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Opussums

If you see a opossum hit by a car please stop and check the pouch for any babies that may have survived.
 
I gotta say, they're not the most attractive thing going around.
 
If you want an opossum, you should come to where I live in NE Ga. I bet they outnumber the people in my county by 5x
 
We don't have them around where I live now, but we had plenty of them when I lived in SoCal. I never hunted them, but I gave them a wide berth. Possums have bad attitudes.
 
i played with a guy that found a baby/cub/possumling that was in the middle of the course...he put it in a towel in his cart basket. that's my golf story.
 
Since we have horses, if they are around the barn, the only good opossum is a dead opossum.
 
They are ugly, smelly animals that my dog loves to kill. She is 4 and 0 against them.
 
I'm pro any animal that eats ticks. Talk about nasty creatures.
 
They do serve a good purpose.
 
A possum screeching is quite possibly the worst sound known to man. I do think they’re funny little dudes though.
 
I put some cantaloupe and other treats in the trap a few days ago with the intention of catching a woodchuck. The next night the trap was sprung and I caught an opossum. It is a nasty-looking critter with a face only a mother could love. It was transported across the river so I'm sure there will many treats over there. Back to the woodchuck once again!
 
Snowman said:
... I gave them a wide berth. Possums have bad attitudes.
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Are you sure we're talking about the same animal? Any time we've seen them and they saw us, they'd head away from us as fast as they could--which isn't very fast. If they can't get away they... well, they play possum :)

In fact, I just remembered: I uncovered one that had made a nest under some construction materials I'd stacked outside. It couldn't get away from me fast enough.

Sounds more like you're talking about badgers, maybe?

MudFlap said:
Since we have horses, if they are around the barn, the only good opossum is a dead opossum.
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Might help too explain why: Perhaps the only negative regarding opossums: equine opossum disease (EPM).

ULEWZ said:
They are ugly, smelly animals that my dog loves to kill. She is 4 and 0 against them.
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That's some fierce dog you got there: Able to catch and kill a slow, relatively defenseless, relatively harmless, even beneficial animal. Can't understand why somebody would find joy in killing them. Did you enjoy pulling the wings off flies when you were a child, too? :rolleyes:
 
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I have a special relationship with the opossum. That I don't like to think or talk about, but my wife loves to. If she sees this thread, she will text me at least 3 pictures of opossums asking me to pet them and be their friend.

Pro tip: Wild opposum don't want you to pet them. At all. They seem to get especially pissed if you do it because you mistakenly think they're your wife's ratty Siamese. So don't do that.
 
I've never seen one in the wild, but I occasionally see a road kill one. I guess they aren't very prevalent in Eastern Washington state.
 
My hunting dog caught one one morning and dropped it by the back door.
My wife screamed "It's Dead" well of course I looked at the chest and it was moving up and down.
I said "No, it's playing Opussum" Half hour later it was gone...
 
I don't bother them, they are just trying to get along. Saw a mom with a boatload of kits on her back waddling across a bridge on the course once. A kit dropped off, and she gave me a hard look before waddling back for it. I just sat there and told her I was in no hurry, come on back and get your kid.
 
"Opossums are considered a nuisance in gardens and near homes where they feed on berries, grapes, tree fruits and nuts, and defecate on garden paths and patios. They get into fights with dogs and cats and can inflict serious injury with their mouthful of sharp pointed teeth.

Opossums carry diseases such as leptospirosis, tuberculosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, spotted fever, toxoplasmosis, coccidiosis, trichomoniasis, and Chagas disease. They may also be infested with fleas, ticks, mites, and lice. Opossums are hosts for cat and dog fleas, especially in urban environments. This flea infestation on opossums is particularly concerning for transmission of flea-borne typhus, which is increasing in prevalence in Orange and Los Angeles Counties."
- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74123.html

We leave them alone until they come past the barn and towards the house. After that, they get acute lead poisoning.
 
I had a few when I lived in Michigan, one got stuck in the trash can once, I thought it was dead mouth open, eyes closed and just wasn't moving.
While walking into the woods it sprung to life and scared the hell out of me. Opussum 1 snooks 0


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PJSprog said:
"Opossums are considered a nuisance in gardens and near homes ...
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That's the only negative article I've ever seen on opossums, save the cautions about EPM. Far more common have I read things such as:
Fortunately, for us humans, opossums do far more good than harm. For one, they terrorize another species that we definitely want to see less of in our yards -- ticks. Opossums can eat up to 5,000 ticks in a season, which cuts down on our risk of contracting Lyme disease. But that’s not all.

They also eat other pests like insects, carrion, rotten fruit and rodents. The National Opossum Society even calls them “nature’s little sanitation engineers.” It turns out, this beneficial species is much maligned and undeserving of its bad reputation.
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Full article: Opossums: Friends or Pests?

We've had them in our semi-rural yard for years. Occasionally see one live. Occasionally catch one on the surveillance cams. My wife has extensive flower gardens and sometimes a some vegetable gardens. They haven't created any problems for her gardens as far as we've been able to tell.

I wonder if the decreased vole presence she's noticed is due to the opossums showing up? Another article said they also eat garden slugs. That'll make my wife happy :)
 
I have one that walks on top of my wooden fence at night right after dark. I let him go on his way and he leaves me alone.
 
Duffer Seamus said:
That's the only negative article I've ever seen on opossums, save the cautions about EPM.
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We used to have a fair amount of them around our place on a regular basis. We never replaced our last outside cat, and since then I haven't seen even one. Putting cat food outside was causing opossums and skunks to come up to the house looking for food. With no free food the last few years, they look elsewhere.
 
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