Any tips? It’s decided to live under the concrete of my barn. I would prefer to not kill it, but maybe there’s something really stinky I could put in its’ hole to get it to leave? All my Google searches turned up was advice to chase it out with a broom (I don’t fit in an opossum sized hole) or people saying to leave it alone, which is not allowed because it’s living below the concrete my horses stand on.
life trap baited with an apple, then haul the dude off far, far away that is what we had to do just a few weeks ago. Release it into a green belt waterway
I can sympathize with you. We have always ended up killing them (don’t panic people, just happened twice in 20 years). One refused to believe us that our chicken coop was not his home.
Trapping and relocation seems like a nice thing to do, but it generally ends poorly for the animal.
This random article I found has some good advice about knowing when they are not in there and sealing up the holes.
What I do when either opossum or raccoons decided to hang in my barn is to leave the lights on all night long with loud rap music Really works! I usually only need to do it for 2 nights. Their hearing is super sensitive and that usually moves them on.
Groundhogs get the dirty cat litter treatment in their hole. That works! I also had one that every spring would go under my front porch and pouring lavender essential oils got that one to move back to where it came from.
Live trap is a good idea, but relocating out of its territory could be bad for the possum. You could trap it, then close the hole up so it can’t get back in. Then turn it loose away from the barn, and be sure there’s no open food the possum could eat.
We did this with a skunk that decided to live under the house. We trapped it one night when it left its “den” and turned it loose in the field, then made sure it couldn’t get back under the house. It tried for a couple of days and then moved on.
I just send the terriers in !
Used kitty litter works well. I pour that around my run ins if they try to move in. Works like a charm.
I will have to try the music thing. Leaving the barn lights on doesn’t seem to bother them much. Right now it seems they have moved out to their summer home but I am sure they will be back for the winter.
since my earlier post of a month ago we have live trapped three more opossums and one large rat, all taken to live elsewhere
we are using two baited live traps that check at least two times a day
My opossum finally moved on. I redid the floor and poured new concrete and that was just too scary for it, so it’s left. Instead, now I have 1000000 tiny birds trying to live in the rafters.
I think wildlife believes we build barns just for them to move in.
Your barn needs a resident black snake. I have watched mine grow from about 3 feet nine years ago to six feet, measured from her last shed skin. No visible mice or bird nests or any other animals.
But I know that there must be something edible for her to stay around the barn and grow. Just out of sight somewhere, but she does have woods about 70 feet away on two sides of the barn and I have spotted her coming and going.
I’d love a black snake! But I have a hawk family that lives in my yard and any snake that enters ends up as dinner.
Turn out he did not move on. Instead, he has decided to live in an empty feed bag in the feed room. I am 50/50 on evicting him; he is very cute and tiny but I don’t like EPM.