Best Ways to Get Rid of Possums and Other Pests

The Best Ways to Get Rid of Possums Depending on where you live, pests are inevitable. When they are attacking your crops, you need to act fast. Below are some of the best ways to get rid of possums and other menaces.

It’s important to be self-sufficient. Cultivating crops makes you less dependent on others. One of the most important factors of a stable economy is that how much it is dependent on importing the necessary goods from outside. You want to be sure possums and other animals aren’t undermining your efforts.

Animal Control Tips ~ Yard Pests

1. Lock down your trash can lids
2. Pick up fruits and nuts
   1. Squirrels – Walnuts and acorns
   2. Coyotes – Mice and squirrels
   3. Deer – Hostas, clover, leafy shrubs and bushes
   4. Moles – Grubs
   5. Rabbits – Clover, berry bushes and berry trees
   6. Raccoons – Grubs and trash
   7. Skunks – Grubs
   8. Turkey – Grass, insects and berries
   9. Rats – Everything
3. Eliminate hiding places
4. Let your dogs out and let them play in your yard.
5. Cut your grass
6. Eliminate clover from your lawn. Rabbits and deer love clover.
7. Use a closed compost bin tumbler if it contains food scraps. Odors attracts pests
8. Plastic owls and predators scare off rodents
9. Spread predator urine: coyote urine, fox urine or wolf urine
10. Kill the grubs in your lawn
11. Use fencing
12. Motion activated sprinklers
13. Traps…catch them and either dispose or release them
    1. Use sturdy metal traps
    2. Use traps with a metal plate under the handle
    3. Wear kevlar gloves
    4. Check local wildlife preserves to see if they will take them or if you can release them there.
    5. Release animals a minimum of 10 miles away. Their ability to find there way back is remarkable.
    6. Always clean the trap after each use with a bleach solution to eliminate scents that will scare off the next pest you want to trap.
14. Install a chimney cap

Using Night Vision and Thermal Technology.

How to Keep Animals Out of Garden Without Fences

Best Ways to Get Rid of Possums

Possums leave urine and feces behind. They also have a strong scent. They can do serious damage to a garden. You will need to assess whether the damage has been done by possums or whether something else is after the crops.

One way to make sure that the culprit are possums is by measuring the hole they created as they need at least 3 inches to squeeze into it. If it is a raccoon, the gap will be around 4 inches wide. It is much harder to protect something as open as fields and it is as important as protecting your house from possums.

How to Protect Crops from Possums

Possums need to be controlled because they can eat over 65 types of plants. They can completely destroy a farm full of crops in a matter of a few days. They don’t need much to survive; a nesting place is enough as long as they have access to food.

You will find their nests in hollow logs, under masses of vegetation, or in trees.

How to Use Diatomaceous Earth in the Garden

Some people have tried installing a two-strand electric fence that has wires at 4 inches and at 12 inches. This would help to not only protect the crop against possum but it would also protect the crops from damage caused by other pests.

Poly tape also works well for this purpose. An electrical fence usually activates at dusk and remains on until dawn.

Trapping Possums

Sometimes you have to resort to catching possums and relocating them. This is the most economically friendly way and the most effective method as well. However, it requires daily commitment as you will have to put food in the traps and check in often.

The minimum sized box for catching a possum should be 10 x 10 x 32 for traps that have single doors.

You could place the trap away from direct sunlight so that the possums do not suffer as much after being caught. After catching them, you can release them off your property. Killing the pests should be the last resort. However, it is another option.

Shooting Possums and Pest

Landowners can shoot possums if they are causing a significant damage to the crops or other things present on their property. However, you can only shoot if it is in accordance with the laws and the regulations of your town. After trapping them, you could kill them by applying one or two sharp blows to their heads right behind their ears.

Poison Possums

Since the damage done from possums can be severe, some places like New Zealand doesn’t allow them to be released and instead they have to be killed humanely. The poison regulations differ depending on where you live. Even if it is allowed, you will seriously need to consider the danger to the other wildlife in your area.

A common and cost-efficient way is to use phosphorous as a poison. However, check with your area. This won’t be an option if you have pets or raise animals. 

Call a Professional

To find a safe and humane way to get rid of possums, raccoons, and other critters, you can call a possum control professional. Professionals will be able to treat the nuisance safely and easily.

Pest control for crops

There are over 6,000 types of species that can cause pest damage to gardens and crops.

However, the insects cannot travel very far and are limited to the accessible areas that take care of their biological and physical needs.

Some insects are pests only in some seasons, others cause crop damage throughout the year.

Pest control for crops is a must.

Natural methods to keep the pests away

Pests are a nuisance and can destroy your entire crop.

This will cost you money but also the time you have put into it.

You could always go for professional help if you are worried that the pests would damage your crops.

However, there are some things that you could do yourself that would keep the pests at bay and keep your plants safe.

Since these methods only keep the pest away and do not hurt them, it is the most humane way.

1. Burn the crops that are diseased so that it doesn’t spread to other healthy plants.
2. Mulch your crops regularly.
3. Grow some plants around the crops to repel the pests.

How to use pesticides

Pesticides are poisonous.

You should only use them if there is no other option left to protect your plants from the pests.

You should read the guidelines and only spray till the allowed limit.

Overusing pesticides could not only damage the plants (and not healthy for Pygmy Goats) but also could make the plants unsuitable for human consumption.

You also have to take care of other factors like not spraying into the soil or elsewhere.

Use the pesticides only on those plants on which the pesticide is intended to use.

These are the best ways to get rid of possums, raccoons and other critters.

Pests can be a real problem for farmers and landowners as they can destroy the hard work done over months in merely just a few days.

While trying to get rid of them, it is important that we adopt humane ways because the pests are just looking for ways to survive.

You could use different pieces of equipment and ways to capture possums and raccoons to get rid of them so they don’t damage your plants further.

Killing the pests or rodents should be the last resort when there is no other way to stop them.

But, if you plan beforehand, there should always be a way to avoid having to kill pests in order to save the crop.

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