# Forum Home Renovation Pest Control  Get POSSUMS off your ROOF!

## Pendejo

There is no forum dedicated to pest control, so I'll put this here. 
There are numerous threads about possums in and on roofs, containing a heap of bad advice. I found some excellent advice that helped me solve my problem with possums:  Possum Stop! by helpdata 
Possums seem to get up there in a few ways, from most common to least common   Overhanging branchesPower cableFences that touch the house  
Cut the branches, stop them coming along the power cable, and use Use "Thorny Devil" spikes on any fences leading to the house. 
Voila! Problem solved.  :2thumbsup:   No need for traps, ultrasonic alarms (do not work), bright lights in the ceiling, etc etc.

----------


## cyclic

> There is no forum dedicated to pest control, so I'll put this here. 
> There are numerous threads about possums in and on roofs, containing a heap of bad advice. I found some excellent advice that helped me solve my problem with possums:  Possum Stop! by helpdata 
> Possums seem to get up there in a few ways, from most common to least common   Overhanging branchesPower cableFences that touch the house  
> Cut the branches, stop them coming along the power cable, and use Use "Thorny Devil" spikes on any fences leading to the house. 
> Voila! Problem solved.   No need for traps, ultrasonic alarms (do not work), bright lights in the ceiling, etc etc.

  I threw the Possum problem up here some time back because they were coming along the power cable, and I had a few ideas thrown at me, but I ended up using a 600mm long piece of 90mm stormwater pvc.
I split it with a pair of snips, drilled 2x 6mm holes in both ends about 20mm apart each side of the split, and simply clipped it over the incoming cable, with one zip tie through the holes to hold it in place, because without the zip tie the clever bloody things just pushed the pvc along the cable until they could reach the gutter and hoist themselves up.
No possums on the roof for a long time now. 
Here is the link to my post from back then.  http://www.renovateforum.com/f195/po...cables-109934/

----------


## Spottiswoode

I was trying to work out how to stop possums from running along a fence top and jumping up to the gutter... until I realised we have a set of stairs up the back and I can stand on the deck and put my foot through the handrails and touch the tiles.  :Doh:

----------


## Pendejo

> with one zip tie through the holes to hold it in place, because without the zip tie the clever bloody things just pushed the pvc along the cable until they could reach the gutter and hoist themselves up.
> No possums on the roof for a long time now.

  How would zip ties through both sides of the pipe stop the whole pipe sliding along the cable? Did you somehow link the cable into the tie, and if so, how does the pipe spin to drop the possums off?

----------


## cyclic

> How would zip ties through both sides of the pipe stop the whole pipe sliding along the cable? Did you somehow link the cable into the tie, and if so, how does the pipe spin to drop the possums off?

  On both ends of the pipe, both sides of the split, drill a 6mm hole.
Clip the pipe over the cable then run the zip tie down through one hole, under the cable, then up through the other hole.
Join the zip tie above the pipe then pull zip tie tight.
The pipe is then zipped to the cable both ends of the pipe.
The pipe does not spin.
The physical size of the pipe, as well as the slipperyness of the pipe, means the possum cannot get a grip on the pipe, so therefore does not go any further. 
Warning...Do not work on power cables, use a Licensed Electrician.

----------


## Pendejo

> The physical size of the pipe, as well as the slipperyness of the pipe, means the possum cannot get a grip on the pipe, so therefore does not go any further.

  That would work, but I prefer the Possum Stop! for these reasons:   Much smaller and less noticeable (very important when many power companies absolutely forbid anything attached to the cable under threat of large fines)More UV durable (PVC becomes brittle in the sun)Less potentially damaging to the cable (the wind can exert some force on a pipe section, causing the zip ties to pull on the power cable, and over time this can fray the cable)

----------


## cyclic

> That would work, but I prefer the Possum Stop! for these reasons:   Much smaller and less noticeable (very important when many power companies absolutely forbid anything attached to the cable under threat of large fines)More UV durable (PVC becomes brittle in the sun)Less potentially damaging to the cable (the wind can exert some force on a pipe section, causing the zip ties to pull on the power cable, and over time this can fray the cable)

  Yea, my first attempt was a disc, but Peter, maybe Pauline , the possum, simply climbed down under the disc and back up the other side while I sat on the patio and watched.

----------


## Skinah

Possums are very persistent things if they have a home in your roof they will try all night to claw a way back in. Good tips and this is why I have cut all trees back and gone for under ground power. Meter box was ugly and facing street and had ceramic fuses with old cabling in metal pipes so it's only cost $600 since I dug the trench to go underground as I needed to replace wiring and go rcbo combos to make the house safer. We had no pit out front and the power company put one in for free when asked as they thought the power lines were on my side of the street. Won big time as their system was wrong and they had to bore under a road at their cost as I had signed paperwork already 😊
Worth looking into as now I don't have to cut trees back anymore under the power lines.

----------


## Marc

On the matter of repellent, be them chemical or ultrasonic it pays not to cling to one's opinion so much. 
The truth is that possum are different from one another and what works for some does not work for others.
Take chillies for example. Some people claim success with chillies and honey, or tabasco sauce or any other variations on the same tune. 
I grow some Vietnamese chillies that would blow the socks off the best chillies connoisseur yet there is a local possum who likes them and eats them straight. What does that prove? Only that 'my' possum likes chillies and 'yours' does not.
The same goes for ultrasonic pest repellent. They work sometimes on some individuals, not on others.

----------

