Humane Wildlife Control near you

Because it would very likely die, and because the licence rules say so. New South Wales explains that possums are territorial and that dumping them too far from the point of capture, including in a local park, greatly reduces survival; its rule is release on the property of capture, after sunset, within 150 metres of where the animal was caught. Victoria's Governor in Council Order requires release on the same property within 50 metres, and the state notes that possums released into new environments are often distressed, attacked by other possums, and may die.

It is a flap or cage fitted over the animal's own entry point that allows it to leave but not to come back in. It works better than a trap for a simple reason: since a trapped animal must be released on the same property anyway, trapping achieves nothing unless the building has already been closed. A one-way door closes the building and lets the animal evict itself on its own schedule, with no handling, no stress and no licence complications. It has to be paired with an alternative home nearby and with sealing every other opening.

New South Wales advises setting up an alternative home for the possum, and says you will need a nesting box, either bought or built. The logic is practical rather than sentimental: an animal that has just lost its shelter will look for another one, and if the only good option on the property is the roof you have just closed, it will spend its nights testing your work. A box in a nearby tree, placed before the exclusion is finished, gives it somewhere to go and makes the seal much more likely to hold.

Lethal control is possible but tightly controlled. Victoria requires an Authority to Control Wildlife from the state department for lethal control, and states that such an authority is only granted where all practical non-lethal control options have been exhausted. A departmental officer may inspect the property as part of assessing the application. Trapping a brushtail possum living in a building, by contrast, is permitted under a Governor in Council Order, provided the trap will not cause injury and the animal is released on the same property within 50 metres of the capture site.

Ask three questions before you book. Which authority do you hold, under which Act, for this species? Where exactly will the animal be released, and how far from where it was caught? And what happens if there are dependent young in the roof? An operator who answers all three specifically, with reference to the rules in your state, is doing the job. Anyone who offers to take the animal away to a nicer spot is describing something the rules in New South Wales and Victoria both prohibit.