Sets, traps etc for the "lowly" opossum?

backwoodsman · #1 04/07/10, 10:59 PM

I know I know some old timers are rolling their eyes and thinking what? LOL, but I thought this might be a good topic for novice homesteaders etc that have never dealt with opossums(possums, slicktails, grinners to the old salts)? We've been transplanting quite a few in the last few years.

fishhead · #2 04/08/10, 08:57 AM

We've got possums now. Up until a few years ago there weren't any possums or gray fox but they've moved north.

I would expect to trap them like skunks.

Sully · #3 04/08/10, 09:40 AM

I think a good set for opossum would be to do your best to catch something else and there it will be, waiting for you.

backwoodsman · #4 04/08/10, 10:14 AM

Yep Sully, lol, that's how it usually works. Same sets that take skunk will take possums too. Basic cubby sets, traps in the no.1 size to 1.5 are good. Possums dont fight a foothold so double jaws are unnecessary but we use them as the no.11 double jaws work double duty on the coon, mink line. Conibear's of 160 and 220 size are used for most possum as they are incidental catch's in sets for other critters. We've caught them in 110's and they work good for them. We've caught possum's(and grey fox)with grape Bubble Yum bubble gum before. As a kid we ran possum and skunk lines and really didnt do anything different for either critter. Possum are greasy but easy to flesh, stretch and dry. Depending on the size and area .50-$3.00 was about the market for them. They sell good tanned also and most of ours were tanned by friends and get sold during the summer on auction sites and buckskinners rendevouz's. I tried to cook possum and taters ONCE. Old adage of cooking the possum on a shingle, pitching said possum and eatin the shingle is justified. Never even ate one bite, it reeked!

gunseller · #5 04/08/10, 05:21 PM

I have caught grinners in every type of a set ment for rats to yotes. The water sets just make me shake my head. If I was going to try to trap them I would use a 1 to 2 trap or anything I had. Canned cat food would be a good bait. Once you catch a possum nothing will go near the trap until it is cleaned.
Steve

keyhole · #6 04/08/10, 09:44 PM

I put my trash bag on the back porch after it gets full. Possums like to get into my trash for some reason but my dog throws a fit when they do that. I have found that when I let my dog outside after they are feasting, that is normally their last meal.

Pit bulls work wonders!!!

backwoodsman · #7 04/09/10, 01:30 AM

I use to pull a trap and replace it and clean it after catching a slicktail, but after several times of not having a replacement trap and still having success I quit doing that. They are one nasty critter.

gunseller · #8 04/09/10, 05:39 PM

Backwoodsman all I can say is lucky you if not replacing the trap and it still works. I have made some catches after a grinner but the time and what I feel I have missed makes me replace the trap. Laying a stick accrossed the back of their neck and pulling their tail until it meets their nose works well.
Steve

**Terri** · #9 04/09/10, 05:52 PM

I use a hav-a-hart trap, which is great because if I catch a cat I can let it go unharmed.

I bait it with either catfood or bits of raw chicken: it depends on what they have been eating. Catfood if they have torn up the garbage cans, raw chicken if they have been killing my poultry.

I leave alone those that make no trouble.

backwoodsman · #10 04/10/10, 11:27 PM

Thats how we dispatched them for years Gunseller. Last decade or so a well placed .22 is our preferred way. Terri we try to move some possums to areas of low human population but thats hard to find around here. From October-January they get pelted. Summer months we do try to remove problem ones and relocate them. All diseased are destroyed and burned. We kill over 100 on our fall/winter fur lines and that doesnt dent the population.

dezingg · #11 04/11/10, 01:15 AM

Used to have a "cute" young possum that would come by and eat out of the cat dish. (Don't know if they can transmit rabies.) A raccoon chased off the possum. The raccoon was bad news, I had to attend to that one due to the trouble he was causing.

Haven't seen any more of either. You seem to have a lot more of them around.

backwoodsman · #12 04/11/10, 10:16 PM

Never heard the word cute and possum in the same sentence? 'Cept maybe that possum sure was cute after 17 of the 18 wheels off a semi hit him? lol. Some of the first possums we caught as kids were caught in an old 1 1/2 jump on the edge of a creek with sparrow for bait and flung up under the hollow in a small dead tree. Thats was our special set and a couple possums a week fell to it. Thats been awhile but that set produced several red fox's every year too once we started wearing gloves to set the 1 1/2. We set that trap opening day and pulled it on the last day of season. We thought we were Jim Bridgers when we sold those possums for Christmas money in '78 or '79 for $7 or so tops stretched and dried.

Bearfootfarm · #13 04/11/10, 11:26 PM

I have no problem catching them on the back deck beside the cat food bowl

backwoodsman · #14 04/29/10, 12:18 AM

Just reread the post on whether they can spread rabies, yes they can and are a big culprit around here due to their denning nature, nearness to man and density. Any ideas on the next critter? What about setlines/nets for rough fish, catfish etc? Brother just bought a hobby farm and one pond we'll have to remove quite a few snappers and smaller bluegill etc.

fishhead · #15 05/01/10, 09:05 AM

I used to have snappers on my commercial fish farm. I never considered them a problem but was concerned that one might tear open a pen where I had fish stored. That never happened and I never had a problem releasing them when I caught them in the seine as long as I didn't try to hold them out of the water.

One time I found some muskrat burrows in a dike so I set some conibears. One group of traps were all snapped. As I reset them I had to reach in the burrow so that I could square the trap up. When I reached in one I hit something hard with my fingertips. Tap, tap, tap then squish followed by clamping down on my finger and my hand getting shoved back out of the hole and then released. It turned out that a snapper had backed into the muskrat burrow and I had stuck my finger in it's mouth. Fortunately as soon as the snapper extended it's neck it opened it's mouth and withdrew it's head. It was only about 10" but I was lucky it didn't slice my finger open.

backwoodsman · #16 05/01/10, 12:51 PM

Brothers new hobby farm has one pond full of snappers. We need to thin them and their prey which is some kind of chub minnow and 3" or so bluegill. Got a 25lb flathead to drop in it today, few of the small fish should be thinned fairly quick. Bait baskets are thinning a few out, poison was suggested but I wont poison a pond. Hoop nets for the turtles are illegal here even on private property. We waded in and grabbed a few.

Phillip · #17 05/07/10, 10:06 PM

I've got a Havahart live box trap that catches them easy. I've caught them with eggs, canned tuna, cat food, and other similar bait.

Once caught they it is dispatched with a .22.