So what is the SOP on a big-ass, possibly pregnant possum stuck under your deck?
Do I contact animal control, the landlord, let the dogs kill it? Adopt it?
I assume possums carry rabbies, which is a bad thing, right?
Category: Politics
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Hamburger liberally laced with anti-freeze. That, though, raises the issue of getting it out. Landlord it is.
If the possum is pregnant with rabbis, you should arrange for a bris.
Rabies, though, is definitely a bad thing. I’d go with animal control.
call animal control and the landlord…OR you have guns 😉
Go to your local farm store and purchase a ‘ live – trap ‘, bait it, take the critter outta town on a long lonely road and release it.
You can use the trap again, like, say, for your neighbors annoying cat.
I guess any outside animal can have rabies. They don’t act normal when they do though. Out in the daytime, and/or being aggressive mainly. If that was going on I’d be nervous.
Well, we’ve got a ground hog and 5 new babies under the shed. We’ll leave it and hope they move this year. They seem to like to move. If not, they come with the place when we sell it.
FLAMETHROWER UP!
It has been my experience, if there are two possible parties who I could call, each will tell me to call the other one. So my SOP is call the one I think really might be able to take action second – in this case, Animal control. That way, when they tell me to call my landlord, I can honestly say “he told me to contact you directly”.
Some animal controls don’t deal with “wild” animals like possum, only stray domesticated ones. They may refer you to a paid service like Critter Gitters, etc. The live trap seems the simplest in my book.
She doesn’t necessarily have rabies but the possibility rises with her irrational behavior. That said, the Havahart traps baited with food do an excellent job. As #4 Pecos Phil points out, they are also excellent for the neighbors cats. Second choice is the antifreeze on the back stoop … the possum (and cat) will be attracted to it and no longer be a bother.
Opossum are mean little boogers, but there are many recipes available for the meat. If you corner it, it’ll eat your eyes out and gnaw on your spine or play dead. Meanness is normal behavior for it, but it’s no more likely to have rabies than anything else in the neighborhood.
And they’re very clean about their eating habits, even taking the time to wash their food before eating it, unless of course they killed it themselves, like your spinal column.
Sure, you could call someone, but then you’d miss out on a fresh meal for the family.
Oh, and that possum can probably tear up all the dogs in the neighborhood. I certainly recommend you make sure the dogs give her a wide berth.
The real problem with all of this is the possum location. It is under my deck, which is not raised. I’m sure it got in there somehow (obviously) but there seems to be no means of egress other than my prying the board up, which I did and saw it in there. If the dogs didn’t go batshit crazy sniffing it each day I never would have seen it. So, may have to rip a portion of the deck up to get to her.
I would go with the trap and release thingy. I had a groundhog problem and professional removers wanted $250.00 to take it away and euthanize it. By law they have to kill it instead of releasing a ‘problem’ animal. I advise this only if the possum seems free of rabies of course.
I can so tell you’re from Mass.
Yeah, your best bet is probably the baited trap Mark. It got under there and it can get out, unless it’s dead (or dying).
You can still put a 22 round in it, after its out, but you won’t want to do that while it’s upset. The meat is tougher when an animal dies angry or scared, with muscle all tensed up.
But if you do have to pull up deck boards to get to the (dead) critter, you just need to do the one directly over it.
I’m with Alice on this problem.
I had one come at me in the dark, I thought it was a giant man eating rat, so I pulled my Colt 1911 and gave her a double tap. I was impressed with my shooting, but the police chief thought I should have just got back into my patrol car and drove over it.
Oh hell! Don’t let the EPA know about this. Your property will end up declared a wetland. That possum will shape-change into a beaver or something. The EPA will decide that your house is an environmental hazard. They’ll fine you 2 billion dollars per day until you bulldose your possum pillaging property.
First, I know people who eat them….but only after they have kept it in a pen for at least two weeks to “clean it out”. Personally, I’m not eating something that will climb inside a large dead animal and hang out until it is all gone. I use to get paid in cans of sardines for every live one I’d catch; I’d also get $20 cash for every raccoon.
Second, my dogs kill them on a regular basis and have yet to be bitten or scratched. Then again, my dogs also kill cats and the occasional coyote.
I wouldn’t recommend using antifreeze if you have pets. Some animal control offices will let you borrow live traps.
As I mentioned to you on Facebook…call the Beverly Hillbillies. Granny’ll catch it and cook it up for ya
There’s always tear gas to smoke the critter out from under the deck. MOPP 1!
Ingredients:
bullet
1 Still breathing, corn-fed Possum
bullet
3 Ripe but firm tomatoes
bullet
1 Large white or yellow onion
bullet
1/2 pound large mushrooms
bullet
2 large green peppers
bullet
1 package meat marinade
bullet
1/2 cup soy sauce
bullet
12 skewers (sticks are okay in Arkansas)
Preparation: The possum must be alive so that you can scare it, giving you the “wild” taste from all the adrenaline it produces. It is best to hit it over the head with a large object in a humane manner. Boil the possum for 3 minutes to loosen the fur then skin and gut it.
De-limb (chop the little knubby legs off) the possum and cut the meat into 1/2 inch square chunks. Marinate overnight in a mixture of meat marinade and soy sauce. Kentucky residents who have no fridge can use an ice chest and may use radiator coolant instead of soy sauce.
Thread the meat and veggies onto your skewer/stick in alternating sequences to distribute the delicious flavor evenly. Cook over a barbecue, pit, 50 gallon drum or any other fire till you get the desired result. For added flavor, you can cook it over burning tires.
Credit to RedneckPossum.com.
Flush it out with a high pressure water hose then blast it with some .00 buck.
That’s just a theory of course, not sure if those damn things are amphibious.
How about a shape charge of high explosives?!? A little chunk of C-4, or whatever you kids are using now a days.
.22 cal subsonic and a shovel. It happens here on a regular basis.
I call the big one “Bitey”!
Step 1: Get a six pack of beer…..Step 2: drink beer…Step 3: intise it in someway, be creative – try reading FM 3-05.30, to one side of deck…..Step 4: then pee on it! Step 6: Then call animal control!… Step7: Repeat Step 2
Good Luck…have fun!
RLTW
Addendum to Step 1 get video camera
addendum to step 2 turn on video camera before drinking beer
Fragmentation grenade would work.
If I had to screw up my deck to get to it you better believe it would be getting a bullet.
It is extremely rare for an opossum to have rabies. They are resistant to rabies.
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/rabies.html
Wow, thanks SIGO. Did not know that.
If I had to guess, it is about to have babies under there. I’d rather not kill it, but if I scare it off, nothing says it won’t just come right back.
Agree with Dutch. Shoot, Shovel and Shut up. I shoot on average 4 to 8 rattle and coral snakes in my yard a year. 1 maybe 2 possum, and 2 or 3 raccoons, and if they weren’t so dang fast I would gotten 2 javelina last night. Dogs don’t like javelina. But all I had on me was the .22 pump and it was loaded with shorts. Now the 12 gauges are ready at the front door and the back.
http://www.wildlife-removal.com/possumtrapping.html
Here is video of someone with yer problem.
If you go the box trap route, try a couple slices of pepperoni as bait. Critters go absolutely bonkers over that shit.
Or you could go the easy way- pry up the board again, shoot it in it’s smug little rat face, dump a bag of lime on the carcass, nail the board back down, then sit right above it while drinking beer and making atrocious David Caruso-style puns.
Also- the ‘ol man used to trap for NYSDEC. He says an easy solution is to take soapy water, spread it on the entrance it’s using (has to be at least one somewhere), then put cayenne pepper on the mix. Critter leaves to forage, shit sticks to it’s paw. When it licks it off, it’ll get the hint.
Worth a shot if you have the soap and pepper handy.
It’s never a good idea to let any wild animal nest under your house/porch. TSO, whatever method you decide on, get her out from under there NOW.
Quickest, most unpleasant method: shoot her and drag her out. Slowest, most humane method: live trap. No guarantees on that, because they’re not stupid. Unless you are experienced with trapping, it’s even money if she’ll go anywhere near it. An experienced trapper can come get her, alive or dead as you wish, but it will cost you.
Ima get in trouble for this, but if there was no threat to the health of my dogs cats or people, I’d leave the thing be. Maybe too big an IF though
Now if the beast crawls up your leg in the dead of night with a knife in its teeth, then of course you defend yourself, your family and The Realm.