I gotta Oppossum problem....

[Lairvine]

I was just sittin here in my den to the puter, cat comes by sneaking, creaping... I look to see if he is going to attact my budgies but nooo there is a young possum looking up through the floor vent What am I going to do??? It is after midnight... I need sleep but I do not want to wake up with an extra bed fellow I have a cage/trap over the vent, it is baited with a fried chicken thigh bone. It has not come after it. I really would rather live trap it. The momma died in our have-a-hart trap by fire ants and another small one met an early demise by trying to curl up with my Jack Russel. So I would like to be able to rehome this one. Any help???? Please

[Ravenlost]

Go to bed and see if he's in the trap in the morning. About all you can do I think.

[pookshollow]

So I would like to be able to rehome this one.

Why? They're vermin, they carry disease, they kill poultry. If you get it in the livetrap, it's easy enough to drop it, trap and all, into a bucket of water. That's what we do with rats.

I had two 'possums in my feed-room, which is right next to my chicken coop, last winter. We caught both of them with a noose and garrotted them. Crows got an early Christmas dinner.

[BaronsMom]

Go to

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/

Check under wildlife, and click on opossum.

The Univ of Nebraska has a good publication on controlling opossums and raccoons.

Good luck!!

[Alice In TX/MO]

You have to check all your ductwork. You at least have a hole. I hope they haven't nested in there.

Ick.

[agmantoo]

Lairvine, you have an additional problem also. If the animal was in the vent you have a hole in the ductwork and you are dumping AC/Heat into the crawl space.

[CGUARDSMAN]

why not send in your JRT he would kill it.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

am i the only one that would shoot it in the house

[CoonXpress]

Originally Posted by GREENCOUNTYPETE

am i the only one that would shoot it in the house

Snakes, YES.
Grinners, just get a baseball bat.
Lairvine, if you was a real homesteader, you'd be asking for possum recipes.

[Ravenlost]

Did you catch the 'possum?

[CGUARDSMAN]

of course you could always do the possum stomp

[horsefarmer]

They are easy to skin and bring a buck a piece green. If you got one, you got several. I don't mind it when I catch them in my trap line. It is easier to catch and skin 5 to 10 possums than 1 coyote and you wind up with the same cash in the end. Now fox and bobcat are another matter altogether but I vote skin him.

[pookshollow]

They are easy to skin and bring a buck a piece green.

Really? Who buys them and what do they do with them? Can't say that I've ever seen a fine 'possum fur coat! I did suggest to DH, when we killed the two in our barn, that we make some Davy Crockett hats out of the skins - wouldn't they be stylin'?

[horsefarmer]

Some of them are used in producing real fur teddybears but you can also go to a furcoat store that isn't top notch and take a long hard look at some of the trim fur used and even at a $1,000 silver martin coat. I wouldn't spend my money on one but after they are died and possibly plucked, no one can really tell for sure where they come from.

Any fur buyer will buy them. Actually, if you want to take the time, you can flesh, stretch and dry them and get closer to $3 and sometimes even $5 for them but the hides are very fragile and easily torn. They skin so quick and easy, I just prefer to skin them, wash them and let the fur dry. Then, I brush them real quick with a doggie brush, give a 30 second fluff with my wifes hair dryer (shhhh), roll them up tail to nose in as tight a ball as I can and put it in the freezer in gallon ziploc freezer bags. Thaw them out the day before I go have an appointment with the buyer and they are good to go. I am not a big time trapper, just a hobby that grew from local chicken predator reduction efforts but I sold nearly $150 worth of possom hides last fall, about $500 all hides totaled. Pretty good money for having fun but I'd hate to have pay my mortgage doing it. Lots (probably safe to say nearly most) sell far more than I do in any given year but they go at it a lot harder than I do and have a lot more money in traps lying around in the woods than I am comfortable investing, at least at this point.

Try it. It is a blast and a unique way to generate some Christmas cash or late in the year property tax money.

[Lairvine]

Lairvine, if you was a real homesteader, you'd be asking for possum recipes. [/QUOTE]


Well they are too stringy for me I hate to get anything in my teeth.

I know I have duct problems-- DH works in heating and ac--- Why is your own the last to get fixed?

[countryrn]

Ooh, I've got a possum recipe around here somewhere. It starts out, "First, kill the possum..." I kid you not.

[EasyDay]

Lairvine,
Years ago, when we lived in town, we had 'possums in our duct work. It had gotten in through a hole in the duct behind the furnace in the garage. It, too, would grin up at me through the floor vent.
I called a wildlife guy who explained that they'll go towards a light. So we turned off all indoor lights and turn on the light in the garage. Sure enough, within a couple of hours it moved into the garage. That allowed us to plug the hole in the duct (which we wouldn't have known was there had the possum not told us!).
Come daylight, when the possum was taking his nap on a garage shelf, DH lifted him by the scruff of his neck and relocated him to the weeds down by the lake. They can surely look and sound vicious, but they're more bark than bite.
We see them all the time here on the farm, and we have learned to get along. Of all of the forest creatures, they are certainly the easiest to relocate. They have a range of about 40-50 acres.

Originally Posted by Pookshollow

Why? They're vermin, they carry disease, they kill poultry.

One can choose to fight nature, or learn to live within the balance.

Sure, possoms are vermin, but so is any other animal or insect that someone considers a nuisance (fox, roaches, etc.), so what? We don't believe in killing just anything willy-nilly because everything has a purpose to keep the balance.
As far as diseases go, they are VERY resistant to rabies. There are far fewer cases of rabid possums than any other wild animal in our country. But, there is some kind of disease that they can pass to horses, so they shouldn't be around horses or horse feed.
It's also not necessarily true that where there is one there are more. They are solitary creatures and the only time we've seen more than one together was a momma with her young.
Yes, they eat poultry, and so does every other wild animal in the woods. Our chickens are locked up tight every evening to prevent the coyotes, raccoons, owls, fox, possums, etc., from getting them. It's all a part of "responsible" animal farming.

[Ravenlost]

"One can choose to fight nature, or learn to live within the balance."

Thank you Easyday. You said that much nicer than I could have!

I always figure the "vermin" think of us the same way.

[suburbanite]

I tend to use 'vermin' to refer to politicians.

[65284]

Originally Posted by EasyDay

Lairvine,
They can surely look and sound vicious, but they're more bark than bite.

Don't kid yourself, not all possums play possum. I used to hunt and trap them when I was a kid and I have dealt with hundreds of them. Every once in a while I would run into one that either didn't know it was not supposed to defend itself or was having a bad fur day. They would fight ferociously, and they have claws and a mouth full of sharp teeth that can so some nasty damage. Since they are also notorious carrion eaters there's no telling what sort of bacteria and gunk is in their mouths. No way would I pick up a live possum.