I gotta Oppossum problem....

I always thought this was fascinating and it may be due to the natural body temperature of opossums - which is lower:

Facts:

Opossums present a far lower health risk to humans than do dogs and cats! They have a naturally high level of immunity to most diseases.

Opossums are more resistant to rabies than any other mammal; cattle, goats, dogs, cats, sheep, and humans are far more susceptible to rabies!

Opossums are immune to the venom of pit vipers - this includes rattles, cottonmouths, copperheads. Opossums just eat the snakes without problem. Scientists are actually studying this immunity to venom in hopes of enhancing the immune systems of humans.

That being said, opossums with a specific parasite can be a problem for anyone with horses who can pick up the parasite. Not all opossums carry the parasite - but it isn't worth the risk to have opossums sharing living quarters with your horse.

They also carry fleas - but so do most wildlife.

OK opossum drift...

(drifting) All this discussion reminds me of another creature people some people have disdain for as a carrion eater - the vulture. A fascinating bird - it can dispose of an animal that has died from any disease from rabies to mad cow disease. The bird is not impacted by contact around the animal or eating the diseased animal - and does not spread the disease to any other source once it leaves the carcass. A vulture is the last stop for a disease that has infected and killed an animal. Amazing stuff - (stop drifting)

Now back to more opossum stuff...

Well, I just happen to have horses. A good friend of mine lost her horse to EPM.

Yes, my chickens were locked up in the barn - and the possums were in the stall next to the chickens, where I keep the feed for the chickens and horses and goats and . . . .

I can live with wildlife if it stays in the wild. Once it comes onto my property and threatens my livestock - it's vermin. I don't think that is "fighting nature" - it's good animal husbandry, trying to protect my investment. What, you think I shouldn't deworm my animals either?

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"Crivens!"

Half Caper Farm - breeding Saanens, Boers and Nigerian Dwarfs

I agree 110%. Until possums start contributing to my farm they are gonna die!
Along with all other predators, including coons and all the like.....ohh and of course worms! Now if possums start laying eggs and tasting like chicken maybe I'll change my mind .

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"When all is said and done, there is usually more said than done."

We trapped about six possum couples last year and relocated them to a huge nature preserve....even after one ate one of my chickens I couldn't kill them.

What was so funny was one night we caught the biggest one in a Have-a Hart trap and when we went down there to move it the next morning ALL the Muscovey ducks were lined up on the edge of the top of the little chicken house SPITTING DOWN on the possum in the cage!!!! we laughed and laughed!

we haven't had a possum problem since all that trapping!

Nice

I have no problem whatsoever with vultures. Up here, we have turkey vultures, and I love to watch them soaring, and on windy days, I swear they are playing with the air currents. And they clean up the roadkill - useful birds!

I do not have a problem with possums, raccoons, foxes, coyotes etc, etc - provided they are not in my barn or threatening my livestock (except rats - I hate rats! ). I've had coyotes travelling across our property at night - my animals are safe inside the barn (except for the horses, but coyotes aren't a threat to them) - I enjoy hearing them. Worry a bit about my barn cats, but so far, they've survived.

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"Crivens!"

Half Caper Farm - breeding Saanens, Boers and Nigerian Dwarfs

I have chickens. I have horses. I have possums. I haven't had any problems with them bothering one another.

Of course, I also have ten dogs who don't let anyone get to close to the house, yard, barn or chicken coop either.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

The wildlife guy I spoke of, while they are hissing and showing all 50 teeth, reaches behind their head and grabs them. He learned that as a kid, though I haven't done it. The teeth and hiss scare me enough not to.

DH waits until they are asleep during the day... not playing possum. Then he just quietly picks them up by the scruff of the neck. They wake up, but like a puppy, they can't do anything. He carries them to where ever. When he releases them, they run off... unlike coons that will sometimes turn on you. No way would you pick one up? Try it sometime.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
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It happens. That's why I mentioned it.

The OP mentioned he/she would like to relocate this one. You're response was "Why?..." My point to you was, there is nothing wrong with relocation. I think it's an honorable thing to do unless the animal is a huge problem (like the coyote that was coming EVERY morning and EVERY evening. We shot it.)

How ridiculous! Did you move to it's habitat or did it move to yours? They don't understand this "line" you've drawn for them NOT to cross. Good animal husbandry shouldn't be limited to YOUR animals. All of our animals are investment animals and we protect them accordingly, BUT that doesn't mean that we kill every OTHER animal that steps foot on our property. Your deworming comment was just plain stupid, so enough said.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

Yeah, right? Some folks were born to live in the city where the REAL diseased vermin are.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

Possums are tough characters. Put a possum and a coon in a 55 gallon drum and see which one is alive the next day. I know a guy who live traps them around his chickens and tried it 4 times. Every time the possum won.

Well, last night I discovered that I, too, have a possum problem, and remembering this thread, I decided to read it this morning. I had put a plate of food on the porch for the cat, but the cat wanted to come in the house instead. Before bedtime, I was letting the cat out the back door and there was Opie eating the scaps. The cat looked annoyed and walked over to the plate and Opie just bowed out of the picture. Kind of made me think that they'd known each other for some time, and had a gentlemen's agreement as regards to food. Anyway, I knew some critter was getting under the house, but I thought it was a groundhog. I don't have ductwork, but I do have a chimney that I don't want Opie to undermine. I was going to stop up the two holes with Sacrete, but I was scared of trapping the critter under the house, and then I'd have a stinky problem. Maybe I should stop of the holes while Opie is eating leftover steak & baked potatoes...

Where did I say that I "kill every OTHER animal that steps foot" on my property? The possums were in my barn, in my feed room, which is the stall right next to where my poultry are - all they had to do was climb the wall and they'd be in it. I think we were entirely justified in killing them. I don't go out patrolling my farm and blasting anything that moves, for crying out loud!

As for "relocating" problem wildlife - 1) you are dumping the animal in another animal's territory, not to mention strange territory, so there is a good chance that it will not survive. 2) you are dumping it on someone else's property, thereby passing the problem on to another person.

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"Crivens!"

Half Caper Farm - breeding Saanens, Boers and Nigerian Dwarfs

There is another option...fixing your feed room so they can't get in and/or fixing the stall so they can't get in from the feed room.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

1) LOL! We're not shipping them to Arctic! Believe me, they'll do fine a mile on down the road. Them and the other territorial animal can sort it out. They spend their lives doing that.
2) We never dump them on someone else's property or near anyone else. We have two large hunt clubs down our road, literally thousands of acres of wilderness.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

I think you leave them in crate for 3-4 days and feed them corn and give them plenty water to detox the flesh from carrion - then they go in the roasting pan with the sweet poatoes Aeound here we call armidillo possum on the half shell!

That's what my Great Uncle Leonard used to to Grandmotherbear.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

Nope.

They were what was eating all of my tomatoes this summer--live trapped and dispatched 3 so far in my tomato patch!

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In Life, We Weep at the thought of Death'
Who Knows, Perhaps in Death,
We Weep at the though of Life.