I just saw a Virginia Opossum, but my parents want to trap it!! Why??

pURPLEcHILLIrED123;4453050; said:

If you feel threaten by it, kill it. If not, leave it alone. You’ll be surprised at how many “wild animals” live in concrete jungle. My GF see raccoons all the time at night when she walks her dog. She would always see the same 2 fighting near the telephone pole and one would always run up the pole and she would come back and say “the coons were fighting again and one run up the pole”. Raccoons and Opossum adapt easily to city life. They are all over the city, we just don’t see them often.

I would tell her to run if it chases after you because that is sign that it has rabies. Opossums and Raccoons normally would avoid us that are why we hardly see them. If they chase after you… run and do not let it bite you or you will need rabid shots for weeks.

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Exactly. A possum in a large city isn't exactly an abnormal thing, so what's the point of trying to trap and relocate an animal that's not acting abnormal?

If it's acting like it's sick, or being destructive to property (is living in your attic or something), then it needs to be trapped and moved, or possibly euthanized (or heck, shoot it for all I care if that's legal in your area. Bullets are cheap), otherwised it's just silly to try and move them. And freaking out over ONE possum sighting I find to be extremely weird and over-reactionary. "OMG get rid of it! It's gonna give all your pets and children the rabies!"
In a large city I'd be more worried about all the people in close proximity getting me sick than one possum.

Funny how so many people, judging by this thread, apparently associate possums with rabies. I wonder how that came about since they're one of the least likely animals to carry it. I guess because they look scroungy people assume they must be rabies carriers. Yet just about everyone I know thinks groundhogs are cute, and from the information I posted they're much more likely to be rabies carriers.

Found this on a rabies website..


Animals that carry rabies: Raccoons are the most common wild animals infected with rabies in the United States. Skunks, foxes, bats, and coyotes are the other most frequently affected.

• Bats are the most common animals responsible for the transmission of human rabies in the United States, accounting for more than half of human cases since 1980, and 74% since 1990. Rabid bats have been reported in all states except Hawaii.
• Cats are the most common domestic animals with rabies in the United States. Dogs are the most common domestic rabid animals worldwide.
• Almost any wild or domestic animal can potentially get rabies, but it is very rare in small rodents (rats, squirrels, chipmunks) and lagomorphs (rabbits and hares). Large rodents (beavers, woodchucks/groundhogs) have been found to have rabies in some areas of the United States.
• Fish, reptiles, and birds are not known to carry the rabies virus.

Bottomfeeder;4453617; said:

Yes it would seem we are the only sane ones left on MFK. We shall eliminate the rest of the population and repopulate MFK together.




Healthy Opossums don't get steamrolled by cars. Those little dudes are FAST. At least the Opossums won't die if my parents go through with it. They will be taken to Staten Island and become Gene0514's problem.

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I have found problems in your statement, one being you two are both guys and two my friend has a possum at his place that will hiss at his sisters car when it gets near it.

capture it and eat it

likestofish;4454780; said:

I have found problems in your statement, one being you two are both guys and two my friend has a possum at his place that will hiss at his sisters car when it gets near it.

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Well, there is a lot of information in the rest of the thread that would indicate that's not normal behavior....
Odd behavior would lead me to call animal control so they can view the animal and possibly trap it. Good chance the thing is old and senile and can't see well, so it's acting abnormal. Any wild animal that's exhibiting that type of abnormal behavior IS a possible danger to humans because it's being unpredictable. Though I wouldn't call hissing a car outright aggressive, more like the animal is acting like the car is a threat for whatever reason and trying to get it to go away (which does make it sound like he is going blind).

Healthy Opossums don't get steamrolled by cars. Those little dudes are FAST. At least the Opossums won't die if my parents go through with it. They will be taken to Staten Island and become Gene0514's problem.

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Are you saying they'd trap it and move it themselves? Pretty sure that's not legal in your state unless the animal has caused damage to your property or is acting as a threat to livestock. Also may be city ordinances against removing certain wildlife, which is why pest control people often have specific permits for trapping and such.

Maybe you could call and turn them in....

Kidding of course . But I'd still explain to them that they're not supposed to do that.

Delhezi222;4446346; said:

We used to have a family of possums living in our backyard, awhile back.
I was younger and we still had our old dog. I will say this, they might be able to take on some dogs, huskies aren't one of those dogs though, haha.

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Yeah I had a German Shepherd mix and he used to catch them and kill them all the time.

Bottomfeeder;4453617; said:

Yes it would seem we are the only sane ones left on MFK. We shall eliminate the rest of the population and repopulate MFK together.




Healthy Opossums don't get steamrolled by cars. Those little dudes are FAST. At least the Opossums won't die if my parents go through with it. They will be taken to Staten Island and become Gene0514's problem.

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Reason Opposums get hit by cars is cause they eat carrion/road kill. And they end up becoming road kill too.

ShadowBass;4457531; said:

Well, there is a lot of information in the rest of the thread that would indicate that's not normal behavior....
Odd behavior would lead me to call animal control so they can view the animal and possibly trap it. Good chance the thing is old and senile and can't see well, so it's acting abnormal. Any wild animal that's exhibiting that type of abnormal behavior IS a possible danger to humans because it's being unpredictable. Though I wouldn't call hissing a car outright aggressive, more like the animal is acting like the car is a threat for whatever reason and trying to get it to go away (which does make it sound like he is going blind).

Are you saying they'd trap it and move it themselves? Pretty sure that's not legal in your state unless the animal has caused damage to your property or is acting as a threat to livestock. Also may be city ordinances against removing certain wildlife, which is why pest control people often have specific permits for trapping and such.

Maybe you could call and turn them in....

Kidding of course . But I'd still explain to them that they're not supposed to do that.

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I dont know whats up with this possum its been around there for at least 5 years now