A Comprehensive Guide to Natural Opossum Repellents
Opossums aren’t devastating until they grow in numbers, happily munching on garden fruits and vegetables, pet foods, bird feeders, and leftovers in trash cans.
These nocturnal, marsupials are omnivores so they don’t say ‘NO’ to foods except a few chemicals they hate.
As per the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT) of 2019, it is important to avoid harming animals but to keep them away from your property. Even the animal repellents shouldn’t be deadly.
This comprehensive guide reveals everything you should know about opossum repellents.
Natural Opossum Repellents That You Should Try:
Professor Lynne Selwood, honorary professor fellow, University of Melbourne, researched on possum deterrent sprays and found ‘pyrethrum’, a natural insecticide present in Chrysanthemum, as an effective remedy. However, the downside is that pyrethrum degrades after sunlight exposure.
Similarly, there are many effective opossum repellent tricks you can use that are also pet safe.
Quassia Chips: The quassia chips are usually present in commercially available opossum repellents. Heat about 100g of chips in half a gallon of water, strain, and add any detergent. Apply it on buds and young leaves to repel opossums.
Garlic or Chili Spray: Add 2 tablespoons of crushed garlic or chili in a liter of boiling water. Let it sit overnight and spray on plants the next day.
Tea Deterrent: Add 4 tablespoons of Lapsang Souchong tea—Chinese black tea—in 2 liters of water, brew it, cool it down, and strain. Spray it on foliage.
Hot Pepper or Sauce: Mixing hot pepper or sauce in a water-detergent mixture is quite a perfect repellent for opossums. They hate chilies!
Mothballs: Mothballs and naphthalene crystals are great to encourage opossums to evacuate your yard’s enclosed area.
Note: Remember to spray an ample amount of spray on opossum’s favorite plants. The sprays are washed away with rain; so keep refreshing them regularly after two weeks during moist weather or after rain.
How to Effectively Apply Opossum Repellents?
According to the guidelines of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, here’s how to apply the repellents:
Apply the odor and taste-based repellents directly to the foliage.
Urine-based repellents are applied to entrances, trash cans, and other places they prefer to move in.
- However, over time, animals become used to deterrents and ignore the smell while starving. So, keep preventive measures in mind as well.
Are Opossum Repellents Enough to Get Rid of Possums?
No, they aren’t! You have to take preventive measures to block the access of opossums into your yard. The chicken wire covering is of utmost importance.
The fruit trees and bushes are the hardest to protect. So, a simple trick here is to cover the fruits and vegetables at their earliest sprouts in cloth bags. It wouldn’t intervene with the ripening process. Fruit bushes can be covered in nettings.
Last of all, opossum traps can help you catch the troublesome animal and you can release them into the wilderness away from your home.