Check to make sure there are no municipal or county restrictions pertaining to the removal of opossums prior to taking any action. Control methods for opossums are the same or similar to those for skunks and raccoons. Opossums do not usually become as numerous as raccoons and are not as objectionable as skunks.
Opossums are highly adaptable and are great survivors. Once they have invaded a neighborhood they are probably there to stay so long as food, water, and shelter are available. Because they are only active at night and low-light hours, opossums might never be seen as they travel through neighborhoods or yards. Barking dogs and disappearing pet food left out overnight may be the first apparent clues.
Sometimes strange-looking droppings scat may be found on garden paths, walkways, and patios, though typically opossums defecate in protected and leafy areas. The scat is difficult to describe as the omnivorous eating habits of the animal preclude an average size, shape, or texture.
Since opossums are messy feeders, you may find remnants of the previous night's foraging and feeding. An occasional visit by an opossum or a family of opossums may not present cause for concern unless you have pets that remain outdoors at night. Pet and opossum confrontations are relatively common and the pets are often injured. Early action may be warranted to avoid such a problem.
The aim of habitat modification is to make your premises less appealing to the opossum. Cut back overgrown shrubbery and trim back trees that overhang rooftops at least 5 feet from the roof edge. Continually remove any fallen fruit, which will be readily fed upon by opossums. Be sure firewood is stacked tightly, leaving no major gaps suitable for a den. Store scrap lumber and other items in an orderly manner, preferably about 18 inches off the ground.
Ensure garbage cans have tight-fitting lids and do not place food items or table scraps in your compost bin. Pet food placed outdoors should be removed by nightfall. This will substantially reduce or eliminate the potential negative interactions between pets and opossums.
Close off all potential entrances or openings under the house, garden tool shed, mobile home, deck, etc. The advantage of using the small mesh is that it will also exclude rats and house mice. When possible, bury the hardware cloth up to 6 inches to deter the opossum from crawling or digging underneath the exclusionary structure. Once an opossum has taken up residence beneath a building or deck, you have to be sure the animal has left before blocking the opening.
Examine the tracking patch soon after dark; the presence of footprints will indicate the animal has left and the opening can then be closed off. Normally opossums live alone except when with young and then, since the young remain in the pouch, they leave with the mother. Exclusion of opossums from gardens can be accomplished with a fence built of poultry wire. The fence should be 4 feet high with the top 12 to 18 inches of the fence bent outward, away from the garden, and not attached to any support.
Since the top of the fence is not rigid and bends under the weight of the animal, it cannot be climbed over.
As an alternative, any standard wire fence can be made opossum proof by stretching a parallel electrically-charged wire near the top of the fence, 3 inches out from the mesh. A cattle-type electric fence charger activates the wire. Animals Opossum This marsupial, or pouched mammal, resembles a large rat. Acorn Woodpecker View Animal. American Beaver View Animal. American Coot View Animal.
American Kestrel View Animal. American Robin View Animal. American White Pelican View Animal. Badger View Animal. Bald Eagle View Animal. Barn Owl View Animal. Black Bear View Animal. Bobcat View Animal. Burrowing Owl View Animal. California Condor View Animal. Canada Goose View Animal. Admire its adaptability, then let it proceed with the good work it came to do. If you find an injured or orphaned opossum, get help immediately.
The website of the Opossum Society of the United States www. The site also provides interesting background information on the animal. Hood Herbalism is the internet phenomenon bringing herbal education to birth work. See for yourself. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Times Events. They seem to fit in well with the tropical fruit trees and palms: a brilliant and very loud part of the urban landscape.
But it'a hard to find records before of any of the 13 species of parrots now known to have stable populations in California cities. And unlike opossums and honeybees, those who brought parrots to the state and released them didn't keep public records. That's probably because the raucous birds now caucusing in the queen palm down the block descend from either escaped pets or other fugitives from the captive parrot trade.
One species of parrot, the monk parakeet or Quaker parrot, was deemed such a potential threat to California agriculture that its importation and possession has been banned in the state, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife describes an eradication campaign against the species as a success.
Other species haven't turned out to be quite so disruptive, focusing on non-native food sources like urban fruit trees and taking time out to star in the occasional documentary film. The symbol of Wild America probably didn't exist in most of California in the 17th Century, though there's some dispute over whether herds of plains bison may have occasionally ranged into a thin sliver of the state in eastern Modoc County back in the day, likely staying in the desert steppe east of the Warner Mountains.
That may come as a surprise to visitors to Santa Catalina Island , where the local bison herd seems to blend wonderfully into the landscape. It kind of makes sense: bison don't climb steep mountains if they can avoid it, and California is well-defended along its eastern border with steeply tilted fault-block mountain ranges.
Why cross the Warners when there's perfectly good grass in the sagebrush steppe below? Of course that's modern bison, with the easy to remember Latin binomial " Bison bison. Bison antiquus, the most common large herbivore found in the La Brea Tar Pits, lived here up until about 10, years ago. Bison latifrons , which had a truly fearsome set of horns that could span seven feet from tip to tip, died out in California somewhere between 30, and 21, years ago.
But their inheritors the modern bison? Not so much with the California territory. Something to remember as you take in the iconic California countryside on Catalina.
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