many people ask “Do ultrasonic possum deterrents work?”. The answer is yes. What tends to happen though is that people don’t use them for long enough or they use them to get the possum to move out and then the device is removed or shut down, removing the deterrent and allowing the possum to access the property again.
One thing to consider is that many possums have multiple nesting sites across their territory. Sometimes they will vacate a nesting site for several days. That can mean that the homeowner thinks they’ve moved out, and remove the device only for the possum to return.
To be effective, you need to keep the electronic possum deterrent on at all times.
Why Use Environmentally Friendly Products
There are numerous reasons why the products that are offered by Envirobug are a great option. For one, they are environmentally friendly. They can offer you a chance to remove the pests from your home without having to harm the creatures.
Mice, rats, possums, and birds are all vital to our ecosystem. Some of these pests, like birds and possums are also protected under law, so harming them is not legal.
Instead, you need ways to deter rather than capture or kill them.
And using ultrasonic devices means that you’re not potentially harming other creatures that might accidentally get caught by the device. However, the ultrasonic devices are designed not to be heard by humans and most other animals, other than the target animal.
Environmentally friendly products are also critical for our impact on the environment. The sentinel device is powered by the sun. Therefore, you don’t need to connect to the mains of your home or use potentially damaging batteries that can be harmful to dispose of in the environment.
Other battery-operated devices of Envirobug are designed to use rechargeable devices.
Final Word: How to Deter Possums
There are numerous options on how to deter possums from your property. You don’t just have to deter them from your garden, but also your roof space. Therefore, it's important to use several options that can offer protection through noise, movement, and spray. These are environmentally friendly but also do not harm the possum.
These devices are also known to deter other nuisances from the property such as mice, rats, cats, and even birds. And they are solar-powered, so they will not increase your carbon footprint.
