Anyone else having issues with possums? (Gardena: fence, eat, yard)

[gigimac]

Gosh, am I glad I found this forum. Mr. Mystery, I do not doubt the numbers you trapped, and Nemo we feel the same way about our dog. He's big enough, killed a full-grown one in seconds, caught another until he was told to "Leave," and got in a fight with another until husband called him away. The thing is we have a DOUBLE TROUBLE problem. We will have to call wilifelife control AND the heat vent people.

Yes, folks, we have possums in our heating vents, they think it's a slide at Disneland. They are in a very close part of the house where the heat vent ends, and apprently an opening has occurred and they're scurrying around in there. So, we thought before we called all these people and spent hundreds of dollars, is we'd put amonia rags around on the end where we think they're getting in (we CANNOT find where they're getting in), lay a radio on the vent closest to where they're hold up in there, and since I saw a GIANT pure white one with his fat rear nestled in some bushes just a foot or so above my head, I want to buy some of those rat pee pellets to keep them off the property in general. As for the heating vents, I thought I'd run a serious of long coat hangers from vent to vent, turnt he vacuum to blow, put a tough screen block, then keep going until we get to the end. We also will make sure none are left under the house before we seal the holes, wherever the heck they are.

Does anybody have any good ideas to add to this design? It's driving me absolutely crazy. We've got SO MANY, seen groundhogs too, and despite them eating other vermin like snakes and such, we simply cannot have them bitig our dog on the nose or getting in (and maybe dying) in our heat vents, or falling on our heads whilst we're sitting on the patio. Any help woud be appreciated. And folks, there are as many spellings for possum as there are possums. And whaqt I don't get is, we've lived in this particular house for molre than five years, and in the general vicinity for 25 years, and it's like these guys have dropped outta nowhere and are working over our area. Our neighbor i think feeds her cats outside, but I want to wait just a bit before I mentioned it to her. We had a neighbor once who left dogfood out, and we wound up with rats/mice eating up all the wire under the engine hood in an older car we had in the driveway!

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by calipoppy

My dog has trapped and killed two possums in the last few months and I just saw another one tonight walking on the neighbors fence. And its not like Im out in the burbs, I'm in Gardena. A relative in West LA had a similar problem with raccoons where it battled with her dog, and won.

Anyone else having issues? How do I get rid of these little critters, without using my dog?

They are opossums.

[Senno]

Originally Posted by calipoppy

My dog has trapped and killed two possums in the last few months and I just saw another one tonight walking on the neighbors fence. And its not like Im out in the burbs, I'm in Gardena. A relative in West LA had a similar problem with raccoons where it battled with her dog, and won.

Anyone else having issues? How do I get rid of these little critters, without using my dog?

Poppy a baited cat trap works just fine for me. We've had a few possum up here getting into the cat food, which doesn't bother the cats but it does me.

We then haul em out to the country towards Sanger.

[silverkris]

I feel for you. We had opossums get into the space near our eaves and my wife got flea bites. We solved the problem by patching up a hole under the roof where they got in.

Also have seen one by our yard at night. The good thing is that they aren't particularly aggressive or bold (raccoons are pretty daring by comparison). Use the old common sense things of keeping your refuse cans shut and emptied often.

[Lilly1224]

Originally Posted by Love2dive

The correct name is Opossum not possum, but they are docile in nature and it would extremely rare for an Opossum to carry rabies, their body temperature is not a good incubator for the rabies virus to survive. Opossums are extremely common in southern california and left alone they will never bother you, in fact I have seen animal control officers pick them up with bare handed. Most people think the are rodents but they are actually the only marsupial that is native to North America and are related to the kangaroo and koala bear.

Opossum and Cat fight - YouTube

[Senno]

My stupid cats just sit there and let the possum eat their food.

[The Nightsky]

About a week ago, an oppossum climbed up the table in my porch and ate some peanuts and bread that was left there. I too, thought they were related to rats. I guess not.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by Senno

My stupid cats just sit there and let the possum eat their food.

Very common. I had a cat who had a particular possum as his buddy. After walking in on them eating out of the same bowl in the kitchen I kept the broom handy and made sure the kitchen door was closed. I could handle them paling around on the patio but not inside the house.

[Harrier]

Oppossum - the other white meat - in North Carolina.

Clay's Corner * Brasstown, North Carolina * Opossum Capital of the World



Clay's Corner Online Store * Brasstown, North Carolina * Opossum Capital of the World

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

Very common. I had a cat who had a particular possum as his buddy. After walking in on them eating out of the same bowl in the kitchen I kept the broom handy and made sure the kitchen door was closed. I could handle them paling around on the patio but not inside the house.

My cat is afraid of the oppossums.

She also hates it when we have company - so during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter when family is visiting, she refuses to come inside and I feed her in the garage.

Invariably the opossum eats her food and she remembers how to kill grasshoppers and spiders.

She has killed birds and rats/mice before - the rats are fine, but I wish that she hadn't ever tasted that bird.

She likes to hang out on the front porch by the hummingbird feeder, but they are too quick for the cat.

She isn't as fearless as another cat I had - that cat once played with three garter snakes at once and another time demanded that I let her out of the house so she could charge our neighbors dog, which was nearly three times her size.

She got a claw into his chest and he ran away.

The neighbors built a fence.

That cat tried to cross the street and met a speeding car and died.

The city has since constructed a "traffic calming device" at the intersection in question.

RIP Harriet.