Opossums eating ticks

[TSAMP]

A seperate thread got me thinking on this. Thought I'd toss it out and see what sort of knowledge folks have on these critters. A few years ago I read that possums consume nearly 5000 ticks in a season. Since that point I have began to really champion QPMA or quality possum management. Lots of folks see them as easy target practice. If they are the tick eaters I say let em walk.

What do you all think?

 

[Nick87]

I read the same, they get a pass from me now.

 

[Rich M]

If I ever get a chicken coop i will kill every possum and coon that comes by, but until then, live & let live.

 

[ceejay]

Opposums, raccoons, skunks, etc are such notorious nest raiders for nesting birds such as turkeys, grouse, quail, woodcock, pheasants and many others that the meager dent an opossum would put into the population of a gazillion ticks is not enough for me to advocate letting them walk. Nest raiding predator control combined with habitat enhancement is the combination of management these game birds need to have successful nesting seasons. These birds are having enough struggles as it stands now, having more opossums is not going to help matters.

 

[Btaylor]

What ceejay said ^^^

 

[prm]

My little JRT does not let them walk. She just got one the other night. Woe be any animal that enters a JRTs yard. I personally like anything that kills ticks. It seems like a significant number of the folks in my area have Lymes disease from those little bastards. I read that quail eat a lot of ticks. I’d rather release a bunch of quail to work on the tick population.

 

[Jbxl20]

I’m no expert on americas only marsupial but I do wildlife control for a living and have caught one or two opossums before. Anywhere from removing dead ones from under mobile homes to removing live ones from a soda dispenser in a restaurant. They eat ticks and anything else they can scavenge including gardens, trash, roadkill and nests of eggs. Horse farmers have us trap and kill them because they carry a parastite that’s deadly to the horses. I have chickens and have found possums in the coop. I stand in the middle of letting them walk and killing them all. I think they have their part in the ecosystem and it is very rare (if not impossible) that they carry rabies. I don’t mind one or two around my place but I Keep them in check.

 

[qwerksc]

 

[AZmark]

Got no possums here, don't have a lot of ticks either.
I've seen one in my lifetime and that was over 30 yrs ago while in training at Topeka KS.

 

[Jbxl20]

Ticks are horrible here in PA. I’m surrounded by woods at my place and it’s just a routine for me and the kids to check for ticks when when we come in from outside. My Dog wears a seresto collar 24/7. Apparently they have become immune to frontline

 

[prm]

I forgot about the issue with Horses. I'm all in favor of removing all opossums near barns. My wife is buying meds to the tune of hundreds of dollars a month to treat one for EPM (spread my opossums).

 

[FLAK]

I learned that a few years back. They get a pass with me if they filtering ticks
out of the environment.
Ticks are the devil.

 

[Cervid]

Anyone ever eat one? My dog has caught 3 in the last 2 months or so. Apparently in the south people used to (still?) catch them, feed them for a while to fatten them up (and to wait for the effects of the carrion in their diet to dissipate) and then eat them.

A Possum Crisp and Brown: The Opossum and American Foodways | Folklife Today

This is the third in a series of posts about folklife related to the Virginia Opossum, the only marsupial native to the United States. Find the series here! In 1910, Maggie Pogue Johnson, an African American woman from Virginia, published a dialect poem about classic African American cuisine...

blogs.loc.gov

 

[Marmots]

I've eaten possum quite a few times. It's a lazy cliche, but it tastes like chicken. There's a stringy texture that I wasn't too keen on, but it probably didn't get a fair representation given that my friends and I were kids at the time and pretty bad at cooking anything.

 

[FLAK]

Cant possibly be any worse than Meadowlark.

 

[Team4LongGun]

Our place in PA is bad with ticks as well as we are in the woods.
Do any of you have a decent way of controlling them besides chemical spraying?
I’ve heard chickens will eat a fair share, but then I’d have more things to do looking after chickens with all the hawks and foxes!

 

[Btaylor]

Our place in PA is bad with ticks as well as we are in the woods.
Do any of you have a decent way of controlling them besides chemical spraying?
I’ve heard chickens will eat a fair share, but then I’d have more things to do looking after chickens with all the hawks and foxes!

If you own the woods, talk to your Forestry agency about doing a controlled burn.

 

[timberland]

Our place in PA is bad with ticks as well as we are in the woods.
Do any of you have a decent way of controlling them besides chemical spraying?
I’ve heard chickens will eat a fair share, but then I’d have more things to do looking after chickens with all the hawks and foxes!

guinea hens are tougher to catch than chickens and do a good job with tick control

 

[robtattoo]

I'm right on the fence. I have chickens and horses.
If I see one around the barn where I store feed & hay, it's getting popped. I can't risk EMS in any of the horses, but as far as i'm aware, I've never lost more than a few dozen eggs to them in the last 10 years. I really don't begrudge a few eggs to keep my yard tick free! If they're around the house & chickens, I leave them be. Same with skunks. Racoons? Nah. Every one gets shot.

 

[ceejay]

Tick population and range has increased quite significantly in the setting of a stable or possibly increasing population of opossums in the past couple of decades. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that opossums are much of, if any, an effective control measure for ticks. I've heard this opossum eating tick rumor for several years and I suspect it is an unproven theory that is likely more myth than fact.