Couple stunned by mysterious creature ‘gnawing’ holes in living room wall

As the sun set on Tuesday night, an Australian couple took part in a well-known relaxation ritual. They put their feet up, turned on the television and settled in for the night.

Then a mysterious creature started drilling holes in their walls.

The first sign that something was wrong was that their dog started barking furiously. “They thought it was a rat or something at first, but then they saw a nose sticking out of the hole,” the rescuer told Yahoo News.

Amy Wregg was called to the Gold Coast because of her specialism in helping native animals in need. When she arrived, she discovered two holes drilled into the couple’s living room wall.

By then, the homeowners had realized that the creature in their wall was a large brush-tailed possum. Fearing it was trapped, they tried to get it out themselves by cutting a larger hole in the drywall, but the animal eluded capture.

“They were certainly more concerned about the welfare of the possum than the wall,” Wregg said.

Why an Opossum Mysteriously Tried to Break Into a Couple’s Home

The locals gave Amy permission to drill more holes in their wall. But the possum managed to break out of the wall and make his own way out, leaving everyone involved in the drama baffled as to why he was so keen to get inside.

“I’m not sure why he was chewing on the walls because there were a lot of ways out of the wall,” Wregg said. “I think they had a bowl of fruit nearby and maybe he could smell it.”

To prevent the possum from entering the wall, the external holes through which it entered have been sealed. But simply preventing the possum from entering the roof will not contribute to its well-being.

While it’s annoying to have a large possum jumping around on your roof, marsupials typically only enter homes when they have nowhere else to go.

How Homeowners Can Prevent Opossums From Entering Their Home

The owners plan to install a possum box for their local short-tailed seal to live in – a move Wregg calls a “great idea” and something other Australians should consider.

“The couple lives in a protected area and they care about wildlife. But there are other people who need to be educated,” she said.

“For example, they need to stop using rat bait on the roof. We’ve had a lot of possums recently that have been hemorrhaging and we’ve had to get them off the roof as they’re bleeding out.

“If you don’t solve the problem of them getting into the roof and you don’t provide them with a habitat, they will continue to come in.”

Wregg is a licensed animal rescuer with WIRES and WildCare.

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