Oh, possum!

When it comes to beneficial animals, there are some that are much maligned and even a little scary. The one I would like to talk about is North America’s only marsupial, the opossum. Their sharp teeth, hissing, beady eyes, and long hairless tail make them less than cuddly to many, but they are actually a great little animal to have around. 

First of all, like most Americans I drop the "o" and just call them "possums". As possums are generally nocturnal, you’ll rarely encounter them during the day. When a possum feels threatened, the first thing it will do is bare its teeth and hiss. This is a bluff, as possums are not aggressive and non-confrontational. Also, they are so slow moving, you would have to go out of  your way to actually get bitten. And though all mammals can contract rabies, it is very rare in possums due to a lower body temperature than other mammals.

If the bluff fails, it will become paralyzed. People refer to it as playing dead, but this is an involuntary reaction (like fainting goats). It will generally take one to four hours for the animal to recover, so if you find one motionless, and it's not attracting flies, let it be.

What they do for us is eat snakes, mice, rats, snails, slugs, insects, carrion, rotten fruit and garbage, and ticks that cause lyme disease. Possums eat 95% of ticks that try to feed on them, accounting for up to 5000 ticks eaten per animal per year. And with the exploding tick population we are experiencing in Michigan, possums are to be welcomed.

Opossum like to live in secluded places that they don’t have to build. Make sure to eliminate access under decks and porches, don’t leave pet food outside, secure the lids on your garbage, and you’ll probably never know they’re there. Something smooth around the trunk of fruit trees will keep them from getting your fruit, and if your dogs are barking at them at night, it’s because they bark at everything if not trained to behave otherwise. If they get somewhere you don’t want them, gently harass them until they move on and secure the area against their return.

I’m not sure if there are any possums in my neck of the woods, but if there are, they can have all the rodents, carrion, and ticks their hearts desire. And they are welcome to rummage around the Hostas for snails and slugs as well.