Eight Is Enough
- Thread starter Ssayer
- Start date
area651
Getting comfortable
I'm actually trying to determine what to do about possums at my house right now. My cams for the past couple weeks have been seeing possums crossing the driveway, hiding under cars and generally just roaming around. This neighborhood has houses on lots that are tiny (imho) about 1/5 of an acre. We have a couple neighbors whose houses arent being exactly maintained the greatest and there's lots of brush/yard debris/trash in their back yard. These neighbors wont wave hi or answer their door so we don't expect them to clean up their mess.
Anyways, do the other homeowners have anything to worry about with these things roaming around? Will they crawl up inside of car engine bays and chew up the wires?
Anyways, do the other homeowners have anything to worry about with these things roaming around? Will they crawl up inside of car engine bays and chew up the wires?
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Heck, we all live on 5+ acres. Not only is no one worried about them but... we actually like possums. They eat a lot of things that we prefer not to be around (small rodents and slugs in particular) and they've never once harmed anything in my garden.
area651
Getting comfortable
thanks for the info! I grew up on several acres and we never really saw them around. We had outside dogs though (and cameras didn't exist then) so I we never saw them. Now that I see them around, I was just worried they'd chew up the wiring.
I'll leave them be then.
wpiman
Pulling my weight
I believe they eat loads of ticks...
A possum would be more closely related to a kangaroo than rodents. They do eat loads of ticks and other bugs you don't want around, I've never heard of them tearing anything up, other than maybe doing some light digging. They have a natural immunity to rabies, and they are immune to snake venom, and they enjoy killing and eating snakes.
They really love catfood.
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
As do Raccoons...
Mama possum's probably thinking to herself..."I just know out of 8 that one of them will still be on me when they're 30...help me, Lord." 
About '73 one of the men on the road maintenance crew brought 2 back to the yard after they came across the dead mama and 2 little ones about the size of the ones in your video. I took them both home to raise until they were big enough to release.
The very first night before I could come up with a decent cage one got out from underneath the inverted laundry basket in the kitchen and wound up in the toilet in the bathroom down the hall where it drowned...not a good start.
The remaining one was raised for 6 months, was hand held, petted...quite friendly. He'd hiss and show his teeth but it was only a show, you could put your finger in his mouth and he wouldn't bite. He would spend hours grooming and cleaning, his ears and tail had no fur maybe so he could keep them cleaner, I dunno. He was actually quite sanitary in captivity.
He'd climb the drapes and peek over the curtain rod, his ears were sticking up but he thought you couldn't see him...he'd actually play a peek-a-boo game when you spotted him and spoke his name, "Pete".
He got as big as a house cat and was house-broken, he used a pad next to his dog crate. He'd run in/out of the crate but stayed indoors when we were home, we'd latch him in when gone.
Finally, in the fall we went camping south of Atlanta about 75 miles on a Federal game preserve and let him go one night. He'd walk about 10 feet, look back, walk about 15, look back and so on until out of sight. We spent the night there and he didn't come back....I think he liked his new home.
I've also raised baby squirrels and rabbits, the squirrel thrown out of the nest by the daddy and the rabbits brought home by a neighbor's dog...but in all honesty, the possum was probably the most memorable and entertaining.
About '73 one of the men on the road maintenance crew brought 2 back to the yard after they came across the dead mama and 2 little ones about the size of the ones in your video. I took them both home to raise until they were big enough to release.
The very first night before I could come up with a decent cage one got out from underneath the inverted laundry basket in the kitchen and wound up in the toilet in the bathroom down the hall where it drowned...not a good start.
The remaining one was raised for 6 months, was hand held, petted...quite friendly. He'd hiss and show his teeth but it was only a show, you could put your finger in his mouth and he wouldn't bite. He would spend hours grooming and cleaning, his ears and tail had no fur maybe so he could keep them cleaner, I dunno. He was actually quite sanitary in captivity.
He'd climb the drapes and peek over the curtain rod, his ears were sticking up but he thought you couldn't see him...he'd actually play a peek-a-boo game when you spotted him and spoke his name, "Pete".
He got as big as a house cat and was house-broken, he used a pad next to his dog crate. He'd run in/out of the crate but stayed indoors when we were home, we'd latch him in when gone.
Finally, in the fall we went camping south of Atlanta about 75 miles on a Federal game preserve and let him go one night. He'd walk about 10 feet, look back, walk about 15, look back and so on until out of sight. We spent the night there and he didn't come back....I think he liked his new home.
I've also raised baby squirrels and rabbits, the squirrel thrown out of the nest by the daddy and the rabbits brought home by a neighbor's dog...but in all honesty, the possum was probably the most memorable and entertaining.
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Depends on where you live and the local laws. We are zoned as Agricultural, so... I have live traps, a bow, and a pellet gun. They all work.
I tried setting up a temporary wood barricade and permanent wire mesh everywhere. These animals are great climbers and have the ability to jump and climb up on garage roofs and concrete barriers. It also managed to one get into my neighbor's garage creating a huge mess, tipping everything over. Cats on the other hand tend to urinate and eat green leafy vegetables in the garden. Had to put up wire mesh there as well. Its an eye sore. Even tried rodenticide. I don't know if cayenne pepper is really all that effective. Garbage is always sealed.
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Yep, they are good (as are groundhogs) at getting in no matter how hard you try to stop them. That's why I said what I did. As I asked/explained to my wife many years back, is it more humane for me to kill a couple of them this year or have to kill a couple dozen of them in a few years?
That's so kind of you @gordo. Some people will just eat them for protein. Following Charles Darwin's Natural Selection 
I hate ticks with a passion, so I smile big everytime I see a possum here. They say one possum will eat about 5,000 ticks per season. As I said before, they also like to kill snakes, so I'm going to complain about that either. I view them as friends and not foe.