I set a live trap to catch a rabbit before my string beans come up. Caught a huge male possum yesterday and a female with young today. I turn them loose since they are beneficial. They hunt and eat ticks and other insects. The one I got today had three babies hanging on one side and a single baby on the other side. I also caught a huge hog nose snake, by hand, and took it to the woods. I like them too. If you get close to one it will stand up and flatten out it's neck and looks like a cobra. They act bad but if you grab one it will play dead. The roll over on their back and open their mouth. If you turn them back on their belly they will roll right back over. I guess they figure if you are acting dead you have to be on your back. In other words a hog nose will play possum if you mess with it.
I get fussed at because I usually will turn loose any possums I catch when I'm trapping. Hides aren't worth much and I don't mind them. However, some people claim they are one of the biggest predators of turkey eggs and that's why they gripe at me. I don't let any go I catch around the chicken house, they do kill and eat chickens.
I tried to raise some once, didn't work too well. They killed and ate each other until there was only one. It died when I fed it Spam. ;)
Hog nosed snakes we always called spreading adders. I enjoy watching them. I think my Dad nailed it one time when he said they were the only snake that had a twinkle in their eye.
Coons eat turkey eggs but a turkey could kill a possum. My neighbor watched a hen turkey take the feathers out of a bald eagle that tried to catch one of her young. He said the eagle couldn't out fly the turkey and paid for the deed. The eagle then decided it was easier to pick off mallard ducks out of the neighbors pond. BTW I have a hen turkey nesting near the edge of my garden and another a couple hundred yards away. In the Winter is isn't unusual to see 50-100 turkeys in a bunch so even the coons aren't getting all the eggs.
Since my dog passes a couple years ago they visit regularly, had three young ones spend the winter in my wood shed, I fed them a little dry cat food to help. We now have zero slugs and they are plentiful here otherwise.
Shuteye, I'm curious to know why you think a turkey could take an opossum? I've also heard/read that they were major nest raiders, as well as very tough/mean if they wanted to be. It seems you don't think so. Do you have any reasoning behind that? I'm aware coons are also major culprits. I don't see opossums eating enough ticks to make a lick of difference, but they do get in my trash and scraps regularly. I don't make it a point to hunt them down, but if one's making his presence obvious around the house, he'll probably get a .17 or a .22.
40 years ago here in Sw Pa we coon hunted 2 or 3 nights a week. Farmers had asked, on several occasions to remove any possum on the grounds that we could muster. So we'd get a marginal dog, back then most locals that ran night hounds had a marginal dog whether they admitted it or not lol. It still ran coon mind you but would tap a possum. When the farmer asks to remove sumthin you wanted to please him to stay on the farm right?
Ive walked out of the woods on quite a few occasions, carrying several of one of the hardest to kill critters you'll ever see! We had a friend on top of the mountain, with family, that was poor and didnt have medical......they took every possum we killed, and kept that family in food until they escaped their problems. Possum..... It does a body good!
One of my kids left the garage door open one night and Mr 'Possom decided it was a better option to ride out a storm in the seat of my Mule. He thought he was hiding by sticking his head in the sweatshirt. My wife was thrilled to know she walked by him several times that morning. I just "shewed" him out of the garage.
Opossums carry equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), which can be transmitted to horses via their feces . they also diseases such as leptospirosis and salmonella so if your dog comes in contact it can cause severe diarrhea. I used to kill every one I trapped after my dog got the severe shits continually and the vet diagnosed it as an opossum problem. I don’t have a dog anymore and the horses have never been ill so I now just relocate them.
I love my Possums. I have three now that regularly visit underneath the bird feeders. They do not bother the bird feeders like Raccoons do.
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I also love the fact that whenever a Ground Hog ( Woodchuck ) moves on to my property, the Possums promptly show them the door and tell them to never come back. ( My Possums take over the Ground Hog burrows ).
My Possums are not destructive, and I get to watch them often. They tolerate me as long as I stay on the deck chair. If I stand up, off they go in a slow fat wobble. HAR !
Their fur is so pretty, but their face is monsterous. LOL !
Placed an old aluminum framed window screen atop a rock pile outside our picture window, to act as a bird feeding station. It worked well, and we enjoyed the winter birds feeding just on the other side of the glass. A possum was the first furry visitor, while late winter lingered. He was fun to watch and quickly seemed relaxed enough with our presence to stay and feed while we moved around, and even came up to the glass when I touched it to try to sniff my fingers.
A squirrel showed up soon as a daytime visitor, then a raccoon began showing up in late evenings or early in the nights. Now a chipmunk has joined in the party. We don't have a dog, and the cat seems to enjoy watching the critters for a few minutes before resuming his nap. The squirrel and the chipmunk seem to get along with most of the birds OK, and so far we have seen no problems.
More enjoyable than most anything we can find on TV. Thinking about adding some low-wattage overhead lighting, and maybe a proximity switch.
