Possum and pest scams in Melbourne: what to check before you pay

Someone rocks up. Or you find a flyer under the door. They reckon you’ve got possums. Five of them, maybe. They’ve brought a gadget. They want an answer today.

Take a breath.

A proper job starts with what they can show you, not what they can sell you. If the story doesn’t line up with the noises, the mess, or the roof itself, you’re not being careful. You’re being worked.

The heat camera that finds light fittings

We’ve seen this one. In Thornbury, a company told a homeowner she had five possums after they ran a heat camera over her ceiling. The spots were perfectly round, dead centre of each room, and not moving.

That’s a downlight. Not a brushtail.

No droppings. No rub marks. No way in. She’d already shelled out around $600 for doors and blocking she didn’t need.

Dexter wrote it up: The Thornbury heat camera that found five possums that weren’t there. Worth a look if someone’s waved a thermal report at you and something feels off.

Heat cameras pick up lights, hot water pipes, sun on the ceiling. Handy in the right hands. They don’t replace looking in the roof. If they can’t point to droppings, rub marks, or an actual entry, that report is doing sales work, not diagnostic work.

Signs the job might not be real

Same patterns keep turning up around Melbourne.

Big diagnosis, nothing to show for it. Brushtails thump when they move. Rats scratch and chew. Some real jobs are quieter: a smell, a stain, a gap you haven’t heard anything from in a while. That’s fine, if they can still show you what they found. The problem is the full proofing pitch with empty hands. No droppings. No marks. No entry. No clear story.

Round, still “heat spots.” Evenly spaced blobs in the middle of rooms are almost never animals. Animals move. Lights don’t.

Pay now, or the price disappears. Proper work can be booked online or over the phone. Hard sell at the door, cash only, “today only” pricing. Same goes for anyone who wants a deposit before they’ve even had a proper look.

The fix doesn’t match the problem. Foam stuffed in a gap. A one-way door over nothing. Mesh that isn’t sealed. Blocking with no entry underneath. If they can’t explain how the animal’s getting in, they’re guessing. With your money.

They skipped the other animal. Rodent bait in a roof without checking for possums can kill native wildlife. Dust rodenticide left in a ceiling is a headache for trades, pets, and anyone who disturbs it later. Both turn up on cleanup jobs.

What a proper visit looks like

You should leave with a clear picture. Not a scare.

They should be able to tell you what they heard or saw, where the entry is (and show you), what animal they think it is and why, and what happens first: one-way door, bait stations, spray, or proofing. Also what you pay and when. Deposit before they’ve assessed it, or once the job’s done. And what the warranty actually covers if something comes back.

For a roof or wall cavity, the method worth paying for is a one-way door and proper sealing of every entry. Being told the only option is to cage it and dump it somewhere else is a hard sell, not a careful plan. Victorian rules around trapping and release are strict. Shifting a problem possum off the property isn’t a shortcut that helps the animal. For how a proper job actually runs, start with possums in the roof this winter.

A possum loose inside the house is different. That’s an emergency: get it out safely, then work out how it got in.

Before you book anyone

Search the business name and ABN. Check there’s a real address, and reviews that mention the same people who rocked up. Ask for a pest control licence number and write it down. Get the scope in writing: entry points, method, return visits, warranty.

Don’t seal anything while an animal might still be inside.

If you’re not sure, pay for a proper second look before you commit to a full proofing job. Fixing bad work costs more than getting the diagnosis right the first time.

If you’ve already paid for nothing

You’re not the first. Hang onto the report, the invoice, the photos. Get someone else to look from scratch and tell you what’s actually up there. Sometimes the answer is “nothing.” Sometimes it’s a proper proofing job. Either way you want evidence, not another gadget demo.

If the noise is light scratching rather than heavy thumps, read rats or mice in the house this winter before anyone reaches for bait.

Bottom line

Keep an eye out for the story that skips the evidence. Heat spots that look like light fittings. Doors over gaps that go nowhere. Pressure to decide today.

A real job can handle a few questions. A scam usually can’t.