Trapping a possum

[LauraKY]

What’s the best bait? This thing has to go. It’s coming through the cat door into the garage to eat the cat food. I’m sure it’s hanging in the barn too. I’ve caught it in the garage twice now, I’m picking the food up as it gets dark, but the cats occasionally stay out late to hunt.

I’ve got the door locked while I feed the cats their dinner. I’m expecting to walk out and find the damn thing sleeping in the heated cat’s bed one morning. Foul nasty, fat vermin.

It’s got to go.

Once you have them, what do you do, shoot them in the cage?

[MeghanDACVA]

Cat food works well

[Foxtrot_s]

Possums are not territorial and will not necessarily return - they just keep
wandering, so if you have some distant place where it could be released. I know you are thinking of EPSM…

[DressageFancy]

[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;7268709]
Possums are not territorial and will not necessarily return - they just keep
wandering, so if you have some distant place where it could be released. I know you are thinking of EPSM…[/QUOTE]

It’s not legal to relocate wildlife. Talk to your game warden in your area about what you are allowed to do to get rid of it.

[ToTheNines]

A little tin of catfood. I relocate them to a place by a creek with no horse farms around. Scoflaw I guess. I could never shoot something in a trap.

[tweeter]

We use dry catfood…that gets us both possums and raccoons. We relocate as well, to an area that has no horse farms, actually, nothing but trees for miles.

[LauraKY]

I live in KY, game warden? Hahahahaha. I will not relocate it, I would never relocate wildlife. Here’s why…

http://audubonportland.org/wcc/urban/relocation

I will make it gone though. Raccoon I’ll trap and release. Possums…I want it gone.

When we first moved here we had a problem with a ground hog. I called my extension agent for advice. He said, and I quote, “Well, you set by their hole, real quiet like, and when they pop out their head…you BITE IT OFF.” Followed by uproarious laughter.

He then said, “Just shoot the damn thing.”

Yes, EPM, I lost a boarder to EPM, one of the most heartbreaking diseases, declines and deaths I’ve ever seen. I don’t want them in my barn or in my garage.

[Freebird]

I know that was most likely a typo, but 'Possums carry EPM not EPSM. I used to live on a 500 acre farm and we had loads of 'coons and 'possoms - Ex used to 'Coon hunt, so we trapped a LOT of them. The best bait that we used was - don’t laugh - a Honey Bun. No idea why, but using a Honey Bun was a sure bet in catching a critter.

[BEARCAT]

Once you have them, what do you do, shoot them in the cage?

“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” ~Immanuel Kant

Oh, the irony…

[leaf]

You can legally re-locate them on your own property, if you have a lot of acreage.
Possums are nomadic, they’ll only hang around if there’s a reliable, steady food source. A food source like spilled grain that’s not swept up, or, um, cat food that’s left out. You can get this possum gone, but you’re liable to be inviting more to come along eventually.

[PRS]

I would shoot them in a cage. I wouldn’t like to do it but that’s what I would do/have done. Foul, nasty creatures.

Then fix the reason they are coming into your buildings to begin with so you won’t have to repeat the process of trapping and shooting.

[trubandloki]

Why do so many people find it horrible to shoot the critter once humanely trapped?
We are not talking about hunting here where the OP is going to brag about her conquest and mount her reward. We are talking about getting rid of a vermin that can cause an issue to her horses.

[morganpony86]

You’re inviting all kinds of wildlife in by leaving food out for your outdoor cats. Next you’re going to have a raccoon in there! If the cats don’t eat it in one sitting, then they shouldn’t get fed. You said yourself they’re out hunting, I’m sure they’re fine in the food department.

I recently had an opossum living under my hay stack in the pallets. I kicked him out, put that pepper-repellant stuff around the perimeter and haven’t seen hide nor hair from him again.
My hay guy also said moth balls work wonders to keep out skunks and opossums (the two biggies we have around here that are bad for horses). While my barn now smells like moth balls, it certainly has worked! I haven’t seen/smelled the skunk that lived around my barn in weeks either.

[fire_911medic]

I have been fortunate to avoid epm but know many that had horses have residual effects or eventually lost them.to it. Horrible tragic disease. I will kill the things if they ever set foot on my property they are dead ! What we use for our traps is marshmallows. You laugh but the suckers love them. Just a note so do raccoons so you are bound to get some of them. Raccoons I will release away from the barn - far far away. And possums well they receive trans cortical lead therapy. Sorry I have no sympathy for something that has the potential to take my horses lives.

[LauraKY]

Notice, I kill mice and rats too. Some animals are disease carrying vermin. I don’t leave food out at night, but when it gets dark at 4:30 or so, the cats do need to be fed dinner. I’m now locking the cat door until they’re finished eating.

No spilled grain in the barn, ever. But the damn things have pooped on some of the hay in my hay loft and now it’s completely spoiled.

I have no problem killing an animal if it is destructive, dangerous or a disease carrier.

Do you let mice have free run in your house, Bearcat? Do you use snap traps, poison or glue traps (which I think are inhumane). I kill flies and other insects too. In my garden, I drown slugs. I’m happy to coexist with all creatures, until they either inflict damage or disease.

[rmh_rider]

Speaking from lots of experience with trapping those nasty EPM makers, if your possum likes cat food go with it, with a little bit of other yummy’s on it. Put a small amounts.

Lock the cats up completely until mr. epm is caught. Cats may go in the trap but they will never again. If mr. epm is regularly dining at your table, put food in the trap, and in the trap only. I would put an extra tidbit of tempting yummyness on top of the cat food. Like a piece of chicken or turkey, cooked, like the skin, or a neck, or a wing tip, fried is good or boiled is good - aromatic is good. I have also used leftover stuffing/dressing. I leave a little few tidbits of dried cat food, and the yummy bits you have for it - 3" before the cage entrance, and a little superinformationhighway trail of 2-3 tidbits of the yummy food down the cage to the metal plate and then on the other side of it do I leave all the rest of the food, not alot but just enough. Center the food between the plate and the edge of the cage. You do not want access to the food from outside the cage. I would put it on a piece of paper inside the cage. Maybe the inside of a feed bag. But it is not necessary to do this.

Once you have said mr. epm in the cage, take the cage and the possum, and take it to “the place” and shoot it IN the cage. Take alot of bullets with you because they take many many to do the deed. So be prepared. Clean all possible epm poop and put in bags and toss in the trash. Take the cage and the body to a designated 100% guarantee the buzzards will find the body or place body in bag and put in the trash. You want 0% of the body or entrails left on your property where horses may be. Rinse cage really really well away from where any horses are or will come in contact with the poo.

They are so nasty to look at. Ick! They hiss, and drip saliva from their teeth, and their ears turn pink when they are angry.

I just shot and killed a skunk in the trap last saturday. It was a female. Buzzards ate it. No more babies from that skunk, and now all is quiet on the farm front, and no more smell or poop on the driveway. My barn is safe, for now. Skunks are the worst to deal with. They spray no matter where the bullet is placed. Epm maker, no problem, easy!

Good luck!

[Dance_To_Oblivion]

Wet cat food works well. One thing I find helpful when trapping them is to sort of cover the trap. In the barn I will put it against a wall and then put straw around it.

I loathe possums.

[Zu_Zu]

Eye sight is terrible lure with cat outside barn wait til dusk

[I]
Their eye sight is terrible … they don’t run fast

Bait with cat food outside barn where you have a bit of light

Wait til dusk , kill with bat , shovel or ?

we are not ‘killing’ type but this varmit is unsafe :mad:

[/I]MUST GO !

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=morganpony86;7269058]
You’re inviting all kinds of wildlife in by leaving food out for your outdoor cats. Next you’re going to have a raccoon in there! If the cats don’t eat it in one sitting, then they shouldn’t get fed. You said yourself they’re out hunting, I’m sure they’re fine in the food department.[/QUOTE]

Cats hunt because of instinct and for sport, not because they are or are not hungry. A healthy well fed cat will do a better job at keeping the rodent population down than a sickly starving cat any day.

[Squashnmoon]

I understand the concern about EPM and agree that they shouldn’t be around horses, but opossums are not “nasty” or “vermin” or “foul”. They’re gentle, non-aggressive marsupials that perform important scavenging duties for the environment. Why all the hate for such a little thing? Because you think they’re ugly?