How To Remove Possums From Your Roof

When they get on top of the roof, they create costly damages and annoy people during the day and night. Review the following methods that you can remove possums from your roof.

1. Use Animal Poison or Repellent

Place animal poison around the perimeter of the house. You’ll also find that possums like to burrow in spaces under the home.

Natural poison includes repellents that are not guaranteed to kill the animal but just keep him away from certain areas. The poison that you buy in the store is more likely to be deadly as it’s laced with deadly chemicals.

One type of repellent is water mixed with molasses. Spray this sticky substance onto plant leaves or tree branches that the possum likes to climb to reach the roof. Possums are attracted to leafy plants in gardens, so consider placing many repellents there.

You can buy poison in a store or make your own using one or more of these poisonous ingredients:

• Chemical-based household cleaners
• Medications
• Cyanide
• Arsenic
• Lead
• Phosphorus

Choose a household cleaner that’s located under a cabinet or in the garage. Read the ingredients list. If you find active ingredients that are difficult to pronounce, those are chemicals that are most likely to be toxic to both humans and animals.

Add a dosage that is known to cause sickness or death. For a humane treatment, increase the amount just enough to cause vomiting and nausea. To get them to eat the poison, conceal it in their food.

When used correctly, either poison or repellent is equally effective, except repellent is more humane. On the other hand, you run the risk of having more possums appear from elsewhere. If more of them come along, you’ll need to find out exactly where they’re coming from.

2. Place Traps

Place traps on the ground and near the trees that lead up to the roof. Know how to use one first. You need bait, such as food or water.

However, some traps are too obvious for the possum to ignore. It works best if you disguise the trap as any man-made or natural structure that blends into the environment, such as:

• Bird’s nest
• Dog house
• Bush
• Pot

Some people build their own traps. Use glue or molasses all over the ground and hope that they get stuck. You can have the animals step onto a rope or branch that unleashes a net.

You can build a tunnel that is disguised as a cage with an automated door. Some people build holes covered with leaves or dirt and have the animals fall into holes. Look for online tips on how to buy the right trap or build one.

3. Use Smells

There are obnoxious odors that all living creatures hate to smell. For humans, it’s the smell of feces, rotten fish or eggs and gasoline. Smells that possums hate are the natural odors of their predators. Like humans, they hate these smells:

• Garlic
• Ammonia
• Mothballs

It’s very useful to find chemicals around the house that have strong smells like vinegar, gasoline, etc. Spray your plants or trees with these odors.

Spray in the grass and on the ground. Make sure to cover areas where the possum’s tracks are. To be environmentally safe, you don’t want to spray in places that could contaminate the soil.

4. Hire Predators

Find out which animals are their natural predators. Think of animals that are much bigger and stronger than possums. Some people already have them as pets in their yards. Consider getting your pet dog or cat to chase the possum around. Give them rewards for chasing out the pests.

Owls and eagles like to pick on possums too. It may work to get birds or squirrels to join in because they like to hang around roofs. Even if the animals are smaller, many possums do not like having their territory invaded.

5. Play Loud Sounds

Get a machine that generates loud noises to scare away the possum. Make sure that these noises do not disturb everyone else in the household too. The neighbors may complain too if the sounds are too loud.

Possums hate the sounds of predator animals, such as grunting, hissing or screeching. Those may be the best sounds to use to scare them away. Make it seem like other wild animals are lurking around in the trees.

6. Spray a Water Hose

Whenever you see a possum on the roof, turn on the water hose. You can get them to fall off or scare them into climbing down to the ground.

This step is practical only when you see a possum in action. If you hear these animals running across the roof often, you can run outside and turn on the hose in time. However, if you cannot wait for one to appear, try another method.

When on people’s roofs, possums can chew through the wood or shingles and make holes in the ceilings. They need to be removed immediately before they cause irreversible damages. Protect your home and its assets by using proven pest control methods.