More of us are coming into contact - and sometimes conflict - with wildlife as cities and suburbs spread. Use this information to find out whether you need to step in or step back when you find yourself living with wildlife.

Read this first

All native animals are protected by law.

Removal is not a solution

Relocated animals often die. And when an animal is removed, another one often takes its place.

Put up a barrier

Deterrents only work for short periods. If you don't like animals in your property, stop them getting in.

Nothing lasts forever

Many wildlife 'nuisances' are only passing through. Be patient and remember that we share our home.

Lucky you

Living closely with wildlife can have benefits. Enjoy your close encounter with Australia's amazing animals.

Bandicoots

Bandicoot digging conical holes in the lawn and garden beds.

Duration: Temporary

Bandicoots will only be around as long as the food source lasts, about 5 days. In many places, they only come to a backyard once every 10 years or so.

Benefits

Bandicoots eat scarab larvae or lawn grubs.

Action

Don't worry. Protect pets from ticks.

Bats (for Fruit bats, see Flying foxes)

Microbats (small bats) in the ceiling, walls or other living space

Duration: Long-term

Benefits

Bats are invaluable mosquito controllers.

Action

Don't worry. However, if you do want to remove or seal out the bats, provide another roosting site first:

1. Provide an alternative home such as a bat box (see Nestboxes>) nearby.
2. Get some bat droppings from the existing roost and paint some moistened droppings inside the new roost to provide a familiar smell.
3. Spot where the bats leave and enter the property at dusk or dawn.
4. Cover the access hole with black plastic fastened over the sides and top of the hole. This allows the bats out but stops them re-entering the property.
5. To allow all the colony to leave, seal the access entirely only after 3 nights.

Bees

Swarming bees

Duration: Temporary to long-term

Benefits: Good for pollinating native plants and backyard vegetation

Action

1. Check whether the bees are native bees or feral European bees. Contact the Inquiry Centre at the Queensland Museum or find more information from the Australian Native Bee Research Centre (ANBRC).
2. Swarming feral European bees are an environmental and health risk and need to be controlled. Call a bee removalist to deal with a European bee swarm or a European bee nest in a building or tree. NB Single European bees are not a threat and should be left alone.
3. Native social bees do not sting and need to be conserved. Contact the Native Bee Rescue and Advice Service.

Bees building in house

Duration: Temporary to long-term

Benefits: Good for pollinating native plants and backyard vegetation

Action:

If native solitary bees such as teddy bear bees or blue-banded bees are building in your house, find more information from the Australian Native Bee Research Centre (ANBRC)or contact the Native Bee Rescue and Advice Service.

Lone bee

Duration: Temporary

Benefits: Good for pollinating native plants and backyard vegetation

Action

1. Identify the bee as native or European. Contact the Inquiry Centre at the Queensland Museum.
2. f the solitary bee is a native such as the teddy bear bee or the blue banded bee, contact the Australian Native Bee Research Centre or the Native Bee Rescue and Advice Service.

Birds

Baby bird fallen out of nest

Duration: Temporary

Action

• Don't worry straight away. Parent birds often continue to care for baby birds that have fallen out of nests
• Keep children and pets away.
• If you are worried, leave the baby bird on a low branch so that the parents can feed it without coming to the ground. These birds are more likely to survive than those 'rescued' by humans.

If the bird needs rescuing for its own safety, contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

Birds harassing a possum, koala or owl during the day.

Duration: Temporary

Action:

Don't worry. Nocturnal animals out during daytime always attract unwelcome attention from butcherbirds, noisy miners, crows and so on. The target animal is able to take care of itself and will move off after dark. However, if the animal is injured or sick, it may need rescuing.

Contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

Birds nesting on lawns or ovals and swooping on passers-by.

Duration: Temporary

Often only lasts 3-5 weeks. Once the eggs hatch and the babies mature, the swooping stops or lessens. The adult birds rarely strike a person. They are just defending their young.

Action

• Keep away if possible. Let the birds hatch the eggs and move on of their accord.
• If the birds do have to be moved for safety reasons (eg from a school oval), contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

Moving or breaking native bird eggs is illegal. If the eggs are broken, the bird will nest again but will be even more aggressive. See also Magpies.

Bird strikes on windows

Duration: Long-term or temporary.

Long term: Birds think they have clear flight path through your window. . Temporary: Birds see their reflection in the glass and think it is a rival. See Action to deal with these situations appropriately.

Action

Clear Flight path

Birds can see through the house or otherwise mistake the window for a clear flight path and so keep trying to fly through. This situation will not be confined to the breeding season.

• Either obstruct the view by sticking tape across the window or put a sticky silhouette of a hawk on the glass.
• Trawler netting, ribbons or any other obstacle on the outside of the window will also prevent bird strikes.

Reflection

Some birds get territorial during the breeding season in spring and summer. They see their reflection in the glass and think it is a rival. Kookaburras, kingfishers, magpie larks and butcherbirds are prone to this. Some birds can be very persistent.

• Open the windows or place paper over the glass to stop the reflection.
• Change the appearance of the window with balloons, streamers or plastic shopping bags (securely fastened).
• If the bird persists, cover the window for the whole breeding season.

Brush turkeys

Brush turkeys building a mound in the backyard

Duration: Long-term

Benefits:

Brush turkeys eat insects and larvae pests.

Action

• On the DERM web site, read Living with wildlife for tips on co-exisisting with these fascinating birds.
• Peg chicken wire or a tarpaulin over your mulch pile to stop the birds using it as mound-building material.
• Place chicken wire or rocks around precious plants to deter the turkey.
• Replace the mulch on garden beds with heavier material such as gravel.
• Keep compost in a closed bin.
• Don't bother removing the mound. The bird will just build it again, often within a day.

Crows

Crows calling as a nuisance noise, getting into the garbage and eating dog food, mobbing and harassing other birds

Duration: Might be long-term

Benefits

Crows are nature's garbage collectors. Because they are primarily scavengers, they prevent salmonella, botulism and e-coli spreading to humans.

Action

Noise: You can do little. Crows are a protected native species in Queensland and so cannot be killed or harmed.

Garbage raiding: Secure the garbage and either feed cats and dogs inside or remove the food as soon as the pet has eaten. You should do this anyway for the health of your pet.

Harassing other animals: Don't worry. Crows are scavengers, not predators and do not reduce the populations of other animals.

Ducks

Ducks in the swimming pool

Duration: Temporary

Action

Be patient. Ducks will either be happy to share the pool with you or will move on. However, baby ducklings that are too young to fly might get stranded in the pool and be unable to get out or might be threatened by cats and dogs.

1. Stop ducks flying into the pool:
   • Cover the pool with a proper pool cover or matte black plastic sheeting, or stretch ropes across the pool surface to prevent them landing.
   • Tie helium balloons to the pool fence on the side they fly in.
   • Floating toys on the water may deter them.
   • Leave your dog shut inside the pool fence for a couple of days, but only if no ducks are present. You may only need to do this at full moon because ducks are attracted by light reflecting on the water at night.
2. Get stranded ducklings out of the pool: Raise the level of the pool water so that the duckling can step out or secure a plank on the edge as an escape route, or use a leaf scoop to remove the ducklings without hurting them. Keep pets away while ducklings are vulnerable.

Feral animals

All feral animals are controlled by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNR&M) or your local council.

Action

Contact your local DNR&M office or your local government office.

Fire ants

These imported insects are a serious threat in South-East Queensland and must be eradicated.

Call the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) on 13 25 23.

Flying-foxes

There is a small risk of catching a virus from flying-foxes. Never touch a flying-fox, only a registered bat carer should deal with any live animal. Contact the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

Flying-foxes eating fruit

Duration: Temporary

Flying-foxes will stay as long as the food source lasts.

Benefits

Flying-foxes pollinate and disperse the seeds of many native plants and rainforest trees. They only eat cultivated fruit because their wild food trees are being cut down.

Action

Use a physical barrier to prevent flying-foxes eating fruit.

• Net your fruit trees with flying-fox safe netting that is stretched taut over the tree with no folds or loose ends that might entangle animals or birds.
• Put plastic or paper bags over individual fruit.

Flying-fox caught on powerlines

Action

In cities, flying-foxes are often caught on powerlines and electrocuted. The adult will be killed outright but babies carried on the mother's fur often survive, only to die of starvation or exposure. If you think a dead bat on a power line is carrying live young, call Energex on 13 12 53.

Frogs

Frogs in the house

Duration: Long term

Benefits:

Frogs eat insects and their larvae.

Action

Don't worry. Frogs aren't poisonous and do no damage. Frogs are most likely settle to in the toilet or bathroom. If you don't want resident frogs, stop them getting in. Tie mesh (such as panty hose) over the ventilation pipe on the roof or over the ends of the overflow pipes.

Noisy frogs in the pond

Duration: Temporary

Frogs can call all summer, every summer. Most noisy in rain and on moonlit nights.

Benefits

Frogs will eat unwanted pests in the garden and attract some wading birds to your area.

Action

Your pond: If you really do want to get rid of your frogs, fill in the pond in winter so that you don't kill the frogs.

Neighbours' pond: Because backyard frogs are not domestic pets, you cannot force your neighbour to get rid of the frogs in their pond.

Frog spawn in the swimming pool

Duration: Temporary

The spawn will hatch and the tadpoles turn into frogs and leave.

Benefits

You will have a resident frog population in your backyard - but they will return to their lay their own eggs in the pool in future!

Action

Don't worry, unless you don't want frogs.

1. Make sure it isn't cane toad spawn. Cane toad spawn looks like long, jelly strings. Scoop it out and throw it in the bin.
2. If you know it's frog spawn, scoop it out of the pool, put it in a container with non-tap water and relocate it to a suitable neighbourhood pond.

Frogs in a box of fruit or produce

Find out where the box has come from. Contact the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

Geckos

Geckos in the house

Duration: Long-term generally

Geckoes are less active in winter.

Benefits

Geckoes are natural pest controllers. They eat cockroaches, moths, mosquitos and midges.

Action

Don't worry. Their droppings are much cleaner than those of the pests they control.

If they are tripping the burglar alarm, alter the system's sensitivity.

Koalas

Koala in a backyard tree

Duration: Short- or long-term

Action

1. Check if the koala is sick or orphaned or in danger from pets.
   • Sick koalas have wet dirty bottoms and/or weepy, red or closed eyes.
   • Orphaned koalas are smaller than a football and call constantly for their mothers.
2. If the koala looks sick or orphaned or threatened, contact the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office. In South-East Queensland, call the Daisy Hill Koala Centre on 07 3299 1032 (24 hours)
3. If the animal looks healthy, then a tree is its natural place. Alert the neighbours and keep pets away while the koala is in the area.

Relocating koalas is not recommended. They are territorial and, especially in South-East Queensland, are hard to relocate away from roads and dogs.

Koala on the road

Duration: Temporary

Action

Don't worry. If the animal is uninjured and not in immediate danger, it doesn't need to be caught or relocated.

Where safe and appropriate, stop your car, put on the hazard lights and usher the koala off the road with a stick while keeping a safe distance.

Lizards

Lizard in the house

Duration: Temporary

Benefits

Lizards are great pest controllers and eat cockroaches and snails.

Action

Don't worry. There are no poisonous lizards in Queensland.

• If you aren't sure whether what you have is a snake or a lizard, contact the Inquiry Centre at the Queensland Museum. See Snakes
• Skinks and larger lizards, such as Blue tongues, often live in houses, garages and sheds. If you want to remove the lizard for its own safety, call Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.
• You can try to entice it into a box (such as a beer carton) and move the box outside, but don't harm or scare the lizard.

Magpies

Magpies swooping and attacking

Duration: Temporary

Swooping lasts for the 6-8 week Spring breeding season.

Action

• Never harass breeding magpies. Birds who swoop are defending their nests against perceived threats.
• Move out of the attack zone without running. Dismount if you are on a bicycle. Try not to look up
• Wear a broad-brimmed hat. Place sunglasses on top of the hat or even paint big fake eyes on the top of your hat or bicycle helmet.
• Hold an open umbrella over your head.

Report the attack to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

Mice and rats

Mice or rats in the house or roof

Duration: Temporary

Rodents will stay as long as there is a food source

Action

1. Check that rats and mice are what you have (rather than possums). Look for signs of chewing: possums rarely chew and rats chew on anything.
2. You can pay for a rodent removal service but the animals will be poisoned and more will move in to take their place within weeks. Stopping up their entrances keeps rodents out permanently.
   • Repair the holes in the house where the rodents are getting in.
   • Ensure you are not providing an easy food source. Keep cupboards closed. Keep compost in a closed rodent-proof bin.
   • You can trap the rats or mice yourself. Place a trap in a box with two entrance holes. Put a different bait on the trap each night (most rodents can't resist a drop of oil of aniseed).

Possums

Possums in the roof

Duration: Permanent or at least long-term

Action

Check that possums are what you have (see mice or rats). Possums will not damage your property; and they will stop Indian myna birds establishing themselves in your roof space.

If you pay for possum removal, the animals will only be relocated within 25 m of your house. Generally the same possums return or different ones will move in to take their place within weeks. Stopping up their entrances keeps possums out permanently.

1. Find out where the possums are getting in and out.
2. Wait for the animals to leave for the night and seal the gap.
3. If you want to have the possums around but not living so close to you, consider putting a possum box in your yard.

Possums eating fruit and vegetables from the garden

Duration: Temporary

Possums will eat fruit as long as there is any available.

Action

Protect the food source from the possums.

• Put possum-proof fences around the vegetable patch.
• Put plastic bags over large fruit such as banana bunches.
• Try to prevent the possums climbing tree trunks if this is how they are getting to the fruit. Put a 50cm minimum broad metal collar around the trunk. Make sure the collar is high enough to prevent the possum just jumping up over it.

Seabirds

See also Birds, Swallows and martins

Seabird entangled or hooked in fishing tackle

If you hook or entangle a seabird, while fishing, do not cut the line. Follow these steps:

• Make an attempt to reel the bird in, gently.
• Place a towel or shirt over the bird's head, and, if possible remove the hook and/or line.
• If you cannot remove the hook without incurring further injury to the bird, do not release the bird. Contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office
• If the line breaks when attempting to reel in the bird, or you find a bird hooked or entangled that you cannot help, contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office.

(Guidelines courtesy Australian Seabird Rescue)

Snakes

Warning: Most snake bites happen to people who are trying to catch or kill a snake.

Snake in the backyard

Duration: Varies

The snake has probably lived in the garden for a long time without being seen. Most snakes, given the chance, will move away from humans so the nuisance is temporary.

Action

1. Make sure that what are seeing is a snake, not a lizard. Legless lizards look very similar to snakes. Lizards are not dangerous. Contact the Inquiry Centre at the Queensland Museum.
2. Keep children and pets away.
3. Let the snake move away on its own.
4. Snakes often die when relocated but if you do want the snake removed for its own safety, you can search online for your nearest local snake catcher, or contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) on 1300 130 372 (24 hours) or your local QPWS office. Alternatively, contact the Queensland Reptile and Amphibian Club on +61 7 3200 0266 for advice and information.
5. Keep watch from a distance until help arrives so that you can direct the handler to the snake.

It is illegal to attempt to harm native wildlife (though it is legal to kill a snake that poses a threat to people or pets).

Python in the roof

Duration: Permanent

The python will stay if there is a local food source.

Benefits

Pythons are not venomous and tend to avoid people. A python in your roof will eat any rats or mice that might otherwise eat your electric wiring.

Action

If you still want the python removed, see Snake in the backyard.

Swallows and martins

Swallows and martins nesting under the eaves

Duration: Temporary

Will stay during the nesting season

Benefits

The birds eat flies and mosquitoes.

Action

Don't worry. The birds do no damage and will move on at the end of the season.

• If the nest is over a doorway, you can put a drip tray underneath to catch the droppings.
• If you do not want the nest to stay after the season, remove the nest around the end of February with a high pressure hose.
• If you don't want the birds to return next year, dissuade them by fixing a plastic sheet against the wall on the nest site. Mud won't stick to the plastic so the birds will give up nesting in that spot and you can remove the sheet once they have moved on.

FAQ

If I feed the birds in my backyard, will the local cats eat them?

Feeding birds is very common in backyards but regular feeding can make it easy for cats to hunt the wildlife. See Feeding wildlife for information on how to feed wildlife safely and healthily.

Can I take a sick wild animal to the vet? Will I have to pay?

Most vets will treat wild animal without charge and then arrange to release it back into the wild.

I want to chop down a few trees and tidy up the backyard. How will this affect the local animals and birds?

See Garden trees and wildlife for information on how to reduce the impact on wildlife if you decide to cut down backyard trees.

I really think I need help from a wildlife rescue service or some information about wildlife that needs help.

Wildlife rescue organisations