Anal nitpickery: possum aren’t rodents. Killing possums is marsupial extermination.
/anal nitpickery
More seriously, I don’t think I’d have any problem with killing possum I’d caught, if I felt they were a problem on my land. And I’d be more likely to do that than to try to catch and release them. Among other things, locally, it’s apparently against state law for John Q. Public to relocate vermin, which I believe would include possum. So, I’d suggest your friend check with the local animal control types about what he may and may not do legally once he’s caught his possum.
But, while I’d be willing to kill possum if I felt it were necessary, it would take a full-blown invasion for me to think it were necessary. And, even then, if I had the space to be worried about possum, I’d get an autonomous pest control unit*, myself, rather than seeking, on my own, to remove the vermin.
*Also known as a dog or a cat to the less technophilic sorts.
The only two critters that do not get lead poisoning in my yard are possums and chipmunks. I’ve caught possums in my live trap (what an oxymoron that thing is) before, and I promptly let them go. As it’s been mentioned here, the items they eat far outweigh any inconvenience or ugliness.
I used to be an ACO. Typically, when someone gives us a Hav-A-Hart trap with a possum/coon/skunk (no, not all in the same trap) they didn’t get relocated. Traps were just a means to catch them.
I mean, if you’re catching that many around your yard, why not just take care of it yourself?
Because we don’t spend our valuable time watching a show that has nothing to offer but the occasional mildly amusing one-liner and warmed-over running gags that haven’t been funny for at least 10 years?
Thanks, everyone. Just to clarify, I’m not the one with the possum problem and I won’t be killing anything anytime soon. I can’t really imagine doing that, no matter how icky the ro… , marsupial.
I would have a problem with exterminating them. If you don’t like having possums, skunks, deer, rabbits, and so forth in your yard, then don’t move to a place where they live. I’ve gotten into this with some of my neighbors that kill the skunks and beavers in our neighborhood. If you don’t like them, go move to a city somewhere. Personally, I live out in the country because I like it the way it is, animals and all.
P.S. Everything changes if one of those wild critters attacks me, a family member, or one of my animals. Then it dies.
P.P.S. Unless my animal started it. Like our useless dog that doesn’t understand the whole skunk thing. When she gets sprayed, it’s her own damned fault.
That’s just the first picture in the sequence. In the next the possum drops its jaw and devours its mother whole. And it wasn’t even from hunger- just spite.
Like carnivorousplant, I haven’t personally but I knew old people who did and said it was greasy and had a sort of “garbage” taste to it. They referred to the really lean times of their childhood (years when crops failed/no money/literally borderline starvation/no good deer or turkey hunting/etc.) as “blackbird winters” because that’s when they’d eat things they’d never eat ordinarily: blackbirds, possums, armadilloes, and the occasional trespasser- anything that stretched the food intake. My aunts were irritated at BEVERLY HILLBILLIES because of their love for possum (“Hmmm… ain’t no one so backwards they like possum when they can afford chicken…”).
I’m surprised at you, STG. You think Cheetara would put up with possums in Cat’s Lair? Tigra? Kit and Kat? Hell now, they wouldn’t. And you don’t want to KNOW what Panthro would do to those little bastards. I’d tell you, just to be evil, but even I shudder at the thought.
Me personally, you mean? I wasn’t the OP with the possum problem, and my backyard is not exactly a showplace. It’d have to be a pretty destructive possum for me to notice its work.
My immediate reason for turning over a trapped wild animal to Animal Control is that I live in a suburbanish city where I can’t just shoot the little buggers without causing serious upset to my neighbors. Seems like taking a machete to 'em might upset the little old lady next door as well. We’re not out on the farm or anything.
I also have rodent… issues. I wouldn’t call it a phobia, but when a possum came up on our deck and tried to get at the cat food through the Habikat we used to have, I went and shined a spotlight on the culprit through the patio door. When it went up on its hind legs and hissed at me, I… locked the patio door. (My husband has never let me forget this by the way.) Hub had to go out and chase it off.
Argh, the board is slow for me and wouldn’t accept my edit within five minutes.
I wanted to say that I’m not some bloodthirsty possum killer, although my posts in this thread make it sound like I am. I’m pretty much live and let live with the wildlife in my yard. My husband is not happy with the squirrels, which lately he has accused of throwing their chewed pine cones at his head, but hey.
We have a foster dog from the shelter where I volunteer staying with us now, though, and I might chase off in a protective guardian fashion any critter that threatens my sweet Arwen elven princess doggie. She is a 55 pound treeing Walker coonhound, so she may be able to handle herself, however.
If you’re prepared to take one for the team in the name of scientific exploration, there’s an in-depth article on skinning and butchering possums, complete with recipes, in the first Foxfire book!
