What can you do with a Virginia possum?

[two_bit_score]

They have a rather scary business end, don't know that I would grab onto one with bare hands. I wasn't sure if they get into sheds and chew things up or burrow under porches. Glad to here they are an OK invasive species for once.

They can definitely be a nuisance. Especially if you have chicks or other small animals but mostly they scavenge dead animals in the country. In urban areas they hit trash cans and pet food dishes at night. They are nasty so I wouldn't recommend handling them bare handed.

>>>Opossums carry diseases such as leptospirosis, tuberculosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, spotted fever, toxoplasmosis, coccidiosis, trichomoniasis, and Chagas disease. They may also be infested with fleas, ticks, mites, and lice. Opossums are hosts for cat and dog fleas, especially in urban environments.<<<

I have found dead hogs that possums were eating from the inside out. Crawled right inside and were eating the insides out.

 

[4get gto]

Coming in for evening snack.

 

[Jim Shooz]

Possums are a Declared Noxious animal here. They are TB carriers which we don't want in our dairy herds. They eat the fruit from the orchards and the young shoots from the native trees. The trees are dying. We are doing aerial drops over the bush/forest areas of 1080 poison to try and control them. The greenies are not happy but other control methods are too impractical/expensive. There was a small industry exporting tinned possum as "Kiwi Bear" for pet food. Their fur, when blended in with Merino wool make very warm (expensive) knitwear. (mostly sold to tourists)I am told that their fur is hollow so traps the heat but what would I know. I only run them over if on the road. The hawks get a lot of their food from road-kill so I'm doing the hawks a favour.

 

[MossRoad]

Your possums are not the same as our possums, which are really opossums, not possums. They are both marsupials, but that's about all they have in common.

Yours:



Ours:

 

[1965]

Your possums are not the same as our possums, which are really opossums, not possums. They are both marsupials, but that's about all they have in common.

Yours:

View attachment 525578

Ours:

View attachment 525579

All the dead ones I see look like the picture on the bottom which you say is yours, google also says they are ours. sounds like they could be more of a problem then I originally though, especially if there are no natural predators here for them.

 

[Wagtail]

All the dead ones I see look like the picture on the bottom which you say is yours, google also says they are ours. sounds like they could be more of a problem then I originally though, especially if there are no natural predators here for them.

Mate, MossRoad was talking to Jim Shooz (New Zealand).

NA has opossums. Australia has possums (brushtail & ringtail).

Unfortunately, someone thought that the Aussie possums were just so darn cute that they imported a few = now a pest in NZ.

 

[Jim Shooz]

The possum here is effectively top of the food chain There are a few deer and wild pigs a long way up in the hills, no snakes and the next down is the rabbit. Unfortunately they were imported too and they are creating huge problems as well.

 

[Turbys_1700]

When I moved back to NC in July of 85 we moved into my grandfathers old brick home which we later purchased from my uncle and dad. The house was structurally sound but the basement was full of stuff from years of neglect. The first year there our cat was in the basement. One night I heard the awfullest moan from the kitty. A possum was sitting on the edge of the window sill in the basement. I came back up stairs. My wife asked what it was and I told her. She said what are you going to do. I said nothing. Let the cat figure it out.

 

[1965]

Mate, MossRoad was talking to Jim Shooz (New Zealand).

NA has opossums. Australia has possums (brushtail & ringtail).

Unfortunately, someone thought that the Aussie possums were just so darn cute that they imported a few = now a pest in NZ.

My bad, I got confused, lol.

 

[om21braz]

My great-grandparents ate them often. There was a process by which the possum was kept for a week or two in a 55 gallon drum/cage in order to clean them out, so it was referred to. I dined on possum several times before being informed what I was eating. I have not carried on the tradition - have not been that hungry....yet LOL.