Freeper help requested - opossum in the walls

8/07/2016 | papineau

[papineau]

I've got an opossum who's hanging out in my ducts and walls. I was thinking of getting a trap and catching him (or her, I don't want little possums to raise!) and letting him out in a field far away from me.

Anyone have any experience with possums in the house?

[sheana]

We had a possum in our attic. Figured out where it was getting in and then waited til about 11 pm, checked to make sure it was gone and plugged the hole. Over. They hunt at night so are usually gone. Just figure out where it’s getting in.
Easy peasy.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I had forgotten that, so just brushed up at Wikipedia. Found this interesting tidbit.

Most male marsupials, except for macropods and marsupial moles, have a bifurcated penis, separated into two columns, so that the penis has two ends corresponding to the females' two vaginas.

Then that triggered something I haven't thought about in decades...

[right way right]

Nope, I’m always driving too fast to look at their feet.

[arthurus]

So odd numbers would have to be removed from the pot and the individual numbers must contain enough digits that theoretically everyone on earth would have a unique number, or, if that is too individualistic, then there should be only one number assigned, say “4.”

[null and void]

[IncPen]

Mis-spent youth ping

[Colorado Doug]

Possum catching music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Td1QQ-ef4

[Innovative]

SAD:” Get a licensed removal agent ... “

I agree — this is the best and most reasonable thing to do, whether or not the possum is rabid or ill.

It’s worth the money, rather than struggle yourself with approaches that may or may not work. Also, ending up with a dead possum in your walls is not a good thing either.

[PAR35]

Possums almost never get rabies. It’s been postulated it is because of their unusually cool body temperature. While it is theoretically possible for a possum to turn up with rabies, possums that look rabid are just demonstrating normal possum behavior.

http://opossumsocietyus.org/faq-opossum/

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/opossums/tips/solving_problems_opossums.html

Coons, on the other hand, should always be avoided at night.

[PAR35]

Or startle it and it will pass out and play dead.

Or take off running. I opened the back door to take a picture of one, and it took off at a sprint when it heard the noise. Fortunately, it was aimed 90 degrees from me, so it ran left to right; if it had run toward me, I wouldn't have been able to get the door closed quickly enough.

The dog and feral cat have combined to discourage backyard visits in the last few years (they like to hunt as a team).

[gunsequalfreedom]

Shot gun and then a good drywall guy.

[gunsequalfreedom]

Actually, the licensed removal company is the best suggestion.

You can’t believe the damage they can do to your house. One i the neighborhood had a family of them inside and the damage was incredible, difficult to repair and very costly.

[SgtHooper]

Don’t forget the chicken stock for flavor, and some good spices. Oh! nvm.

[snarkpup]

Relocating wildlife is typically illegal and strongly not recommended. An animal that is doing damage will damage whatever place it is transported to, compete with wildlife already there, spread diseases between populations, spread disease to you while transporting it, etc.

Normally, the only purposes of a "live" trap are to 1) keep the animal comfortable until it can be put down humanely and 2) avoid killing non-target animals. (Kill-traps frequently kill inhumanely or only maim.)

I talked to the state parks & wildlife department about the best way to reduce the local out-of-control rabbit population. They said it would be fine to live-trap 'em, whack 'em, and put 'em in the trash. Many wild animals and the parasites they carry can transmit diseases to humans, so a plan to put the animal down without any unnecessary contact with it should be worked out in advance.

Or, as others here have suggested, let a pro take care of it.

[MD Expat in PA]

I used to get squirrels in the attic of my old house in Baltimore. And when I say attic, it wasn’t a full attic; as it was a cottage style house it was just unfinished spaced behind the walls in the eves on the second floor. Anyway the squirrels made mess of things up there, tearing up the insulation, chewing on wires, shredding boxes of papers that we had stored and of course pooping and pi$$ing all over everything and making a terrible ruckus.

Fortunately, my next door neighbor knew a part time professional animal trapper and all around good ole boy and redneck (and I mean that in a good way) named Lester who I affectionately nicknamed “Lester-Lester The Squirrel Molester”.

He’d set live traps baited with peanuts covered in peanut butter and every few days come back to remove them and set new traps until the squirrels were all gone. He said he took them far out into the country near where he lived and let them go, but quite frankly I wouldn’t have cared if he was making stew and hats out of them – I just wanted them gone. : )

I used to occasionally see a possum or two late at night in the back yard (and raccoons and foxes too). Late one night our Husky cornered a possum behind the garage and my husband said it scared the bejeezus out of both him and the dog – baring its teeth and making horrible demon possessed hissing and growling sounds. After my husband and I separated and he moved out, I saw a possum on the back patio several times but I assumed, like the neighborhood raccoons, it was just trying to get into the trash cans.

Then just before Easter, while in the kitchen, I started smelling what I can only describe as a dumpster on a hot summer day. I checked the garbage, I checked the refrigerator and behind it, I checked the basement, I checked everywhere but couldn’t tell where the smell was coming from but it kept getting worse and worse. It got so bad that the cats wouldn’t come into the kitchen and I couldn’t bear to be in or cook in there either.

Then I noticed the smell outside on the patio near the kitchen sliding glass door and sure enough, the plywood that covered an opening to the crawl space under the kitchen addition had been chewed through. And this “crawl space” was not really a crawl space that any human could crawl under but evidently a possum could.

I pulled it open and shone a flashlight and way to the very back I saw a motionless pile of grey and white fur and an unimaginable stench (I’ve never smelled a rotting human corpse but can’t imagine it being much worse) and figured out it was a dead possum. So I called Lester right away, on the Saturday morning between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. He couldn’t come out right away but said he would as soon as he could and sure enough he did. That night and during a driving rain storm.

He couldn’t of course go in and get it because the crawl space was not accessible but he used a long pole with a hook on it and did his best to drag out what was left of the decomposing critter (it came out in multiple chunks) and put the remains in a heavy contractor trash bag. Then he threw in hands full of lime as far back as he could to cover the stench. He said this was not optimal as he’d usually use an industrial strength disinfectant and then cover completely with lime, but was the best he could do but said the smell should dissipate in a day or two. I asked him how much I owned him and he said, “Well I reccon’ $50 should do it”. I gave him $100. Lester-Lester The Squirrel Molester was my hero.

My advice would be to call a professional but if you can trap it (or them) yourself go for it but be careful. Just because it’s rare for them to have rabies, a bite could cause a serious infection. Also as to releasing them somewhere else, check on that. I may be illegal to do so in some areas – on someone else’s private property or in say a public park.

And my next piece of advice is to get rid of it as soon as possible. Trust me. You do not want one to die behind one of your walls. You also want to if you can, try to remove any droppings and disinfect the areas where the possum has been living.

http://www.wildlife-removal.com/opossum.htm

Lastly, they are not an endangered species – just saying.

[Doogle]

[rlmorel]

I trapped a groundhog a couple of weeks ago that had decimated my wife’s garden. He was the young stupid one. The old wily one isn’t caught yet.

I took him five miles away and released him at the community gardening plot used by the hippies...:)

A win-win!

[Doogle]

[al baby]

I use peanut butter

[Texan5]

Glad to hear you don’t plan to kill the possum-they are seldom rabid and can’t kill you-I don’t know if you live in a town/city or in the country, but I see some Freepers here saying omigod-kill the monster, crush it in a trap or blow it away, danger, danger! I assume those people either live in a city or in an enclave someplace where there is no wildlife to speak of...

Out here in BFE, if a varmint becomes a nuisance, we live trap it and turn it loose a few 100 ft in the woods by the river-they usually don’t come back-probably think they’ve been abducted by aliens, and don’t want it to happen again-
I’ve only found two possums on this property-both attempting to get into my locking trash can on the deck-yelling get outta there was enough to send them off...

My pets always live indoors, and are never fed outside-pet food attracts deer, coons and possums-and with the woods so close, those can attract a mountain lion-also, an outdoor pet is an even better snack for one-easier to catch than the wild critters...