The simple answer is no. It is illegal to set a trap for any native animal, including possums, unless you have a permit from the wildlife department.
Possums in Cage
This is because there is no guarantee what an untrained person may do with the animal. Often people want to catch possums to relocate them. But don’t realise this is also illegal because research has shown that relocating a possum is usually a death sentence.
Apart from being vulnerable to attack from cats and dogs, a relocated possum would often be placed into the territory of another possum, where it does not know where to hide or find food at the new location.
That’s why relocating an animal off your property is cruel, but it is also very ineffective. As soon as you remove a possum from its territory other possums know the space is now vacant and they will “move in”.
We have heard of many stories over the years of home owners who claim to have removed 5 to 10 possums from their roof, but still have got another one. This is a reality in Brisbane where our urban gardens are a haven for lots of possums.
If a possum is in your roof the only solution is to seal off the entry holes, which is what we do. When we evict your possum and it is released nearby, it is in an area it knows and other possums recognise it. From radio tracking studies, we know that the evicted possum usually goes straight to another den it already knows about.
Overall having the holes fixed is a far more humane (and legal) process to solve the problem of a possum in your house.
If your problem is that you have possums in your garden, then I’m afraid you will need to realise this will not change as we seem to have endless possums in Brisbane. So it is better to look at how you can reduce the problem by protecting special plants for the long term with metal cages and alike.
We are very lucky to have such wonderful wildlife so close to our cities, sometimes it can be frustrating but we need to be more tolerant and learn to live with our wildlife neighbours.
