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Opossums Removal

Opossums are one of the most common nuisance wildlife infestations homeowners face. If you hear strange noises in your attic at night, are experiencing a musky skunk-like smell, or notice damage to plants around the yard, it’s time to consider opossum removal. At Critter Control, we can safely remove the opossum from under porch shed, or inside your attic.

Signs of an Opossum Problem

Opossums, like many of the creatures we encounter, are nocturnal. Unless you see an opossum, it may be difficult to discern whether the critters in your attic or yard are opossums, raccoons, squirrels, or rodents. But, you know something’s causing damage or keeping you awake at night with its scampering and vocalizations.

Here are some signs to look out for:

  • Exterior Home Damage: Opossums will get into an attic by climbing up the side of a house or jumping onto a roof from a tree limb or power line. Their sharp claws can damage roof and siding shingles.
  • Strange Noises: Opossums are quite vocal and utilize a wide range of sounds to communicate, including hissing, growling, clicking, and screeching.
  • Musky Smell: Opossums secrete a musky smell to mark their territory.
  • Gnaw Marks: If in your attic, under a porch, or in a shed, you might see gnawed wood and wires.
  • Feces: Opossum feces are about one to two inches in length, smooth on the sides, and curled on the ends. Older feces can be covered in a white or yellowish mold.
  • Disappearing Pet Food and Toppled Garbage Cans: Opossums will eagerly feast on trash and pet food that is easily accessible.
  • Tracks: Opossum tracks look similar to human handprints because they have five toes on each foot.

Opossum Removal: How to Get Rid of an Opossum

While opossums are not naturally aggressive animals, they do cause costly damage and pose health and safety issues to you, your family, and your pets. Before they dig up your garden or gnaw through electrical wires in your attic, it is time to conduct opossum removal.

When an opossum is living in your attic, under your deck, or in your shed, it is not advisable to try getting rid of opossums on your own. An opossum can become aggressive if cornered and can bite and scratch. Plus, they carry parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to people and pets.

Critter Control is a wildlife removal service with over 40 years of experience in humane and effective opossum removal, exclusion, and repair. Critter Control specialists arrive with the proper equipment, know all local, state, and federal ordinances, and will guarantee their work.

Exclusions for Opossum Control

Exclusions are the most effective method of opossum control to keep opossums out of your yard and home. If an opossum is denning inside your attic or crawlspace, we seal all openings after we trap and remove the animal. If the opossum is under your house or shed, we install fences buried into the ground. It prevents the critter from digging under or climbing over the exclusion. Finally, if there is an especially attractive food source in your garden, we can protect your garden with barriers and fences.

Habitat Modification to Prevent Opossums

Habitat modification is the process by which you remove the resources and conditions that make the area attractive to them.

Tips to Keep Opossums Out of Your Yard & House:

  • Keep trash cans tightly sealed.
  • Bring pet food indoors.
  • Clean up brush piles and leaves from the yard.
  • Clean up fallen fruit from around trees.
  • Fence in your garden.
  • Add mesh around your deck, porch, and shed foundations.
  • Scrub grills after you use them.

Find Service in your Area:

Opossums under your house, deck, or in your crawl space? Those scents and sounds may well be an opossum. They are often considered nuisance animals. We trap and remove opossums. Call your local Critter Control office today at 1 (800) 274-8837 for effective opossum removal and exclusion services.

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Opossums are about the size of a cat. They have a pointed face with a narrow snout, small eyes, and a long, hairless, prehensile tail that acts as a fifth limb, allowing them to climb well. Covered in grayish-white fur, the opossum has more teeth than any other mammal in the U.S.

Opossums are relatively small, measuring about 15 to 20 inches long and weighing between four and twelve pounds.

The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial native to North America. Their natural habitat is in woodland areas, along streams, marshes, or ponds. As these types of habitats are dwindling, opossums have become successful living wherever food, water, and shelter exist, including suburban environments.

Opossums have a relatively short life span in contrast to other mammals of their size. They usually live only one to two years in the wild. Mother opossums give birth to litters of tiny opossum babies the size of honeybees, known as joeys, which crawl inside the mother’s pouch and continue to grow. Once the joeys become too large for the pouch, they ride upon the mother’s back while she scavenges for food.

Although opossums prefer to build their nests in tree cavities or the abandoned dens of other animals, they often enter yards and homes, making their nests in attics, under porches and decks, and in sheds and crawl spaces. They construct nests of twigs, cloth scraps, grass, and other materials in dark, secluded places where opossums sleep during the day.

Opossums can be identified by some distinct signs that include:

Opossums are not the most destructive critter and will generally avoid people instead of attack, they are a nuisance and can make a mess.

Even though opossums have an unappealing, rat-like appearance, they do not attack humans. To avoid confrontation, opossums play dead so predators leave them alone.

The danger they pose is that they carry diseases such as tuberculosis, spotted fever, and other neurological and respiratory illnesses. Opossums eat and carry ticks. Other parasites they carry include mites and lice.

Opossums harm property. If within a home or shed, they will gnaw wood and electrical wires, causing instability and the risk of fire. In the yard, they will help themselves to fruit and vegetables. They will also eat unsecured pet food left outside overnight and rummage through garbage cans or compost heaps to find bits and scraps to eat. Opossums have also been known to enter chicken coops and destroy birds, nests, and eggs.

Opossum control is the process of habitat modification that makes a yard and home less attractive to opossums.

These activities include sealing gaps to limit an opossum’s ability to get into walls, trimming branches that overhang the house so opossums can’t access the roof, and tightly sealing trash cans.

Though they are not prone to aggression, opossums are still wild animals. As such, any attempts at opossum trapping should be done by a trained professional. Critter Control specialists are educated in opossum behavior and can effectively and safely trap an opossum. Untrained individuals do not have the knowledge, resources, and certifications to safely and properly handle the marsupials as professionals do.

If you need an opossum removal service, call Critter Control at 1-800-Critter. Schedule a free inspection and let an opossum animal control expert at Critter Control create a plan for opossum removal, exclusion, and repair that will not only get rid of opossums but lessen the chance of future infestations.

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