Possums was Re: response to water garden
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu, w*@pacbell.net
- Subject: Possums was Re: response to water garden
- From: "* G* <s*@hotmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 22:51:50 PST
Hi Wendy
The possums that I was talking about are Australian natives (there are
two types a "Ring Tail" and a "Brushy Tail" which is the bigger one).
In Australia they are one of the few native animals that has been highly
successful in adapting to urbanization and they are protected by law.
They are allowed to be trapped and moved to another area if they are
causing problems but recent research has found that that is basically a
death sentence because they are very territorial.
They are herbivores and will eat all kinds of things in the garden - I
have even heard tales about garden owners finding perfectly peeled
lemons still hanging on the tree (the possum is supposed to have eaten
the lemon peel!). Roses, fruit and tender new shoots from plants are
generally considered to be prime possum tucker! The Hilton Hotel in
Melbourne (opposite the Fitzroy Gardens) makes a special banana cake for
tourists to feed to the possums around dusk or just after (they are
nocturnal).
They normally build nests similar to a big birds nest in trees, but
commonly invade ceiling spaces if they can find a way in.
As to whether you should worry about him/her - well up to you - in my
context well they are native and supposed to be in the environment (and
I think that they are incredibly cute). But in New Zealand where they
are not native they have reached epidemic proportions and are doing
terrible things to the environment (and are declared as vermin???)
Good luck
Susan George
McCrae, Victoria, Australia
>From owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu Thu Nov 12 21:22:31 1998
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>Message-ID: <364BBF77.C92936F3@pacbell.net>
>Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 21:11:19 -0800
>From: Wendy Bradley <wednesdy@pacbell.net>
>Reply-To: wednesdy@pacbell.net
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>Subject: response to water garden
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>Thanks to all who responded with advice, comments and caveats
concerning
>my water garden. To Loren, especially, thanks for the idea of getting
>fish already acclimated to living outdoors in a pond. I just got six
>goldfish from my boss's pond. So far they seem quite happy &
>comfortable. It remains to be seen how well they'll fair as time goes
>by, but he has alot of fish so I can always restock. I'm hopeful that
I
>won't be attracting feral cats or wretched herons, etc.; just
>eliminating mosquitos & creating an ecosystem.
>
>Speaking of less desirable wildlife, I have a young possum who hangs
>around in my garden every night. I don't want the little bugger there.
>I guess they can carry fleas and diseases that my cat may pick up--I've
>thrown gravel at him, banged on the fence with a broom handle, and
>yelled and waved my arms, and he seems barely disconcerted...just moves
>over a bit on the fence, or slowly lumbers behind a shrub, but he's
>always back. What attracts them? I don't have garbage or cat food out
>there. He doesn't appear to have damaged any plants or roses or eaten
>tomatoes or anything. What is it that they do to damage a garden?
>(Someone mentioned them eating roses, I think.) A friend of a friend
>had an entire extended family of possums move in under her house in the
>crawl space, unbeknownst to her, until she turned on the heat this fall
>and was blasted with this horrible foul odor from them defecating &
>urinating in the crawl space. They'd even gotten into some furnace
>ductwork. I checked my crawl space screens to make sure they're secure.
>Should I worry about this one guy, or is he the scout that will bring
>his kin? I'll save the postings on deterents in case I need them.
Wendy
>
>
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