Possums in the garden!

Turns out there is lots going on at night

August 2025

The trail camera has already earned its keep. Yes, I had hundreds of videos of leaves blowing in the wind to review, but I also got a glimpse of what has been alluding me in the garden.

Possums.

We have possums in the garden. My jaw hit the floor when I saw the footage and hubby was flabbergasted when I showed him. We simply didn't know they were around.

I bought a Flipping Timmy possum trap a few weeks after we moved into this property last year. I figured that with all the trees in the garden, possums would be a given. The trap finally got mounted in February, at a 45 degree angle on a plank of wood that hubby had handy, a compromise between mounting it as designed so the possum had to put its head in vertically - something that predators are reluctant to do - and ensuring the trap would work properly. I have used Timms traps before and to be honest they scare me because they are so powerful. The Flipping Timmy is much easier to set and maintain safely.

The trap went up by the northerly rat trap at the top end of the garden, where I thought possums would come over from next door along the green corridor that runs through the gardens up from the reserves. However, I wasn't surprised when we didn't catch anything. Whilst there are a couple of dead mahoe, I couldn't see signs of possum browsing, scratch marks on trees or possum poo that would indicate there was possum activity.

However, a few weeks ago I did find scratch marks on the fence up near the traps. I've seen possum scratch marks on trees before, but I didn't think the ones on the fence matched. I think we can all agree I was wrong.

Scratch marks on the fence up the top of the garden

As I mentioned in my previous post, getting the trail camera has allowed me to find out more about what happens when I am not around to view it directly. What I actually wanted to find out when I set the camera up was what was eating the cinnamon lure out of the possum trap. I suspected tree rats, but I wanted to know for certain. Whilst I don't have confirmation of that yet, the possum was not the only pest caught on camera.

The ship rat above does look pretty happy snacking on something, but I think it is likely that it ended up in the rat trap that is on the ground just out of sight behind those trees. The rat trapping is going well, even if the possum trapping is not. I've caught eight rats in the last month with a total of 15 now since we moved in. Because it is winter, there are less food sources around and the demands of a rat's belly are overcoming the hesitance of entering a trapping tunnel, especially when there's chocolate to be had!

The next step is to change up the bait in the possum trap. I've been using cinnamon lures - Goodnature and Connovation - because I wanted something longer lasting than fresh fruit. However, something has been eating those lures and the trap hasn't gone off. As soon as I saw the footage I headed up the garden with an apple core, rubbed it with real cinnamon to put off the birds and put it in the trap. This weekend I'll do a better job of it and chop up some fresh apple.

Will all the trapping make a difference? With trapping and baiting not possible in Kauri Park or Muriel Fisher reserves down the hill because there is kauri dieback in both, it gives predators a safe haven locally. This might mean there's a constant flow of predators coming through into the garden and I will not be able to reduce numbers down. However, I'm hopeful that as long as I continue, vulnerable birds like fantails / piwakawaka can nest here in my garden and have a bit more of a chance than they would elsewhere locally. I live in hope.