Hello to all

My husband and I live on a 10 acre block of native bush and limestone hills. We moved here 18 months ago although we've been on smaller blocks for a few years now. I'm very new to this kind of social forum so please forgive me if I get it wrong [] Our biggest problem on this place at the moment is possums...they are the bane of my life! We have 3 cats and 2 dogs so need to be wary of them getting any poison. My husband has shot 83 so far but he doesn't always hear them at night and gets grumpy if I wake him up I look forward to hearing of any solutions, many thanks.

Welcome to the forum. Possum fur is worth a lot, so if you can find someone to trap or poison them (usually cyanide used for a quick knock-down), that might help get them under better control.

Thanks Ruth, I will ask around. I'm sure someone would like the extra pocket money.

Welcome to the forum what part of the king country are you in?

oo just saw on your other posts you are te kuiti/pio pio... try putting an add in the waitomo news with something like "possum trapper wanted to trap possums on our 10 acre property" & put your area. Just make sure they use a live trap & ask for references... there was a guy a couple of years ago who trapped on our farm(waitomo) for about 3 weeks but I never got his number sorry, he used to cover big areas... would arrive at 6.30/7am & leave after lunch after covering our place & a couple of neighbours

Hi Katieb and thanks for your info. Much appreciated. I am currently sitting in my lounge glaring at the possum who is looking at me thru the ranch slider grrr

wow thats quite an infestation.....I am sure someone would be happy to trap them

Yep kindajojo there are certainly plenty here. We have tried setting a cage trap but they just don't go near it. Probably using the wrong bait...have tried apple, peanut butter, flour, even lemons cos they seem to love them. They have stripped our lemon tree and have started on the grapefruit. We had to pick all the grapes last year before they polished them off, but managed to get a few nice bottles of wine...

hi i have used goodnature possum trap and they are fantastic.
they self reload and work with compressed air canisters(small ones). got 10 in couple of weeks.
Although i dont have such a bad situation i reckon if you invest (yea not cheap approx $150 each) you will see the difference.

my 2 cents worth.

cheers
kris

newbie parttime farmer still getting to grips with what to do with the 6 hec land

Hi Kris,
are these traps kill traps? I'm worried about my curious cat getting caught in a kill trap. Aside from a rat, he is the only critter I have caught in my cage trap but thanks for the info. At this stage, I don't care how much it costs! I would just like a good nights sleep

Cheers, Wendy