That is a good question & @Moonlitoaks gave a good answer. I don’t know the definitive answer, that is vet territory. Possums are fairly short-lived, only live a year or two, so individuals aren’t around very long. They do eat other food bandits like mice & rats, so that is helpful.
I’ll also reiterate, as previously noted, moving wildlife without a permit is illegal in most states.
Moving wildlife is questionable, if rehabbed or trapped and re-homed.
We have been that wildlife preserve (since 1957!) people count on releasing their animals.
Game wardens are the ones that call us about bringing some over.
Most don’t survive, resident wildlife are not kind to strangers, especially those that don’t know where they are or even how to feed and protect themselves in this to them new place.
Nature is not the idealistic place many believe the wild and it’s inhabitants to be after watching all those cute wild animal documentaries with the wonderful stories and awesome landscapes.
In the wild, it is a dog eat dog world dominated by the strong and smart and lucky.
Many born and living there don’t survive to adults and few into old age.
Once they brought us a rehabbed squirrel in late fall, after trees had lost their leaves.
That squirrel spent the first week here gathering the tennis ball sized yellow gourd-wine seed balls, bigger than she was.
She was hauling them ten, twenty feet up tall poplar trees and storing them in the crook of limbs.
We had several trees now decorated with bright yellow ornaments, ready for Christmas.
Don’t know where she went after that first week, never saw her again.
All we could do is give her our heartfelt best wishes, but wondering if the very large migratory MS kite that just did show up had something to do with the squirrel disappearance.
Your equine vet did you a disservice. Then again, what do they call the vet who finishes last in their class? Doctor.
Well, keep in mind that MOST horses do not get EPM. So, horses that don’t get it might have higher resistance, less contact, or both.
The bottom line is that if you aren’t luring opossums to your farm with cat food or spilled grain, or into your hay storage area, they are just meandering one by one across the property every so often. Probably digging in the pasture for grubs. The chances that a horse might eat exactly from an area that an opossum defecated is pretty low. For it to contract EPM, it has to be an affected animal, and the protozoa must be present in the manure, and the horse must not be able to resist it.
Secure your barns and hay storage area, and spend your time worrying about other more common illnesses and injuries.
We had an Italian greyhound, Irish marked, that is tan with white markings.
Making a quick run to town, we stopped and I stayed in the pickup with dog, standing in my lap looking out the window while someone else quickly ran into the store for something or other.
Man with a little boy walk by to their vehicle.
Boy stands there looking at us.
He asks dad what that is, I assume asking what breed of dog.
Dad thinks for a bit and then happily declares, “that is a ferret!”
They both move on talking about ferrets, dad being such an expert on them.
That is correct. I’m at peace and willing to risk a fine by relocating a possum to my state park woods verses shooting or poisoning the possum.
Nature can be cruel whether I shoot it or it gets in a turf war at the new venue. Bottom line, the possum is not staying here.
You’ve made an assumption about the drop off place that is incorrect. The area I use is a remote spot beside the lake with woods & meadows right there. It the same place where I relocate skunks that I live trap in my barn.
Then, why stressing the one caught and re-homed AND others where dumping that one stranger in their territory?
I understand we don’t want to kill anything, but we should decide what is worse, a quick death right now, or stress to more than that one critter and probably death anyway and in less than kind manner, as death generally happens in nature.
That is a question each one of us has to decide for ourselves, best done the more we know what all is at stake by whatever decision we choose.
Exactly Bluey, it is a question that each of us has to decide for ourselves. I’ve been making my choice this way for 25 years. The choice is a possum is run off/killed on my property by a dog or worse, me getting a bad shot with my pistol. Or live trapped overnight, then quickly transported with the trap covered, a short distance to a new natural habitat that is unencumbered by man. I guess that the Disney in me.
Were any wildlife on my place obviously sick or injured I would shoot them to give them a merciful passing. I do have something with me to terminate the critter I’m releasing should it bite me when I open the trap door. I would need the body for rabies testing. I say a little prayer before I open the door, no kidding, and ask the Angel of Wildlife to guide the critter away from the trap. So far that Angel has done her job. Those critters head straight for the tall grass. 
Hate the Protozoa, not the possum.
Those of you that talk about possums carrying EPM… There is one major carrier of EPM, that is often overlooked.
Barn cats.
It’s been my understanding for years now, that a horse is more likely to get EPM from the cats acting as vectors, than just the possum – as cats are usually permanent fixtures in a barn, and possums are transient.
Regarding EPM in horses – In my area EPM is thrown around a lot as a catch all when a horse has a difficult to pin neurological disease, and most don’t bother with the CSF/spinal tap which is the only definitive way to diagnose the disease. EPM shares so many symptoms with other diseases, and the treatment for EPM also treats symptoms of other neurological diseases… so how do you know it is EPM without the CSF results?
Surprised to hear people having issues with adult chickens and adult cats with possums… Do people not keep their chickens and cats locked up somewhere safe at night (or do they live in an area where it is not required?). Around here, if you leave a cat or a chicken outside after dark, it’s not going to still be alive in the morning. Too many coyotes, ermine/weasels, foxes, and hawks/owls that all all love chicken/cat. Reminds me of what my mother says, “Everything loves the taste of chicken.”
In the cases of chicken predation here, most often it is weasel or fox, sometimes coyote or stray dog. No issues in the 20 years I’ve been here, with ever seeing a possum be interested in an adult chicken or cat. We even had one that lived in our garage for quite a while - which was about 1500 feet from the barn. No wild cases of EPM while he stayed, and I think he was an excellent cellar debugger/mouser. He never bothered the chickens. The dogs were terrified of him.
Tangent aside, reminds me of the time a few summers ago, I was driving from the barn and it was torrential flash flood/ rain… as in silt, leaves, and everything was being pulled down the roads by a ton of running water… Visibility was pretty poor, I could only see about ten feet in front of me. I was making a left onto a main road and saw a poor sodden cat bolt across the road in front of my bumper, and then get sucked into the “downstream” of running water… I pulled over, bent down to grab the cat and realized it was a possum!! The poor thing was absolutely terrified. I managed to transplant it onto a piece of high ground but I will never forget how he turned around and hissed at me - his/her neck was so short, it was almost funny except I think the poor thing was drowning. I definitely felt bad for him!
Repeating -horses cannot get EPM from cats. They are not the definitive host. They are an intermediate host. The primary vector for EPM in horses is the opossum. No ifs, ands or buts.
https://ker.com/equinews/epm-dont-blame-barn-cats/
Of course I lock up my chickens. I understand that it’s my job to fence predators out. The opossum incident happened because I didn’t realize the opossum was indeed able to infiltrate my barn. I have rectified the problem, but that opossum killed 4 full grown large fowl Barred Rock hens before I got it caught and it’s point of entry blocked. If it wants a chicken, it will kill a chicken.
Gotcha. :encouragement:
I dream to live in a place where my cats (and birds) could be safe outside unattended… but sadly, not here. Wildlife is tenacious here. Two years ago my wood duck was killed by a juvenile coopers hawk, and the wood duck was roosting in the barn (where you would assume she was safe) while it happened. None of our poultry are truly free range because of this, and the hawk still managed to get a meal. :no:
@dotneko - The cats, being the ones to pass on the organism to possums.
Beowulf, that’s funny! Nice that you helped him out. I had something similar happen to me during a night check in the barn years ago (before I worked with possums). I had my lantern and was checking on the pregnant cows. I was next to the shelf where I feed the barn cat and saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I assumed it WAS the barn cat and reached over to pet it, absentmindedly. Right before I made contact, something made me look (probably because the color was wrong…the barn cat is black!). My hand hovered for a moment over the top of the possum’s head before I withdrew it. He never hissed or anything. Perhaps he was just as surprised as me that I was about to pet him!
Possums are the kings of bluffing. They’ll hiss and growl and puff themselves up like champs. Their teeth are very sharp, though. I have never been bitten because I use gloves and grab them by the scruff while supporting their back feet. Most play dead when you get too close. I handle them the same way if they are playing dead. Never pick one up by their tail. They use it for balance, but it isn’t meant support their weight. If it’s an emergency, you grab what you can, though. I yelled at two loose dogs (notorious cat killers on our road) that were harassing a possum. They skulked away and I placed the big, heavy, male into a crate to recover from his shock before releasing him that night.
But you realize, since opossums are nomadic - that they would be gone within a day or so anyway. And, while you’re not looking, others will come through your property that didn’t get relocated.
I don’t really care if you relocate an opossum - as they are nomadic they aren’t probably very bothered or much more at risk than any other place they go (cars are one of the biggest dangers for them.) But I doubt very much that you are reducing your horse’s risk for EPM much (if any) by moving the 1-2 you might see versus the 15-20 that you never saw.
True that, if they indeed move on, they will be no worse off relocated, other than the stress of being handled.
We have badgers here and they are very destructive while sticking around.
Badgers dig huge holes to get at any they smell may be in a hole, is what they eat, lizards, grubs, mice, rabbits, snakes.
They may dig ten holes in your barn in one night then decide to go sleep in one of those holes, in your barn or outside.
Those holes are really large and some go under concrete slabs for a few feet.
In a week or two, they have eaten anything in one place and move on.
Where they dig looks like moon craters.
Lucky that there are not that many badgers around.
Now, say a skunk, those find a spot they like and make it their home, so do rabbits, mice and rats, etc. and those attract snakes, some poisonous.
Whatever critter comes around, don’t give them reason to stay, is best to avoid having any problem.
I only go by what pops up on my Game Cam set up inside my barn. Sometimes it takes a week to trap the possum and then it’s quite a long time, months, before another one shows up.
And no, I did not realize that possums were nomadic. That information kinda shoots a hole in the issue of relocating them being an issue for their survival. Thank you.
Guinea fowl eat loads of ticks, and so do chickens. I do everything in my power to keep possums extinct on my property.
Possums are semi-nomadic. When they find a comfortable place with a reliable food source, they will stay around. So it’s best to secure the cat and dog food, and the trash and in general, not provide food sources.
Relocating wildlife is still against the law; and it’s also not at all clear if relocating is a kindness. It’s also potentially giving someone else your problem. So whether or not the animal is nomadic or territorial doesn’t really enter into the relocate or not decision.
I also want to partially debunk the ticks thing. Possums do NOT hunt ticks. Possums eat ticks they find on themselves while grooming. (Possums groom themselves much like cats.) The number of ticks a possum consumes is limited to the number of ticks that land on them.
Chickens, guineas, turkeys, other domestic poultry actually hunt ticks and other insects; possums do not.
Martha loved crickets and other bugs found under old hay. She also snacked up on nasty cutworm grubs. Dug them up and popped them in her mouth. They love the roaches down here, too. I will always love them for that, lol! Never saw her eat ticks, though she didn’t have any on her, while most wildlife would.
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