Backyard Critters

[BigTurk]

I was in the backyard with the kid and wife two nights ago. It was about 7:00. My wife grabs my arm and points to the gate between our yard and the neighbor's, which was open, and there was an opossum walking through the opening. I texted the neighbor and he came, and over a couple of High Life's he said he was aware of an opossum for some time but just forgot to tell me and it has been under my shed.

This is the first, that I am aware of, opossum I've had in the yard. Should I worry about it or just leave it alone? I am thinking of just leaving it alone and it will leave us alone. On the farm we would just kill it, but suburban Des Moines ain't the farm.

Anyone have experiences with an opossum? What should I do with it?

 

[JP4CY]

Leave alone.

 

[TitanClone]

Leave alone. They don't wreak havoc like racoons can and should help keep insects down.

 

[KennyPratt42]

Leave it alone.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

As long as you are not raising poultry in the backyard you are good to let it be.

 

[1100011CS]

I agree with everyone else. Possums look nasty and might hiss at you but they are pretty harmless and eat ticks.

How (O)possums Work - Stuff You Should Know | iHeart

<p>Josh and Chuck take a listener’s suggestion – many, many suggestions – and learn that possums are pretty great and very much misunderstood. By the end of this episode you will too!</p><p>See <a href='https://omnystudio.com/listener'>omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

www.iheart.com

 

[JM4CY]

Don't **** with it. Those things **** back.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Possum? Opossum?

 

[Cyinthenorth]

I remember findind a dead possum in my backyard as a kid, maybe 10 or 11. I saw it laying out in the yard and curious little boy that I was, went out to investigate. Poked it with a shovel a few times and it didn't move. Went in and told my Dad about it and he told me to be careful because they play dead. He came back outside with me to see about dragging it away/burying it, but it was gone.

 

[JP4CY]

Leave alone. They don't wreak havoc like racoons can and should help keep insects down.

Yep, like foxes with rabbits. Leave those alone too.

 

[FallOf81]

Teach it tricks. Start with play dead. Report back with video please.

 

[Pope]

Live in Ankeny and a few weeks ago I spotted a family of 5 foxes playing in a yard a few houses away. Have spotted them running through our yard recently.

 

[Prone2Clone]

 

[3TrueFans]

Somewhere there's a possum message board and he's like, this dude was just watching me as I was chilling last night, should I kill him or leave him alone?

 

[psycln11]

Had an opossum make himself at home under my shed several years back. I ended up live trapping him and relocating him to a wooded area east of Ankeny. Did the same with a groundhog a few years ago.

I have a dog that has free range of the backyard via a doggie door, therefore, I didn't want them living under my shed.

 

[CoachHines3]

i call them egg suckin' sum b*tches

 

[NickTheGreat]

We also had a possum in our yard. So my kids and I went on a possum learning deep-dive. They don't hurt anything and are basically incapable of carrying rabies, due to their low body temperatures.

I think the eating ticks thing is an urban legend, but they also don't cause any harm to my property so we let them be.

 

[JimmyChitwood]

Had an opossum make himself at home under my shed several years back. I ended up live trapping him and relocating him to a wooded area east of Ankeny. Did the same with a groundhog a few years ago.

I have a dog that has free range of the backyard via a doggie door, therefore, I didn't want them living under my shed.

That's how I met my wife.

 

[CYdTracked]

May be worth trying some of these tricks otherwise can call animal control or DNR and they may be able to safely relocate it too.

Wildlife Control: How to Keep Opossums Out of Your Yard (callmccauley.com)

We've seen an uptick in coyote and fox crossing our driveway at night in Grimes over the winter that my garage camera has caught but nothing too recent lately. We don't have any pets so they don't concern me but with as much development going on in the DM Metro area these days a lot of the wildlife seems to be getting displaced and wandering around neighborhoods now. My folks live on an small farm in rural Iowa and are constantly trapping raccoons it seems like and I don't remember them being the problem they are now for them when I was growing up. Opossum is one I'd probably leave alone and hope they eventually go away. Raccoons on the other hand are a critter I would not want feeling comfortable enough to want to hang around my property as they can be destructive.

 

[Pat]

Had an opossum make himself at home under my shed several years back. I ended up live trapping him and relocating him to a wooded area east of Ankeny. Did the same with a groundhog a few years ago.

I have a dog that has free range of the backyard via a doggie door, therefore, I didn't want them living under my shed.

A few years ago we had one learn that playing dead didn’t prevent a lab from treating it like a chew toy and shaking it violently. We got the dog to come in, closed the dog door, and the ‘dead’ possum quickly disappeared, never to return. The dog was very pleased with herself.