Opossums are not the tick eaters we thought they were

[eightpondfarm]

Ran across this today and thought it interesting: https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks?fbclid=IwAR3JEHwiA5FOaWKgsfzw-08Z37fTWSPN2KK2kzLQYoA6myNO16gnhBcSahs

I trap and relocate (to a farmer’s place across the river with no horses) because of EPM. I have probably relocated a hundred or so in the past 20 years. I don’t think i’ll tell her they don’t eat ticks after all, because then maybe i’d need to find another place to take them. (If she had horses i’d tell her)

[sophie]

Thanks for that article! Very interesting.

[goodhors]

Thanks for sharing the study!! Nice to find a myth debunked scientifically! The opossums are around us, but barn cat is fed inside the tack room, no other food sources to attract them here. I also trap a pesky one trying to move into the barn, but it is dispatched, not moved. They don’t stay gone in our experience. Having had them make messes in the barn, kill my cat, gave one horse EPM, there are no kindly feelings towards them.

I don’t hunt them, but neither will I share my barn spaces. Plenty of rough ground, woods nearby for them to survive in.

[SusanO]

Mine are not aggressive but they are a major PITA. Never have bothered my cats on the front porch. They eat in my garden and get into my garbage up at the house. They keep eating plastic and other things that would kill other animals. Despite my hopes that eating that stuff would off them they seem to be fine. I do trap and relocate down the road when I find them in the garden and they don’t seem to be in my barn. Probably because they are at my house.

[eightpondfarm]

@goodhors

but it is dispatched, not moved. They don’t stay gone in our experience.

i may go-to killing them after this article. Not sure yet. I do kill raccoons.
What i do to skunks and opossums is spray a purple dot on their back and i’ve not had one reappear. But then i do drive them about 15 miles away and across a river.

[2DogsFarm]

I haven’t had any in my barn, with the exception of a single possum I chased out with my pitchfork in my first year here.
If they’re returning, they’re not leaving scat.

But I had a juvenile hide in my chicken coop that I picked up by the tail (gloved!) & threw as far as I could twice before it decided there was better housing elsewhere.

I have no love for them or raccoons.
Skunks I can tolerate. Those I’ve encountered didn’t spray, including the momma & 3 kits that lived under the pallets my hay is stacked on.

[S1969]

I’m not surprised. Ticks are so small they wouldn’t be a useful food source for any animal, really. But of course I can see how an engorged tick is different - why waste that tasty morsel?

I can’t imagine baiting possums hoping for reduced ticks in my yard though. Even if they really loved ticks, the chances that they would spot clean your yard is silly.

I saw an opossum in my hay shed recently. But only once and never again. I don’t keep any food available so it may have just been passing through. As fairly nomadic creatures I’m not sure it’s really necessary to relocate them unless you find them eating your cat food.

[suz]

Huh, I’ve never heard that tucks were a food source. But more like accidently ingested while grooming, as they are fastidious creatures.

[S1969]

Memes like this went around social media for years:

[endlessclimb]

This is what actually happens, but social media started a campaign that they’re the best animals ever because “they eat ticks”. No, they don’t. You want a tick free yard? You need free range poultry.

[trubandloki]

@suz

Huh, I’ve never heard that tucks were a food source. But more like accidently ingested while grooming, as they are fastidious creatures.

Oh, there have been endless memes on social media about how we should all want opossums because they can eat < insert some huge number > ticks.

[eightpondfarm]

right! quick search on facebook friend’s page gave me a couple of possums are goood memes

[endlessclimb]

Possums must taste bad, or they would be extinct. They’re the easiest prey ever.

I watched a show once that (more or less) said that every marsupial is genetically unintelligent, hence the reason there are so few left. I don’t know how true that is, but it fits for possums.

[eightpondfarm]

hahahahaahaaah 'they must taste bad…" funny!

but, there are few left? geezus, not here!

[endlessclimb]

I mean marsupials as a genus (might be the wrong word, been a long time since I was in biology), not possums. There’s TONS of them.

ETA: googled it, not genus - Order.

ETA: I’m still wrong. Infraclass or something?

[sophie]

@endlessclimb

Possums must taste bad,

I have a 3rd printing of The Gourmet Cookbook (1st edition 1957) that has 2 recipes of roast opossum.

We see them occasionally here, but they don’t stay. I’m very careful at not leaving access to any kind of food, so the house doesn’t attract possums, racoons, rats and other undesirables.

MTA that the abovementioned cookbook also has 1 recipe for roasted racoon and 4 (!) recipes for squirrels

[eightpondfarm]

i like my squirrels fried, like chicken. Though BBQ is pretty good, i tried some of that at a 4th of July potluck one time… My hay guy makes squirrel chop suey.

Have never had opossum or raccoon. (that i know of)

[2DogsFarm]

Every time a FB friend posts this crap, I reply that as a horseowner they could eat their weight in ticks every hour & I’d still hate them for the EPM they carry.
I add a link explaining what that disease does to horses.

@sophie & @eightpondfarm There used to be a butcher shop.in Chgo - corner of Clark & Division, way before the area got gentrified - that sold opossum, squirrel & raccoon.

[sophie]

@eightpondfarm

Have never had opossum or raccoon. (that i know of)

[eightpondfarm]

ya never know…