how do you get rid of them, we have 2 now.

Don't feed them and don't put out any water. They will go away on their own, unless of course you have some yummy vegetation in your yard.

We can't get rid of any of them in my area because they are 'protected' by the wildlife federation. They even have 'rehab' facilities and people who will come and get them if you call that they are injured. Then they release them back into your yard if they survive.

Possums eat snails and other destructive bugs. They also will eat 'dead meat'. If something dies and is under a bush or whatever, they will consume it and then the yukky smell goes away.

Good luck with yours. I have 2 adults, 2 juveniles, and 5 babies this season. So cute to watch and the feral cats get along with them and vice versa. They eat side by side at the food table!

we also have a raccoon.

Opossums are actually quite docile and quite sweet. They faint if you scare them, and unless you try and hurt their young, they are very easy to live with. Is he/she causing troubles?

I have a raccoon too. He comes every evening to clean up any bird seed left. He doesn't cause any troubles either and will climb up the tree so I can let the dogs out to go potty.

Ana

Do they also vaccinate them? Because that's lot of potential rabies carriers.

O'Possums are Irish. Feed them potatoes, and use Irish Spring soap to bathe them.


joe

Opossums are not rabies carriers, Guybrush. Read that and other facts here.

Joe

thank you guys very much.

We have 2 Raccoons in our yard too. They drive the dogs crazy. They love to sleep in the vine on my trellis.

I've had mine for years, his name is Rocky and sometimes he brings a date. THe skunks are Pepe and Penelope. The opossum has been gone ever since I slapped it by accident. Long funny story....

Thanks Ana for that awesome opossum fact link. I learned a few new things myself. It's so fun to watch the babies trying to climb the ladder to the feeding table and then when they 'miss' the top step getting off and get 'an elevator ride' directly to the deck below. Some of them actually seem to enjoy the fast way down.

ana , i'd love to hear that story sometime ...

i love possums !

found a small young one curled up in one of the nesting boxes in my chicken

coop once trying to have a warm nap.

when i moved ,i had a really big one who used to use my stonewall as a

roadway , and sometimes i left something for him in the winter. they're

really not equipped to handle new england cold and snow so well.

racoons now - they have busier hands than melodee - and i have some funny

memories of a couple youngsters in maine searching through steamer clam

shells on my cabin porch ,little devils

Named after Warner Brother's family Le Pew no doubt.

I don't think we have any of either here in the Phoenix area, but They were at my Grandma's house in So. Calif. when I was a kid and I can remember one of them suddenly 'fainting' when it got scared. I saw a story earlier this week on the TV show, The Doctors, about a lady who happened to hit one by mistake, and the animal bit her arm and wouldn't let go. She finally got free and went to an urgent care place where they cleaned her up and bandaged her wounds. It kept getting worse and she finally went to her family MD who sent her to the hospital where they opened the wounds in sugery and found a virulent bacterial infection throughout her lower arm that they couldnt cure. So the surgeon removed it at the elbow and now she has the most amazing prosthetic arm connected directly to her nerves and she moves it just by thinking about it. It was quite amazing.
I now have a pink cast.
Andrea

Possums have mega teeth. I think I read once that they have more teeth than any other creepy thingy. I am very careful with 'injured' possums. Only grab by the tail as the wildlife guys showed me and only if there is no other way to get them to safety. They do 'play possum'. You have to watch very carefully to see if they are breathing. Some can stay still for hours! Soon all of my 'small,medium, large' guys will be going off to other areas. They only stay during the growing phase and then find new homes. One 'pair' returns to mate and have babies and then off they go again. AND we have the added bonus of them crawling high in my pepper trees and knocking down loose little dead branches. I pick up several every morning that I would never have been able to reach. Nice.

PINK Cast? Sounds very lady-like.

They actually don't "play" possum, they faint involuntarily. When my dogs chase them in the wild or my yard, they freak out and collapse and smell dead. My dogs will pounce on it and then stop and smell it and won't touch it. Some are still laying there 8 hours later before they wake up and take off.

I had one that I called in the 'possum lady' to come pick up and we thought it died before she could get here. I had it under a clothes basket and it stopped moving. She took out a stethoscope and pronounced that it was still alive. Fun. She later brought it back and released it in my yard. It was a mommy possum. Had little babies in her pouch. Neat.

All mammals are potential rabies carries. Which that link actually points out. Its just rare in opossums.

It's a bright pink. I needed cheering up. One of those times of your life when nothing is going right. This too shall pass. I wear the cast until the middle of November. At least it's not as hot now as it was.
Take care and be safe!
Andrea