There were blossoms on this lemon tree.
There is no set fruit on this lemon tree. I think it is because snails ate mini fruits, unless there were no bees in the front. I saw snails, and have not recently seen bees. It could have been another problem, so while I work to reduce the snail population, I will keep my eyes open.
It seems that possums learn from experience. They did not come to this trap for the next several settings, two even in another location. I even used cat food, and caught nothing but two cats, at two different times, each of which I quickly released. I may move it to the first location if the city leaves it long enough.
This is the trap release mechanism, which has to be set so that it is a hair-trigger. After my beginners luck in catching Mr. Possum, I had some conversations about the possums with the neighbors, one of whom saw TWO large possums walking over the fence easily , head first as it went down into our garden in broad daylight. It came from the direction of our other neighbors yard, who has a lot of vegetation. I was inspired to very carefully re-bait the trap with the same thing that worked before, tuna and apples. Two days later the trap is unsprung.
, and some of the tuna may have been eaten.
Therefore either the trap was not set to trigger easily enough, or the remaining possum has learned from his friend’s experience of being trapped one way or another. This seemingly well-set trap did not succeed in two more days.
This is what the baited and set trap looks like. A neighbor told us that they saw the animal control officer pick up the only possum we trapped. He simply reached into the trap, lifted the possum out, and put him into his truck, even though the possum was hissing and baring his teeth.
Tomorrow I will have set the trap four times, and they will most likely pick up the trap, whether we have caught another possum or not.