Tom N wrote:
Interestingly, possums don't seem to eat nectarine blossums (we get
a great crop of them - no spray - just buggerising around with nets
to keep out possums, birds, rats and bats).


They were lifting the net to get to my stone fruits even with bricks
every metre along the bottom.

I hold my net down with garden stakes with bricks on them.

You might find that if you built a fence around the bottom with welded
wire mesh (like chookwire but stiffer) that it would keep them out (at
least until they discovered they could climb it). Wouldn't work for
my place as they aren't on the ground to start with.

I'm told possums don't like climbing wobbly wire mesh fences so if you
build a fence that tips over a bit when they climb it, you might keep
them out.


I have 40 trees all up so this is too hard, I am making more wire pegs for
next year to peg down the bottom

Our possums would just jump onto the net from another tree and then
lie on it like a hammock. They'd stick their paw through and eat
nectarines through the net. But with a net there they don't eat much
and they choose ripe fruit by smell I suppose and they eat the whole
fruit. Other pests take a bite to see if it is ripe and rarely eat
all of the fruit so in the end they damage a lot more fruit than
possums do.

Bats are farely easy to keep out with nets as they are fairly clumbsy
unless flying.

Yes but wait til one gets tangled in the net, you will find getting them out
quite entertaining unless you use the shovel anesthetic method (I don't).
For vegetarians they have a very fine set of teeth and are not shy about
using them. Some are disease carriers too.


We have a rat or two which is too smart for rat traps or poisons. It
gnaws a hole in the net. The birds (particularly introduced thrushes)
patrol around the net looking for holes and will find any little hole
to get through.

I buy ratsak in 3kg boxes and put it out all round the buildings in the
warmer weather. I will coexist with them out in the garden but they are
just too destructive in the house or shed.

David