This is what Bill Bryson said about Australia:
Not as tough as my place!
Our garden contains, and has contained over the years a variety of critters such as (Note, this is just a small selection):
There is the possum that required no less than three visits from 'Possum Busters' over a period of months to get him out of our roof. Of course he still keeps coming and eating the mangoes in the mango tree. Now my husband has been told by friends that they love tomatoes - just try it and that possum is not long for this world.
We have the magpie with attitude who lives in the tree across the road but seems to think that my home is his home. This morning for instance, I found him inspecting the weeding out the front my husband had done, and he will not go away when you walk right up to him. He had attitude that one. If I could buy a BB gun, I would!
We had the bees just after the extensions were finished that set up a hive in the wall under the balcony, the bee keeper gassed them. When I asked what will happen to the honey and dead bees he said " Oh don't worry, the cockroaches will eat those".
Several colonies of wasps have tried and eventually failed to make a home in my home.
And speaking of bees, we have the weird Australian native bees that live in the ground - I kid you not. They come out only once a year, I told you they were weird.
And speaking of cockroaches, we were invaded by German cockroaches after buying a new (German made) dishwasher - took a pest controller to get rid of them.
He did also get rid of the redback spiders in the shed, so I was glad of that, now I only have to deal with the ones with the white bit on the back that can kill you, and make a web with a cross in the middle. I forget what they are called, but my motto is that the only good spider is a dead spider.
They also invade the garden, every time I plant roses I am invaded by aphids, once I had hundreds of strange furry caterpillars marching through my backyard to eat the newly planted Clivia's, and now something is eating the MINT! I did not think anything ate mint! Anyway I have looked up my handy Yates Garden Guide no luck, Google elicited lots of talk about snails and slugs, no it is not that, and so far I have not been able to find what is eating it. Oh well, I will just have to try a pyrethrum spray and hope for the best.
This is what they look like at present:
Stay tuned for an update.
About the crocodiles - they are the oldest living animal on earth, and they see people as food, so if you ever come to Australia DO NOT swim in rivers or billabongs north of Sydney. We once met some English tourists walking along a river near Cairns, they asked us where the best spot was to swim. I said "you see that river - you don't swim in that river, you will die." This was because it was particularly uninviting just after a cyclone had come through, current running very fast and with floating and not so floating logs etc. I forgot to tell him about the crocs, but that is the main reason anyway for not swimming, most people actually get taken from the edge of rivers etc. when they are fishing etc. Crocs are very powerful and can come out onto the bank and take a child in seconds. You have no chance against crocs. In a battle of man vs crocs, crocs win every time.
UPDATE - I had run out of pyrethrum spray, so I just used some white oil - did the trick and no more munching on the mint!
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