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I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
I've lived in the rural Midwest all my life, I've seen and know a little something about all kinds of wildlife...I've seen coyote, bobcat, minks, eagles, you name it...
And I've seen plenty, and I mean plenty of opossums but usually only have seen them scavenging in my compost heap, in my neighbors trash, or just waddling from point a to point b...but this one that shows up nightly on my front porch for the past month has got to go!!!
I've had to store my birdseed inside the house now and I don't have enough storage in my old house as it is...the wild stray cat I feed everyday that I'm trying to gain the trust of enough to "get fixed" and make an indoor cat out of is starting to miss quite a few meals...
I've tried rock throwing, and he's not the least intimidated, I've tried bigger rocks, and he just sits there, I've tried my old dog...hell, he could care less apparently he retired from possum chasing.
I have no guns in the house, and as much as I want to stop his nightly visits on my front porch I really can't kill anything ....so...how do you scare off a possum?
Poking 'em with a really big stick just pisses 'em off.
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| December 21, 2007, 23:02 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Okay, the ugly thing is gone for now...I had to go out back into my brush pile and pull out a really, really long sturdy stick with pointy ends on it and just shove the stubborn damn thing off my porch, he waddle off reluctantly....I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow night...
I suppose there is no such thing as possum repellant is there?
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| December 21, 2007, 23:47 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
I remember having one in our yard growing up, my dad had to use a live trap and relocate the thing. It was a hissing, evil creature, its eyes seemed to glow red...ICKY! Reminds me of this sales lady at Macy's this evening when she was trying to get me to buy all kinds of crap at the make up counter and all I needed was my freakin' powder!
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| December 21, 2007, 23:57 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
here's the best advice i could come up with...
Reducing or eliminating the availability of food tends to keep oppossums and other critters at bay. Oppossums usually aren't seen in urban landscapes because they are nocturnal. Tight fitting garbage lids are a must. Feed pets during the daytime and don't leave out pet food dishes and water bowls. Keep vegetable gardens harvested and fruit from trees picked up.
Foundation vents should have slotted metal vent covers. 1/4 inch grid screening can be placed over attic vents and chimneys. Oppossums can enter homes through pet doors, so these should be locked at night. Areas under low decks should be covered with screening or metal flashing. Screening should be placed in a 12" deep trench and backfilled. Attach to deck with staples or nails. Make sure animals are gone before completely sealing off area beneath deck. You can sprinkle flour at the entrance the night before completely sealing off area to check for foot prints. Keep tree branches cut back at least 10 feet from the roof of your home.
Opossums may be trapped with a 10x12x32 inch cage trap in residential neighborhoods. In the country they can be shot. Live trapping with baited cage traps is the most effective control. If trap is an open grid type, cover top, bottom, and sides with heavy cardboard. Bait with fruit, peanut butter, raw eggs, or something that will not attract the cats. Place trap near entry hole.
There are no federally registered pesticides for the control of opossums. The fear of using poison is that a non-target animal like a pet may eat the poison. If using a poison, it is best to place it inside the trap.
Before you try any of this, i'd recommend calling your local DNR office and ask them for advice and trapping/releasing laws...
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| December 22, 2007, 00:34 |
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Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (Chazzy @ December 21, 2007, 23:47)Okay, the ugly thing is gone for now...I had to go out back into my brush pile and pull out a really, really long sturdy stick with pointy ends on it and just shove the stubborn damn thing off my porch, he waddle off reluctantly....I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow night...
I suppose there is no such thing as possum repellant is there?
Don't know if it works on those critters, but we use to have skunks and an occasional possum wanting to move into our garage not good with kids around! Went on-line and found crystallized fox urine. Just dump a little on a paper plate and place around the area or entrance way and bam! they all moved out. 
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| December 22, 2007, 08:11 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Thank you all! I know they are God's creatures but they are ugly, and from little I got a chance to read up on last night, they are carriers of fleas, lice and rabies.
I've done most of what LandH mentioned, like with the trash cans and not leaving cat food out all night.
Oh yeah, what LandH said about foundations and such....oh boy so true, there's a few mobile home trailers set up around the neighborhood and one or two are sitting empty, they seem to like to make those their colonies! There's been an entire family living under the trailer up the road from me for years now!
I'll check into the fox urine thing but till then....I'm keeping my really long pointy possum pokin' stick near the front door!
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| December 22, 2007, 08:40 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
It's only there for the food. Eventually it'll leave. 
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| December 22, 2007, 08:40 |
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Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (JCSOS @ December 22, 2007, 08:40)It's only there for the food. Eventually it'll leave.
Gawd I hope so, and I hope it leaves sooner than later...keeping that possum pokin' stick handy...
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| December 22, 2007, 11:36 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Live traps are a good thing but then you have to load up and drive few miles and dump them off on someone else.Friend of mine I work with farms and seemed like every morning we were dumping a racoon or oppossum off somewhere on way to work.
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| December 22, 2007, 15:06 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Oh ewwwww...the nasty bugger came up on my porch late last night long enough NOT to find any food, so he just puked up a big ole nasty pile for me to clean up!!!!
Nasty little varmit!
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| December 23, 2007, 12:08 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (bigdummy @ December 22, 2007, 15:06)Live traps are a good thing but then you have to load up and drive few miles and dump them off on someone else.Friend of mine I work with farms and seemed like every morning we were dumping a racoon or oppossum off somewhere on way to work.
If it knows food is there, it'll find it's way back.
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| December 23, 2007, 13:01 |
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Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (Chazzy @ December 23, 2007, 12:08)Oh ewwwww...the nasty bugger came up on my porch late last night long enough NOT to find any food, so he just puked up a big ole nasty pile for me to clean up!!!!
Nasty little varmit!
It was just returning the food it ate.---hehe 
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| December 23, 2007, 13:02 |
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LumberMan
60 / male
Warrenton, Missouri, US
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Re: Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (JCSOS @ December 23, 2007, 13:01) QUOTE (bigdummy @ December 22, 2007, 15:06)Live traps are a good thing but then you have to load up and drive few miles and dump them off on someone else.Friend of mine I work with farms and seemed like every morning we were dumping a racoon or oppossum off somewhere on way to work.
If it knows food is there, it'll find it's way back.
Yes they will come from miles to get back
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| December 23, 2007, 17:56 |
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Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (LumberMan @ December 23, 2007, 17:56) QUOTE (JCSOS @ December 23, 2007, 13:01) QUOTE (bigdummy @ December 22, 2007, 15:06)Live traps are a good thing but then you have to load up and drive few miles and dump them off on someone else.Friend of mine I work with farms and seemed like every morning we were dumping a racoon or oppossum off somewhere on way to work.
If it knows food is there, it'll find it's way back. Yes they will come from miles to get back
yeah the racoons came back after couple days trapped again and took them across the missouri river on way work and they never came back then.
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| December 24, 2007, 00:51 |
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ShadowSpirit69
69 / male
Southern Oklahoma, Oklahoma, US
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Something you might try is to sprinkle some cayanne pepper around the porch,steps and foundation of your house,(this also works on ants) If they get under your house or porch you can try smoking them out with a insect fogger or some left over smoke bombs from the 4th of July.
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| December 25, 2007, 04:17 |
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Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (ShadowSpirit69 @ December 25, 2007, 04:17)Something you might try is to sprinkle some cayanne pepper around the porch,steps and foundation of your house,(this also works on ants) If they get under your house or porch you can try smoking them out with a insect fogger or some left over smoke bombs from the 4th of July.
That's a good idea. It works to keep rabbits out of gardens, too....
And possums are cute when they're not hissin' at you 
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| December 28, 2007, 08:44 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (MoonHowler @ December 28, 2007, 08:44)
.....And possums are cute when they're not hissin' at you
Okay...the possums in the "Over the hedge" movie were pretty cute....
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| December 28, 2007, 11:26 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (Chazzy @ December 28, 2007, 11:26) QUOTE (MoonHowler @ December 28, 2007, 08:44)
.....And possums are cute when they're not hissin' at you
Okay...the possums in the "Over the hedge" movie were pretty cute....
what about those cute 'possums that were created by Jim Henson? not sure if they were actually given names...but they were cute. I LOVE THE MUPPETS....
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| December 29, 2007, 00:12 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (Chazzy @ December 21, 2007, 23:02)I've lived in the rural Midwest all my life, I've seen and know a little something about all kinds of wildlife...I've seen coyote, bobcat, minks, eagles, you name it...
And I've seen plenty, and I mean plenty of opossums but usually only have seen them scavenging in my compost heap, in my neighbors trash, or just waddling from point a to point b...but this one that shows up nightly on my front porch for the past month has got to go!!!
I've had to store my birdseed inside the house now and I don't have enough storage in my old house as it is...the wild stray cat I feed everyday that I'm trying to gain the trust of enough to "get fixed" and make an indoor cat out of is starting to miss quite a few meals...
I've tried rock throwing, and he's not the least intimidated, I've tried bigger rocks, and he just sits there, I've tried my old dog...hell, he could care less apparently he retired from possum chasing.
I have no guns in the house, and as much as I want to stop his nightly visits on my front porch I really can't kill anything ....so...how do you scare off a possum?
Poking 'em with a really big stick just pisses 'em off.
oh the possum problem...i had that too Chazzy...i yelled at it and it just sat there...my 2 dogs barked and houdned it and same result..just sat on teh middle of the fence..so i took a broom to it..brushed it lightly...not meaning to harm it...it finally moved on..but not for another 10 minutes...slow ass sonofabitch!!
patience is a virtue but opposum is a pain in the ass!
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| January 2, 2008, 11:47 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (Chazzy @ December 28, 2007, 11:26) QUOTE (MoonHowler @ December 28, 2007, 08:44)
.....And possums are cute when they're not hissin' at you
Okay...the possums in the "Over the hedge" movie were pretty cute....
I had one as a pet when I was younger. Trust me, they're cute in real life, too
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| January 3, 2008, 10:00 |
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
QUOTE (MoonHowler @ January 3, 2008, 10:00) QUOTE (Chazzy @ December 28, 2007, 11:26) QUOTE (MoonHowler @ December 28, 2007, 08:44)
.....And possums are cute when they're not hissin' at you
Okay...the possums in the "Over the hedge" movie were pretty cute....
I had one as a pet when I was younger. Trust me, they're cute in real life, too
When I seen one when I was a kid for the school's 'zoo show and tell thing'... i thought they were rather claw-ish and not quite so cuddly. LOL.
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| January 4, 2008, 10:32 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Ours was more of a "find" than an actual "pet"... We got him to where we could hold him without him biting. He was cute then. He wasn't so cute when we'd try to get him out from under the bed and he'd hiss at us, though 
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| January 4, 2008, 10:53 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
A "baby" anything is cute, a healthy resuced or pet possum...cute...the vile wild thing that comes up on my porch and leaves a pile of tapeworm puke...not so cute...
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| January 4, 2008, 20:29 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Put some habenero sauce on something it likes to eat, it'll burn it's tongue going in and burn it's ass going out. It won't forget such a nice treat.
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| January 9, 2008, 10:20 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
I sure know what Tropi was talking about! Possums don't seem to be intimated by anything, and I took my dog out to try to run it off too...
So far, the possum has not come around lately...hoping it found better territory, but if it does, I'll try your suggestion Mori.
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| January 10, 2008, 07:56 |
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alvinc
71 / male
conroe, Texas, US
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
Place some moth balls around your porch. The smell will keep them as well as other animals away. we use them to keep snakes away from under the house or brush piles close by. Just a couple placed once a week should fix your problem. 
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| January 11, 2008, 08:30 |
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Re: I'm such a hillbilly and I should know this....
I know the moth ball thing works with mice and such, and I know moth balls work with snakes too, the neighbor used moth balls to rid her yard of snakes(they have a "junk yard" in their back yard) and drove all the snakes over to my yard!
It's common sense too that if moth balls drive away mice, the snakes not being able to find mice to feed on well leave too.
I haven't seen the possum lately, but will pick up some moth balls to keep on hand just in case....
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| January 11, 2008, 10:52 |
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