Possum problem

Eagl1

Eagl1

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My neighbor just called and asked me to help her with a possum problem. She found 2 very small baby possums on her porch. Now they're at my house in a bucket and I'm asking for suggestions on the most humane way to destroy the vermin. Really, they're so small I don't think they weight over a half pound each. Thanks.
 
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We have possums. I have lived trapped several and my Jack Russell has dispatched 3 or 4.

Got a pellet gun or a 22? If you do not want to kill them, drive them to a woods or park somewhere. If they are real babies they will not survive without Mom.
 
A couple of ideas: 1) put them in the freezer overnight, and then out to the trash; 2) drop them off at the local animal shelter or zoo.

Best of luck,

Dave
 
Sometimes it is best/easiest to let nature take its course. I don't go around killing stuff I don't have to, but I am not sure about rescuing either.

I would just put them back where they came from (somewhere other than on the woman's porch, of course) and go on. Momma probably has been run over or something, and the little ones will soon end up in the big garbage dump in the sky.
 
My wife thought sticky traps were the humane way to catch mice. Then I had to dispose of them. :( The best way I found was to put trap and mouse under water. They last about 20 seconds. I would think that it would work on baby possums, also.
 
I had a wife one time that found a mother possum that had been run over that had two babies in the pouch that were still alive. She nursed them with bottles and cat food until they got large enough to fall through the bottom of the cage. I don't know what happened to them after that. I didn't have to fool with them so I didn't care. You can't tame them and they are not good pets. Ain't got any personality.
 
Our neighbor across the road found one and put it with her dog who was nursing pups at the time, the young possum grew with the pups. I don't remember how long it went on or what they did with it. A local newspaper reporter came and did an article on it.
Steve W
 
A baby 'possum has got to be the ugliest critter I've ever seen.

If you live near woods just put them there and walk away. Nature will take it's course.
 
They're one of the few animals I'll swerve to hit. Gawd I hate them. On occasion I run across the full grown live ones. I generally hit them in the punkin' haid with a shovel. For a while I draped them over the back fence, hoping a local 'yote or other scavenger would score them. But then I discovered they wake up after playing possum and waddle away, only to tear into my garbage again.

So I invented a new game. After I wallop them on the noggin, I use the shovel to carry them out front to the state highway. Then after careful measurements, I deposit them right were a passing semi, or city bus will surely flatten them. Then in the morning I discover if they woke up in time to escape the intended fate, or if they become one with the pavement. Experience has shown its better to deposit them about 20 feet up the road from my drive. That way I don't run over the remains when I back out.

For added amusement, other local scavengers sometimes get flattened trying to get a free meal off the squished one.

So how to dispose of the babies? Got a big fish hook? Go fishin' with them. Big Cat fish eat anything.
 
Eagl1 said:
My neighbor just called and asked me to help her with a possum problem. She found 2 very small baby possums on her porch. Now they're at my house in a bucket and I'm asking for suggestions on the most humane way to destroy the vermin. Really, they're so small I don't think they weight over a half pound each. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I see you are in W. Wash. - the opossum is an invading species that was not there 20 years ago. They are steadily expanding their habitat northward.

Call fish & game or the Point Defiance Zoo. The opossum is very low on the food chain in nature & possibly the zoo will use them for feed in either their raptor or reptile dept.

Lots'a luck & don't let the lady of the house or kids get attached! Jim
 
Opossum is about the only animal that escapes my live trap alive. They may be ugly but they're absolutely harmless and do a great job of cleaning up the other dead stuff that finds its way here. My trash goes into a metal dumpster so that's not an issue. I'm not breeding them and not encouraging them to hang around but wouldn't go out of my way to kill one either. About their only crime is being ugly and I'm as guilty of that as they are. I did have one show up late last winter. Most every day, just before dark, he would wander up the drive from the field behind the house and make his way to the bird feeders in the front yard. He cleaned up the feed the birds had spilled on the ground during the day and headed back for the field. Crazy thing was fun to watch.
 
Their other crime is they smell really, really bad!

DSC01385Large.jpg
 
Thanks for the suggestions and the humor. I decided to relocate them this morning as a few of you suggested but they didn't survive the night... Problem solved.
 
I had a mother opossum dump her eight babies in a rabbit den that had been excavated under my porch. I knew something was up when the rabbit suddenly went away and I heard gnawing noises while on the porch. Later that day a huge, ugly male opossum started digging to get at the babies and eat them (males are cannibalistic). He wouldn't leave. I shot him 10 times with a .22 and he wouldn't die! Cornered him by the concrete porch steps and finally dispatched him with the 12 gage. One neighbor was quite amused, another called the cops when he heard the shogun blast. Cops did not investigate.

Next- how to get eight juvenile opossums out from under my porch. Animal control refused to help. PA Game Commission refused to help. Local farm supply store had the answer. Put a can of cheap, smelly cat food in a have-a-heart trap. In less than 10 minutes I had two of the eight in the trap. My nosy neighbor saw me re-setting the trap (after I quietly dispatch the first two critters with my pellet pistol) and asked what I was doing with what I was trapping. He didn't want them to die-so he took the next six stinky hissing ***** opossums to the woods and let them go-to become fox or coyote food most likely.
 
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Opossums and armadillos both carry EPM, a neurological disease that affect horses. Both are targets around my stable.
 
My trusty rusty ol' 10-22 aimed right between those beady little eyes has always solved any and all possum problems that arise, regardless of size.
 
I released my LAST possum a few years ago. He went straight under my house! Never again, I swore.
Destructive little critters...

And Dick, I too have swerved to take them out while driving.
 
B'rer possum

Snowbandit said:
Opossum is about the only animal that escapes my live trap alive. They may be ugly but they're absolutely harmless and do a great job of cleaning up the other dead stuff that finds its way here. My trash goes into a metal dumpster so that's not an issue. I'm not breeding them and not encouraging them to hang around but wouldn't go out of my way to kill one either. About their only crime is being ugly and I'm as guilty of that as they are. I did have one show up late last winter. Most every day, just before dark, he would wander up the drive from the field behind the house and make his way to the bird feeders in the front yard. He cleaned up the feed the birds had spilled on the ground during the day and headed back for the field. Crazy thing was fun to watch.
Click to expand...

I agree. I've always wondered why everybody hates poor ol' Mr. Possum, who really does little or no harm. But go on and on about how much they enjoy watching those nasty, vicious, destructive racoons. "Oh Gawd, arn't they just sooo cuuute?" B'rer possum just needs a Disney movie. Or maybe a new ad agency.
 
I know this might sound terrible, but if you are going to kill them anyway make their death stand for something purposeful. A friend of mine wound up with a couple of kittens dumped on his place one time. He doesn't likes cats to start with so he was going to kill them. They were very small. Some really annoying people moved in not to far from him and kept coming over to help him with his beer inventory and were hard to get rid of once they showed up. One evening they were there drinking beer and not wanting to leave so my friend started acting like he was going kinda nuts, grabbed the kittens and killed them in a faked frenzy. The people never came back, but spread the word that he was absolutely crazy and one should not go there because he might go ballistic at any time. We told them that he has also went off on people who hang out too long and to be very cautious when visiting him.
Hey it don't sound any worse than some of the other disposal techniques I just read.
My self I'm thinkin' deep fried with a couple eggs and toast for breakfast.
Peace,
gordXX
 
1. Have you tried reasoning with them? It costs you nothing, and if it doesn't work, you are no worse off than when you started.

2. You don't have to kill 'em all. Identify a ringleader and make an example of him.

3. Long after human habitation is a faint memory on the face of this Earth, there will still be possums.
 
From trapping experience, whacking them on the head once with a shovel works pretty good. If you don't have the stomach for that, then a 22 to the head does the job, but it has to be a head shot. Otherwise you might end up shooting them half a dozen times in the body before they go.

For smaller animals like these baby possums, a quick drowning in a 5 gallon bucket will be the quickest and most humane way. This works well for nuisance varmints (like squirrels in attics) caught in live traps too. I don't do "re-locating".
 
Marshwheeling said:
1. Have you tried reasoning with them? It costs you nothing, and if it doesn't work, you are no worse off than when you started.

2. You don't have to kill 'em all. Identify a ringleader and make an example of him.

3. Long after human habitation is a faint memory on the face of this Earth, there will still be possums.
Click to expand...

Please video any attempts at #1 and #2...I want to watch this...:D
 
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