Opossums are the only marsupials that are native to America. As thus, this is their natural environment and find it easy to adapt to whatever climatic changes that may be there no matter how adverse. Although this is advantageous to the ecological balance, in the long run, it is detrimental to residents in areas that are infested by opossums. Thus, there have been increased incidences of individuals searching online for the search term opossum control near me in the hope that they may find a remedy to this situation that has noticeably gone out of control and is now worrying.
Opossums are quite docile by nature and are not prone to any form of aggression. As thus, they will not attack or injure any persons around them. At best, opossums will act dead in order to fool their predators and later on make a dash to safety before the worst is done on them. This act of playing dead is done by the opossum’s body system as an involuntary action, such as fainting in human beings. The opossums will stay in this state up to a maximum of four hours, after which it will regain its normal state. Should you have been fooled by this state, by this time you will have disposed of the opossum in an area that it could again find a way back into your home or in another home. If you search opossum control near me, you will find experts advising against the idea of finding dead opossums around your home. What you are advised to do is to euthanize the same just to be sure that the opossum has been gotten rid if efficiently. There are opossum keepers who can help you with this. This is because opossums are a delicacy to some people, especially natives of Latin America and the Caribbean islands and their fur is also used in the apparel industry.
You may wonder what kind of nuisance opossums cause and whether you will ever search the term opossum control near me. Well, opossums will cause damage to your garden if you happen to have planted sweet-scented flowers or if you have fruits and vegetables in it. They will eat these and leave your ornamental garden looking like a mess in no time at all. Opossums will also want to rummage through your garbage cans looking for food. This is bound to happen at night since the opossums are by nature nocturnal beings and thus they are most active when it is dark. This also explains the tendency of these creatures to build their nests in areas that are quite secluded and dark. The opossums will rarely be seen in groups except when they are mating. This, however, should not fool you into believing that their population on your property may not be hitting alarming numbers. The opossums will be many in number but will want to occupy different locations on your property so as to maintain their private lives and avoid run-ins with other opossums and also to avoid competition for food and water. Living as a group also makes the opossum easy targets to their predators.
When you make a search query on opossum control near me, almost all of the professional companies that you will come in contact with their services will advise that you use traps in controlling the opossums. This is because the traps are viewed as a humane way of controlling the population of opossums. There are many types of traps that can be put to use to control opossums and this will vary according to the intention of the trapper. The effectiveness of the traps will, however, depend on the extent of the opossum infestation in your home. There are traps that are designed for the purpose of killing the opossums, others are just meant to hold the animal in place while a better alternative is sought on how to get rid of it. Kill traps are the ones that are meant to get rid of the opossums by killing them. The opossums will get struck by a blunt object inserted into the trap and will fall dead on impact. The dead animal can then be picked up later and disposed of. The main advantage of these traps is that they kill instantly and thus you do not have think of alternative ways of killing the opossum later after trapping it. The cage traps and leg-hold traps hold the animal for a period of time before it can be executed or relocated to another area. The advantage of this is that it is humane, but the downside of it is that it gives you the legal responsibility of feeding the animal for as long as it is in captivity.
There are also chemicals that can be used to kill the opossums. These chemicals can be bought at any local animal shop. The directions that are given on the use of the same need to be followed to the letter to avoid any effects on human beings through contamination of water and food sources. The plants and fruits that are harvested from the garden after the chemical has been sprayed also need to be thoroughly cleaned before consumption to avoid any form of poisoning. In this regard, those who handle opossums also need to disinfect their hands before coming into contact with food and water. Opossums are known to contribute to the spread of several diseases, one among them being Tuberculosis which is highly contagious.
The risks that are posed by the handling of opossums and chemicals used in their killing are what makes it necessary for most people to search for opossum control near me. This is in a bid to avoid the contraction of diseases from these seemingly harmless animals. The same is advised for all individuals that do not have the know-how of handling opossums in addition to lacking the right protective gear for handling them, to seek the services of a professional opossum remover.