Peter the Possum and Bird Man

Who knew possums made a nest? Not I. Yet here I was with a «pet» possum outside my study window which I affectionately named George Bush. He was a bushtail possum so it made sense. Then Brisbane got cold and wet and with all that rain, when we heard digging and rustling in the gab between our living room ceiling and bedroom floor we naturally assumed George Bush had sought shelter from the inclement weather and was making himself at home.
Of course, we knew this wasn’t at all a practical home for a native animal and called our real estate agent to arrange his removal to happier, more possum-​friendly surrounds. Enter Peter the Possum and Bird Man.
In a quick and swift visit he not only dispelled that alas George Bush wasn’t renovating the gap between our ceiling and bedroom floor for his lady loves, but his friend Ratticus Rat was setting up home. At his game for about 20 years, Peter and his crew are experienced, knowledgeable and ridiculously friendly. It took them, oh, all of a millisecond to clew into the fact it wasn’t a possum but rather a rat.
While we await the removal of Ratticus Rat, I’m happy to say should I ever need to relocate a family of possums, remove rats or ask how I avoid feeling like I’m in a Hitchcock movie every time I sit in my courtyard and the magpies descend upon it — Peter and his team will be the people I call!

Possums may just seem a part of life in Brisbane, but they can be noisy, annoying and sometimes dangerous. Dangerous? Why yes! My parents had a family of possums once that had chewed through electricity wires and were merrily then using them as a toilet. If my mum hadn’t done her block and insisted on pest control the whole house could have burnt down.
So I wouldn’t slack about personally, it can see a bit expensive getting someone out to trap a large furry rat, however it’s no where near as expensive as a house fire (or potentially tragic either).

Possums. Cute and furry right? Not at 3am when they’re having domestic problems with their possum partner and building nests in your ceiling. When I had such a problem, we called Peter the Possum Man. While they got rid of the possum eventually, it took several visits and phone calls over a few months to get the job done. First they tried blocking the holes the possum was using to get into the roof, then they made several visits to make sure were actually under siege by possums (they thought we had rats until I informed them I had seen a possum’s rear sticking out of our kitchen ceiling). Finally, they put a trap in the roof to catch the possum and relocate it and this solved the problem (but not until we had a hole in the kitchen roof from it’s chewing and nesting habits). Though only one service fee was needed for the whole process, be prepared for plenty more sleepless nights as they probably won’t be able to do the job after a single visit.