Possum Control: How To Trap Opossum
Opossum are frequently considered a nuisance in and around the garden, especially when they feed on or trample plants. They can also rummage through garbage cans or steal your pets’ food. How to get rid of an opossum can be tricky but with a little perseverance, the backyard possum may be convinced to move elsewhere.
Backyard Possum Control
The best way to combat opossum problems is to understand their habits. While they prefer wooded areas or open fields near streams, they will take up residence in abandoned burrows; tree crevices; brush piles; or areas beneath steps, decks, and outbuildings.
How to Get Rid of an Opossum
Opossum repellents. There are numerous products on the market targets at repelling these wild animals. However, these generally offer little relief. Other possum control methods include the use of motion-activated sprinkler systems, which can startle the creatures and frighten them off.
Traps. Trapping opossum is another common method employed for possum control. Knowing how to trap opossum isn’t as difficult as what to do with one once it’s caught. This normally requires relocation by an authorized (licensed) wildlife expert in most areas.
Killing these animals should only be a last resort, and is often not permitted in most states. Nonetheless, trapping them in a box or cage-like trap is fairly easy. Traps should measure about 10 by 12 by 32 inches. Set the traps along trails and known travel routes, bating them with fruit such as over ripe melons, grapes, or bananas
How to Get Rid of Oppossums?
Possums are excellent to have around the house. They clear out garbage, feed on harmful insects and have charming, rat-like tails. Not impressed? You’re not alone. While many people have an appreciation for wildlife, it’s best for wildlife to stay in the wild. Having possums lurk around your home in the middle of the night is not the most pleasant thought. So how do you get rid of possums that have become all too eager to call you neighbor? There are a few ways to solve this dilemma.
Regions and identification
The first step to opossum control is proper identification. The Virginia opossum is the only species found in the United States, although despite its name, it can be found in many other regions.
“The Virginia opossum (Dedeliphis virginiana) is North America’s only marsupial (“pouched”) mammal. It is found often very abundantly throughout the eastern and midwestern United States westward into Colorado and Texas. It is also found in the western coastal states of California, Oregon, and Washington and in the southern regions of British Columbia. It is not typically found in mountainous regions, in extreme deserts, or in the high northern sections of the United States.”
Disease
Your main reason for questioning how to get rid of possums may stem from a concern about disease. Many people fear that possums are rabid creatures. However, while possums do carry certain diseases, they appear to have a certain resistance to rabies. The Wildlife Rescue League states:
Benefit to ecosystem
It is important to get rid of possums that are causing havoc in your home, but not all possums are bad. According to the Wildlife Rescue League, “Opossums are excellent at rodent and insect control, and being carrion eaters, they help keep roadways and neighborhoods clean.”
How To Get Rid of Opossums & Tips on Possum Control
Possums are surprisingly beneficial animals to have around. They clear away garbage, eat pesky insects, and some people think they’re rather cute. However, that doesn’t include everyone, and many believe that these wild animals should stay wild. Having an opossum around the home isn’t a pleasant thought for every homeowner, and in this guide, readers will learn How to get rid of opossums in and around the home.
Identification
The first and most important step in possum control is identification. Although it’s known as the Virginia opossum, the animal is found in areas across the country. It’s America’s only marsupial, and it’s found throughout the midwestern and eastern US. It’s not normally found in the mountains, in the desert, or the high northern part of the country. Before deciding how to eliminate the problem, verify that a possum is the cause.
An adult opossum may range from 22 to 33 inches long, including a 10-12 inch tail. The animals weigh between four and 12 pounds, and males are typically bigger than females. Possums have coarse, long gray outer fur with a deep brown or black undercoat. They have five toes on each foot, and on the hind feet, the first toe is opposable and has no claw. Opossums have hairless, black, large ears, small and beady black eyes, and white, furry faces. Snouts are pointed and long, and their noses are pink and rather distinctive.
Diseases Spread by Opossums
A homeowner’s primary reason for learning How to keep opossums away may be due to concerns about disease. Many assume that possums carry rabies, but that’s not true. While the animals do carry some diseases, they seem to have a natural immunity to rabies. According to the Wildlife Rescue League, possums do not carry diseases typically found in cats and dogs, such as parvo, distemper, or feline hepatitis. Although any mammal may catch rabies, it’s quite rare in opossums; it’s thought to be due to a body temperature that’s too low to allow the rabies virus to multiply. Opossums do carry some other diseases that may be concerning to homeowners, children, and pets,
How Possums Benefit the Ecosystem
It’s crucial to get rid of opossums that cause trouble in and around the home, but not all of the animals are bad. According to information from the Wildlife Rescue League, possums are very adept at insect or rodent control, and because they eat carrion (dead meat), they keep neighborhoods and city streets clean. The League goes on to state that possums are more helpful as scavengers than harmful for the damage they can potentially cause. Neighborhoods with opossums are often much cleaner than those without them.
Possums
Possums live in the trees and occasionally come down to the ground to look for food. Brushtail Possums live in tree hollows and Ringtail Possums in the south of Australia build a nest out of sticks. Both kinds of possum may live in our roof if they can’t find suitable homes in trees.
Possums live in territories and mark the boundaries with smells. They rub the scent from glands under their chin, chest and base of tail against trees so everybody knows who’s the boss in the area. Possums protect their territories by fighting off intruders.
The body of a possum is made for life in the trees. They have strong, sharp claws, and hand-like back feet. The Ringtail Possum has a prehensile tail which acts like another hand to help it grip tree branches with ease. They can also use it to carry nesting material.
You can look after possums in your own backyard
Many of our possums are dependent on tree hollows. They need them to sleep in during the daylight hours. Competition from other possums, birds, bats and gliders along with the clearing of many old trees has reduced suitable hollows and possums often move in to the roof or walls of your home. They are not quiet – if you have a possum in your roof, you will soon know about it!
What is a backyard buddy?
Backyard buddies are the native animals that share our built-up areas, our beaches and waterways, our backyards and our parks. The possum is a backyard buddy. Backyard buddies are also the local people who value the living things around them, like possums, and are willing to protect and encourage them by doing a few simple things around their own homes
How To Get Rid of Opossums
Opossums are the only marsupials that live in North America. Like other marsupials, their young develop in an exterior pouch like kangaroos rather than inside a womb within a placenta.
They’re omnivores that will feed on almost anything. But because they have so successfully adapted to human environments, they can easily become nuisance animals in urban settings or even in neighborhoods where they forage through trash cans.
Physical Characteristics
All opossums range about 21 to 36 inches long, measured from nose to the tip of their tail. They’re similar in size to a cat or a small dog. Some of their more identifiable characteristics are their pointed head and pink nose, a long, hairless tail, and hairless, pointy ears. Their mouths contain 50 small, sharp, teeth. They also feature opposable thumbs on their hind feet.
Virginia Opossum
The Virginia Opossum is the only opossum species native to America, and it is the only variety known to cause problems in the U.S.
Common Opossum
The Common Opossum (also known as the Southern Opossum) prefers habitats near water like tropical forests, but will also be found close to people in urban areas.
