If you have a garden, you might know that wildlife visiting your property isn’t as cute as it may sound. After all, hungry wild animals won’t hesitate to destroy your garden if that means feeding them. And if you live near a forest, the chances of having small mammals visiting your property are higher than for gardeners in a suburban area. Do Possums Climb Trees?
Quick Answer
Possums are agile small mammals. They have no issues climbing tall trees (or even walls). The truth is that they spend most of their time in trees.
But that doesn’t mean you have to abandon your dreams of building the perfect garden! Instead, you must learn some of the animals’ behavior and take adequate measures to prevent them from attacking your yard.
For instance, do possums climb trees? And what can you do to stop them from seeing your garden as their food source? You are in the right place to find out!
Are Possums Good Climbers?
Opossums are agile small mammals. They have no issues climbing tall trees (or even walls). The truth is that they spend most of their time in trees, as they offer several advantages, including the benefit of having a shelter that is hard to access for most of their predators.
Also, possums will climb on trees to find food. Because they are omnivorous, these mammals feed on almost everything that crosses their path. And trees provide them with the diversity they need in their diet. For instance, they may find fruits, flowers, seeds, or even insects.
So, if you have trees in your yard, these mammals might choose to visit your garden to spend some time on them. For this reason, you should never skip regular pruning!
Trim your tree branches as often as necessary and ensure none are long enough to lead animals on your roof, garage, or other parts of your property that might work as perfect shelters for possums (and other wild animals).
Don’t forget that possums don’t live in trees. Instead, they will use them as temporary shelters or their base to get to other parts of your property!
What Can You Do To Prevent Possums From Hitting Your Garden?
Possums are opportunistic animals, and they are not picky about what they eat. Such characteristics might make it hard to keep your garden healthy when these animals are around. Also, they might carry diseases that spread to humans and pests, which might pose a threat to your animals or kids.
Luckily, you can take several measures to prevent possums from getting to your garden. All of them involve making life more challenging for these animals so that they may look for other places.
For instance, to prevent them from using the trees in your garden as their house, you should consider adding thin metal sheets or heavy plastics around their bases.
These animals climb better on rough surfaces. They will find metal or plastic sheets too slippery to walk on and abandon the mission!
Other ways to keep possums away include eliminating food sources: get rid of pet food that you may store outdoors, fruits from your trees, crops from your vegetable garden, and trash.
If possums still bother you with their presence with these measures, consider installing motion-activated sprinklers and lights. Such devices will scare these nocturnal animals away without hurting them, which might be handy.
If you have a dog, consider letting him do his “businesses” outside: the smell will keep possums away from your property.
But avoid letting them outdoors to handle the intruders: the consequences might be severe! You can also find store-bought predator urine online or wherever you like to go for your gardening supplies.
Related Articles: Do Possums Like Oranges?