All I can say is, you have access to the internet to learn about possum behaviour, and deterrents, and yet you appear to know very little about them.
You obviously did not bother to watch the video that was on the site at the start of the thread, it showed quite clearly the possums walking along the power lines.
Apparently, you are oblivious to the fact that possums and rats have their own little highways, ie the power lines.
It is quite ignorant to think possums would walk along the ground and cross a road in suburbia, rather than take the safe way.....if they did you would see a heap of them dead beside the road, hit by a car. Maybe you should go outside around dusk or just after, and have a look around the power lines, see if you can spot any possums or other animals up there. If they spot you they will freeze, and not move until you are out of sight. They are much smarter than that, hence they walk along the power and telephone lines, it is a much safer alternative
I wonder have you ever looked up and seen birds on the power lines ? did you wonder why they flew off and were not electrocuted, or did you see lots of dead birds below the power line ?
possums are like the birds, they can walk along the power lines and will not be electrocuted.... have you any idea why ? the answer is they are not touching the ground, they are not grounded... I have never said they do not walk along the ground. I said they prefer to walk along the power lines, to access your roof, then jump onto the tree. They will walk down the tree onto the ground to access the vegie garden etc. They walk along the top of the fence also.
A simple and effective way to stop them climbing up the tree from the ground, is to place a sheet of aluminium around the trunk, it should be at least a metre wide.
Possums cannot leap up vertically more than a metre. No point having this band in place if the possum can access the tree from another point. ie from the top of the fence or your roof. Councils around Melbourne have these bands in place around a lot of their trees, but I see many of those trees are still close to power lines, so it only stops the possums from accessing the trees from the ground up.
Posters often show photos of their yard, as they complain about the possums. A tree next to a shed, and or, next to a fence, or the house, tells me exactly how possum is accessing your yard. No trees or sheds ? he comes straight along the fence then climbs down into the yard. Now if I wanted to stop the possums, from getting into the veggie patch, I reckon it would be very easy. I would either use barbed wire or the plastic spikes to surround the veggie patch. I would secure this to the ground, and make it about a foot wide, so they cannot jump over without getting caught. So you would need at least double the circumference for the wire or spikes to go around a couple of times. If I had a steel or timber paling fence, I might put the spikes or barbed wired around near, or along the top of the fence. The community gardener. I saw a documentary where they had problems with the rabbits invading the community veggie patch. In those cases there would be 20 or more rabbits coming in every day, all day and night. This was in the middle of a city. Many people believe rabbits only live in the country. They would be harder to stop, since they dig, burrow under a fence, or could dig below the spikes.
Have you ever been there on night watch at your garden to see exactly what animals are visiting.
Pirate, good luck with the set up you have now. If you did not have the posts next to the tree, then possum could only access the tree from the ground. Possums are climbing animals, and they can jump from roof to tree, but not large distances. In your other post about the tree that died, I would think possum accessed the tree from the roof nearby. Of course if he was wandering around the ground, feeding on the veggie patch, then he would simply climb up the tree or shrub.
If you want to stop possums getting into your shrubs and roses etc, make sure the plants cannot be accessed from a nearby fence, shed, post etc. Then spikes or other deterrents around the ground is all that is required.
Did you know that the possums have never touched my roses or any of my plants, not ever ? Apart from the 5 new parsley plants they took the very first night. I have no idea why not. Maybe the apple or carrot a day is sufficient for this possum family. It is not to say other possums may prefer a different diet. So I wonder if you put up a possum feeder, and put out your food scraps to entice them to eat the scraps, not your fruit and veggies. No meat, bones, or snack food .
