Unwanted Garden Guests - Opossums

[naclh2o]

Any suggestions on ridding a garden of Opossums? The City prohibits any intentional poisoning, trapping, or relocating these critters. I've managed to control the damage done by rats and birds, but the resident opossum is eating everything.

Rats - Controlled with T Rex type snap traps baited with bacon fat. Vector control will provide effective rat poison traps free of charge, but I don't want my dog to get a hold of a poisoned rat. Also, I've noticed that the rats will hit my avocados when poison is present (pre-dog).

Birds - The main issue is the birds propensity for tearing off blossoms. I've found a few CD's hung from a branch or coat hanger (for blueberries) with fishing line does a better job than flash tape. Netting is a good back-up for stone fruit when within a few weeks of harvest. But, I've had situations where the netting traps the birds and dog does more damage trying to get to them.

[cebury]

If one were to disobey the local ordinance and buy a $15 cage trap (foot-level trip lever) baited with a chicken egg, one could catch an active opposum within a day or two and then late at night quietly relocate it to a safe and happy home in the wild, presumably far away from the trapping location. Of course there could be a larger population than one realizes and it may take a few "relocation trips".

Those are naughty individuals indeed. All laws and ordinances should be obeyed.

Happy hunting. ..ahem.

[naclh2o]

Yeah, I’ve heard some folks resort to that. I have since found perhaps a temporary solution. Recently an owl has been frequenting my palm tree, and since that time the opossum has been scarce; I can only hope the opossum was on the owls’ menu. I may opt for a fake owl if the opossum resume their assault after the owl moves on. If not, I may move on to the next step. I know they don’t appreciate their run-ins with the rat traps.

[cebury]

That's interesting about the owl. Hope it did work. I have come to disbelieve the general wisdom that they are solo creatures. I doubt a fake owl would work in an opposum family situation. I've watched them a few times. They will crawl along the fence line and stop behind covered areas for long periods of time checking things out. If the fake owl doesn't move (lacking the head-turn feature and hooting sound) I suspect they'll just walk on by it -- even if it is shaped as their natural predator. But $10 for a cheap owl may be worth it.

We have a great ASPCA here where I live who will relocate them for you. They were causing lots of dog barking at night time in my neighborhood, so I set out a trap (with egg) and caught one that night. I don't mind them much, they are a bit frightening to run into the first time you see it on your fence in the middle of the night, but generally they are safe (not as a pet, duh), clean (no big piles of poop) and help fight off other rodents (mice, snails, etc). They are normally considered beneficial predators in the home garden. Notice the lack of "edible" between home and garden ;-).

Their idiotic instinct to play "possum" by just freezing in position when encountering trouble is laughable. The dogs will go up to the fence and bark and they will freeze, the dogs will bark, they stay frozen... and on it goes. It was happening all over our block. They are decent climbers and can escape on and hide within tree branches, yet they don't.

I left the trap up and lo and behold it never stopped catching them. 11 possums and 1 racoon later (in a normal residential track) I gave up. Some were babies who were obviously starving since mama was sent away. I only had SPCA relocate the first, I considered it my responsibility to relocate the rest since I trapped them. But they told me exactly where to drop them off so they'll be in a viable area for survival.

Good luck to you,

[naclh2o]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll give the ASPCA a try. We have dogs that bark at night, must be the opossums My dog actually does try to knock them off the fence (no barking, just a loud crash when she hits the fence; ~90 lb Samoyed). She knocked a raccoon off one time. Luckily she didn’t go after it. Cats and apparently raccoons that stand their ground are of no interest to her or she prefers the chase, but not the fight. She did bring a baby opossum in the house. I’m guessing she caught it, brought it in and lost interest in it as it played possum. We knew it was in the house from the dog’s behavior. It took several days to find it. But when we did, half starved, it was easy to pick up by the tail and relocate it.

[naclh2o]

It appears I may have been giving the Opossums too much credit for defeating the rat traps and other assorted garden larceny. This guy looks to have been working a double shift in the rain and was getting home late. I need to get this guy outa here. Raccoon feces can carry a parasite known as baylis aceris; very dangerous to mammals and can be deadly to humans. Cute maybe, but he's got a go.

[cebury]

Hehe great picture and great timing in the rain -- just afterward I've seen both creatures out doing their hunting.

I sort of expected if you hadn't caught the possum with a simple cage trap in a couple three days, it likely was something else -- tho the racoon I nabbed in the cage was smart, fierce, with a long reach, and very strong. I was shocked at its strength. As I waited for the ASPCA to show up to relocate the coon, a couple of interesting things happened (I wish I recorded them).

When captured, possums will pace back and forth in the cage sniffing and glancing for an exit. They eventually give up and stand there for hours, then lay down in the day as they are nocturnal. The racoon was feeling his way along the cage searching for weakness, latches, and levers. He was pulling, twisting, and trying to pry his way out. Once, he reached out of the cage, above and behind his head, and bent back the sheet metal without much effort. He bent the foot trigger sheet metal also.

I covered the cage with a tarp to give it some privacy. He had reached over a foot and half to pull in a junk towel that was nearby. While I was gone, he tore it into pieces and put it down for bedding (I guess the cage was uncomfortable). Then pulled the tarp inside the cage, until it was stuck since it was too thick to go between the squares. I tried to get it back out, he wasn't having that. He started pulling back -- hard. As we were playing tug-o-war, I laughed as he was winning for a few seconds.

The ASPCA officer was surprised I still had him caged. He said they normally either work the latch or just tear there way out of it, if you leave them in it for an entire day. You might give the cage a try, with cat or dog food and egg bait, but put a loud bell on the snap door so you'll hear it clanging when it triggers. Then have ASPCA (or you) relocate it that day.