Final possum update

[Rocinante]

sure hope so anyway. For the past couple of nights I've posted about trying to catch possums under my house using a Havahart trap. I caught the last one earlier tonight and took him or maybe her out to the woods to join the others I caught. Kind of a catch and release program I guess. It worked out pretty well. Thanks to you folks that talked me out of killing them.

[NJCher]

1. I missed that discussion

But I'm glad you found the Havaheart traps. I've used them, too, and even caught a possum myself.


Cher

[Rocinante]

2. Those possums

can sure hiss when you catch them. But I guess I would too if confined to a little cage like that.

[Dookus]

3. whee!

congrats :)

[Rocinante]

4. Thanks!

I think I've learned my lesson about being lazy and not blocking up all the openings under the house.

[dweller]

5. well, now i'm curious

since i missed the original post.
how many did you catch?
and how far did you take them to release?

of course, the last question b/c if they start showing up on my doorway, i'll be looking at this thread again
:)

had my share of those critters too...
dp

[Rocinante]

7. Ok no problem

I ended up catching four of 'em. They were young, maybe seven or eight pounds each. I'm friends with a state park ranger and he has let me take them out there. I'm pretty sure that's far enough from you to not raise any concerns.

[Lorien]

6. That's great!

I've used havahearts to relocate raccoons; always good to put some plywood in the back seat when you transport them-those claws are pretty powerful!

I'm really glad you chose the non-lethal path; possums only live three to four years anyway-may as well let them enjoy what little they've been given!

[Rocinante]

8. I've relocated squrriels(sp?)

like that with the trap. Them little rascals just love to ruin our corn in the garden.

[Swede]

9. You know what they say about gopher gravy......

it's always better the day after.

[Rocinante]

10. OK

I will take your word on that.:-)

[morningglory]

11. Just wanted you to know, Rats: 0 Me: 4

Havaheart trap, then death by drowning.

[amazona]

12. what's done is done but please don't do this in future

When you place an animal in another animal's territory, and there is no place for them to go, one or the other of them is going to die. Any good habitat for possums already has its fill of possums -- more than its fill. That's why they are under our cars, in our garbage cans, in our yards, in our houses. The animals you transplanted into another's home territory were likely dead within 24 hours -- or else they are back as a nuisance in some other "undesirable" territory under someone's else's house or business.

This is true for rabbits, for squirrels, for raccoons, for possums. Sigh. The whole Havahart thing is really quite a scam.

The intruder to the territory is almost always the one to be killed, as it lacks the home advantage but, sure, sometimes it's the animal already on the territory that is killed. I'm not seeing where any net good has been accomplished.

There needs to more education about wildlife in this country. My friend who has a small acreage in the country has a steady stream of un-informed suburbanites dropping off animals and, no doubt, fantasizing that they will survive. Sigh.

Unless Fish and Wildlife or another licensed, trained agency/person is assisting you in these relocations, you are just contributing to the spread of nuisance animals and, sometimes, disease.

I realize you were trying to be kind, but we have a bad habit of being kind in ways that are ultimately either useless or harmful.

On Edit: Just saw your post where you had assistance from a State Park Ranger -- good, I'm much relieved. Too many people around here are "catching and releasing" at random, I'm afraid. It becomes a sore point.


in most cases an amateur can't throw an animal into a new territory and reasonably expect it to survive

[leftofthedial]

13. come get my skunks

but you'll have to be sneaky. My wife and daughters have adopted them. Think they're "cute."