Possums venture down in their hordes from the surrounding nature reserves. They feast on new spring leaves and will persist with demolishing every new shoot until a tree might decide to give up and die. Our normal process is to surround the trunk with a clear plastic or tin cover which the possums cannot climb beyond. In the above case, the North American Red Oak is probably 8-10m high, and glider possums enter the foliage via a neighbouring pepper tree. Now 4 months into summer, and barely a leaf to be seen ...until 5 days ago I hung napthalene (moth balls) in the tree and suddenly life is reappearing in the leaves. Possums hate the scent. Fingers crossed that the success continues
