Setup up the Texan on the dead 
. About 40 yards.. Pretty short wait. I've been noticing a duck a week coming up missing. He's dead now 
. About 40 yards.. Pretty short wait. I've been noticing a duck a week coming up missing. He's dead now Got the Duck killer🙂👍
- Thread starter RM.510bigbore
- Start date
Hopefully you got the right critter. Possums don't usually 'hunt' and aren't really adept at it. They're mostly scanvenger/cleaners. Probably a raccoon, they like to eat the heads of chickens I know that for sure.
Possum was probably just out on clean up duty lol... 2 days til retirement!
Possum was probably just out on clean up duty lol... 2 days til retirement!
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I've had possums kill chickens and ducks on many.other occasions.. Skunks are also terrible for killing small live stock. I have another duck with a broken wing from failed attack. Possums will slowly wipe out a whole flock.
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@ vetmx and Bootscreep,
Nah. Accessory after the fact. Still a possum will kill anything it can catch easily. Normally a very lazy hunter.
I have no problem with killing them. Class 1 rabies carrier as well.
Good shooting.
Counting down the days there Bootscreep? Good for you.
Doc
Nah. Accessory after the fact. Still a possum will kill anything it can catch easily. Normally a very lazy hunter.
I have no problem with killing them. Class 1 rabies carrier as well.
Good shooting.
Counting down the days there Bootscreep? Good for you.
Doc
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I have a retired opossum at my house. It visits my woodpile every night to clean up dead mice that I shot. Then when it lingers a little too long I send a .30 pellet right under its butt and spray it with dirt. If my opossum was going to kill ducks or chickens, it would have to catch them while they were sleeping. It’s not a ball of fire.
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@Reedmosser The way they get after chickens, I could see that happening to a penned in duck with clipped wings. Generally I’d think a duck would take to the water where a possum can’t get to them. What caliber Texan? Looks like the duck is the one that got hit with a Texan.
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The ducks just have a small creek and shed where they hang out at. My brother had a flock of 50 chickens which in three years predators got all but two. The coop door wasn't always shut at night due to children.... The ducks have been a favorite in the neighborhood. They don't really require any attention.... Until.the critters get to them.after dark. In my area we.don't have half the wild turkey s we had even 10 years ago... Predators out of control.. No one traps..furs not worth anything... I video the whole thing...its looks great on my sightmark wraith hd...if I can figure out the mini SD card to internet thing ill post the video. 50 Texan 460 grain NOE. 40 yards
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@Reedmosser Yea I imagine that a creek isn’t going to afford much of any protection. I was thinking of a pond.
From the reports and studies I’ve read raccoons and coyotes are the culprits largely responsible for our struggling turkey population. Let us know if anything changes since getting rid of that possum. I’d expect that y’all might discover raccoons terrorizing the flock. Have you seen any tracks? Has anyone set out any trail cameras on the property to get a better idea of what’s going on?
From the reports and studies I’ve read raccoons and coyotes are the culprits largely responsible for our struggling turkey population. Let us know if anything changes since getting rid of that possum. I’d expect that y’all might discover raccoons terrorizing the flock. Have you seen any tracks? Has anyone set out any trail cameras on the property to get a better idea of what’s going on?
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Possums are not "class 1 rabies carriers". While not immune to getting rabies it is highly unlikely for one to carry the disease at all. Their internal body temperature is a hair to low for the disease to exist in them.
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I will never shoot an opossum in my neck of the woods. They don’t carry Rabies, they don’t attack my chickens, and they eat a stupid amount of ticks from my back yard. As far as I’m concerned, they’re alright!
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The only real concern that I know of with possums is if you have horses. They can carry and transmit Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis which can be fatal to them. Like others have said they typically are very lazy hunters and just scavenge their food but do occasionally go after eggs and chicks. They have been known to go after bigger game as well but it isn't nearly as common. My bet is on OP is still going to have ducks go missing here.
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Possoms are the Class 1 clean-up crew in my backyard! I have 4 trail cams and 2 surveillance cameras and have never seen a Possom attack anything that was alive! Raccoons are another story, I have seen them attach a Possom!
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I read they consume a huge number of ticks as well. Good creatures to have in the woods if you have Lyme disease in your area.
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The tick study was done by an animal rights group. It is propaganda. They put a hundred ticks on several captive species and counted the remaining ticks after a set period of grooming time. Then extrapolated the ridiculous number of ticks that a possum might groom off themselves in a year. They do not go around hoovering up ticks in the brush.
Hosts as ecological traps for the vector of Lyme disease
Vectors of infectious diseases are generally thought to be regulated by abiotic conditions such as climate or the availability of specific hosts or habitats. In this study we tested whether blacklegged ticks, the vectors of Lyme disease, granulocytic ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 
Are Virginia opossums really ecological traps for ticks? Groundtruthing laboratory observations - PubMed
Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana) are a common synanthrope in North America, and serve as host to many species of ectoparasites. Research on captive Virginia opossums estimated that opossums eat, on average, 5500 larval ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) per week. To investigate this apparent...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Upvote 0
I have chicken s since I was a kid . I can tell you from multiple different encounters that possums will eat your chickens turkeys and ducks. This is not rare. Yes raccoons and skunks are also problems. I assure you my ducks eat many more ticks than possum s. I'd rather keep the ducks free ranging my orchard and property to control insects.
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