How To Get Rid of Possums / Opossums

When an opossum (or the more common name possum) bares its mouthful of jagged teeth at you, your first instinct is probably to run away, wondering how to get your yard back from these nuisance animals.

Luckily, there are a few different ways to get rid of these sneaky night dwellers, and we’ve listed them below Whether you’re looking for a “live and let live” solution or you’d rather take more a direct, engineered approach to kicking the possums to the curb, we’ve got solutions for that scenario, too.

How To Naturally Remove Opossums?

Okay, so you don’t want to hurt the opossum or do anything inhumane—you just want it off your property. Keep reading for strategies you can employ to make an opossum want to leave your home on its own in a matter of a few weeks.

Eliminate Its Food Sources

The driving force for any possum to take up residence in an area is almost always going to be food. Opossums are known to eat just about anything, and will scavenge through your backyard to find pests, dead animals, old food, rotting wood, and even snakes to eat!

Clean Up Your Garden

In addition to insects, spiders, and slugs, did you know that possums will happily munch on weeds and wilting plants? Like humans, the opportunistic possums are omnivores, meaning that they eat both plants and meat. If you keep your yard manicured and properly trimmed, you remove the opportunity for possums to nestle in your garden and make it their new home.

How to Get Rid of Possums: Comprehensive Guide

Possums and opossums seem to be cute and quite friendly when you see them in pictures. But, when they get on your territory and spoil the harvest or even settle inside your apartment, they don’t look that cute anymore.

Looking for a food source, possums can damage your crops, trees, as well as feed on your leftovers, making complete chaos while turning the trash bin over. If you faced such a small but rather disturbing problem, let me help you. As a pest consultant and exterminator, I can give you some useful advice.

How to Determine a Possum?

The possums are small marsupial mammals that look like rodents. The first representatives of this species appeared in the Cretaceous period, which is about 100 million years ago, and have not changed significantly since then. The appearance of a possum is very similar to a rat.

Possums can be confused with rats and mice due to their narrow muzzles and long bare tails, which also work like animal’s fifth paw. Because possums live on the trees, their tails help them to move around and cling to branches.

The possum itself is a relatively large animal. The length of its body is up to 45 centimeters, and another 30-32 takes the tail. The female individual has a bag on its stomach to carry the cubs like a kangaroo. A newborn possum is born completely blind and weighs only 5 grams. The mother carries its offspring in a bag for 60 days until it is strong enough.

Opossum Control: How To Get Rid Of Opossums

This page is a general Opossum control guide. Using the products and methods suggested you will get control of Possums. Follow this guide and use the recommended products and we guarantee 100% control of Possums. Consult your local and state guidelines to see if the Possum is a protected species in your location before applying control and proceed with caution as Opossums can be dangerous.

Have you been startled by the appearance of an oversized rodent? It likely was an Opossum. Opossums or “Possums” are about 2 feet long and measure about 6 to 15 pounds. They have long tails and sharp claws. They have a pointed snout and sharp teeth. Possums will often hide inside tree trunks and places that provide them with harborage. They are most commonly seen around dumpsters, close to wooded areas, and near homes and structures (like basements and garages), especially at night.

Possums are constantly on the hunt for food and will venture onto residential areas not only looking for food (garbage, fruits, vegetables, worms, etc.) but also looking for harborage areas which means crawl spaces, garages, and wall voids in the home. Possums can wreak havoc in gardens and backyards by feeding on crops and vegetables. They have been known to get into fights with pets. Aside from this, they also carry a high number of diseases such as tuberculosis, tularemia, spotted fever, Chagas diseases, leptospirosis

Identification is the first step in control. Before you can treat you need to make absolutely sure you’re dealing with Opossums. Below you can find the common characteristics that set Possums apart.

Opossums weigh between 6 to 15 pounds and are typically 2 feet long from the snout to the tail.

They have silver-colored fur with white tips, a white face, black paws and ears.

Their feet have five toes and sharp claws.

They have a long pointy snout.

An opossum will “play dead” when they are threatened. The animal will look – and even smell – like they are dead. They will not move, their mouths will be open, and their anal glands will secrete an odor. This is a defense mechanism that can last between a few minutes to a few hours.

An opossum is a scavenger and mainly feeds on carcasses and plants, but they are adaptable and will also consume small animals, insects, and sweet foods. Take caution when approaching or handling this animal. They are great climbers and are able to swim.

Where To Inspect

Indoors you’re looking in wall voids, cracks and crevices, basements, garage and attics. Possums are most likely in your basement looking for shelter. If you have any clutter or storage bins in your garage, they are most likely near these particular spots. Search the corners and crevices of the garage as well. Outdoors you’re looking in your yard, near your garbage cans, and close to trees. If you have a crawl space or any type of opening under your house, possums may be there as well.

How To Get Rid Of Possums

You have a problem. You have discovered that something new has taken up residence on your property. It’s not the typical pests that households regularly encounter, so momentarily, this critter has you on the back foot.

Pretty soon, you work it out; you have a resident, Possum. So how do you now how to get rid of a possum in backyard. You decide to look it up on the Internet and check out the implications. This may lead you to be even more confused as there are mixed feelings about Possums.

The great debate and one that should be discussed

The humane society starts the debate by telling you that Possums are not much of a problem and are often accused of doing things they never actually did. That they are no threat to humans, so you should welcome them, or at the very worst deter them, so they move on. They may seem scary when they crouch there with their mouth open and hissing at you, but it’s just a bluff.

If that fails, they usually switch to plan B and pretend they are dead. Fighting is pretty low on their agenda. Then, of course, the Pest or Opossum Control companies chip in their point of view, which is that they should all be killed, done away with, exterminated! But there again, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

Possums are not a Rodent like rats; they are the only Marsupial in the USA. They are smallish wild animals and can reach 13lbs. Possums that have become urbanized have become decidedly fatter than their country-cousins.

How to Get Rid of Possums Naturally

So, you’ve got a problem with possums. And you need to get rid of possums. Nice. Possums can be the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen, or some folks find them too cute to kill. They’re relatively quick, smart, agile, and love to eat your garbage. They’re also relatively large and can destroy your wiring, car, woodwork, and even your house.

Possums are quite distinctive from other rodents you may find in the yard. Compared to rats and mice, they’re a lot bigger, have a much longer snout, and a longer tail. They’re the only marsupial native to North America. They tend to have darker fur, typically silver and black with a hairless prehensile tail that they can use to grapple objects and hang from trees. They’re also decent climbers with their rear pair of legs.

Signs that you have possums

Possums are nighttime creatures, so finding them in the act is difficult. You’ll often find possum droppings, which are about 2-3’ long and look similar to cat or dog feces. This type of dropping typically shows up where they feed and spend most of their time at during the night time, so you can kind of gauge where to set up your traps and DIY solutions to get rid of possums.

Possums and humans

Possums aren’t dangerous by nature, but they will defend themselves when threatened. They’ll fight your dog or cat over food, and they also can transmit bacteria, parasites, and other diseases to you or your pets directly or indirectly.

They can transmit a disease to your dog, which then can transmit to you. So there’s always a risk of transmission and sanitary risks. Possums are known to play dead when threatened, where they’ll literally lie on the ground for up to 5 hours in comatose. During this act, they’ll emit a nasty smell from their body. The possum isn’t actually dead, but will do its best to pretend. So be warned. Don’t be carrying this possum sound because it’ll definitely, magically, spring back to life.