Possum War continues.

[JDShapp]

After a day of wallowing in antifreeze and wrestling with a pickle fork on my Jeep I decided it was time to check my rural property. Over the previous nights all I've seen are cats which I'm quite happy to see. Not sure if they're ferals, dumps, or the neighbors cats but they make it interesting waiting for possums by having staring contests with me. After about an hour or so I was ready to give up so I started my jeep up and out comes a possum with no real care in the world for the noise from the motor. I line up a shot on the left side of the possums head with the Wildcat, squeeze the trigger, and it takes a dirt nap.

After I warm up a bit and wait a little longer to my surprise another one comes on out. This one checked out the one taking a dirt nap, circled around and gave me a shot almost exactly like the first with its right side facing me. I sent it to possum heaven like the previous one.

So far that marks down 4 I've taken in the last week. All of them heading for the same area where I've had problems with my bird feeders being torn apart before they became distracted by the food I began putting out for the cats.

 

[Ziabeam]

I've shot a possum or two for the same reasons as you, even dragged them out of bushes and tossed them on sleeping Marines for a chuckle, punched them in the face (possums), and intentionally ran them over, but after two noteworthy celebrities contracted Lyme disease at the same fishing pond with a friend of mine, along with 3 fellow Marines while stationed in Quantico, upon learning that possums are veritable tick eating machines, I've decided to give them a pass on most occasions. 

Now you kill them if you like, nothing wrong with that given your cause, a covey of Guinea Fowls will do the same number on ticks... which may not be a problem in your area... but if my ramblings have given you any newfound respect for possums, PM me and I vow to help you devise/source a way to tend to feeding cats, without putting too big a dent in the possum population.
Hand to God !!

 

[Windmill01]

Feral cats are a big problem in Australia and they are dispatched at every opportunity. We recently eradicated thousands of them from one of our islands. 
Possums on the other hand aren't hunted and there are even some of the population who feed them and provide nesting sites.
Interesting hey.

 

[JDShapp]

My property is close enough to the county dump where any possums I remove would be replaced within a few months. As for the cats I'm surprised some of them are still around with how often I hear coyotes out there, plus I'm sure over half belong to either farms or the subdivisions in the area.

 

[Ziabeam]

"JDShapp"My property is close enough to the county dump where any possums I remove would be replaced within a few months......

Now you tell me !!! You had me at "DUMP"

Every time I go to our local landfill all I can think about is sneaking in to hassle the rats... possums too, since I doubt they're wondering where all the ticks are when they live in a dump.

Pretty safe bet possums near you are being replaced as fast as you say... if not faster.

 

[JDShapp]

Another two possums went down tonight. First one went down immediately as I pulled up into my drive and got out. Unfortunately there was another with it that I didn't manage to get before it ran off, and I mean this thing ran fast even for a possum. The third to show up got a pass because it wandered into the brush before I could get the Wildcat shouldered. Then the final one that showed up tonight went down about 3 hours after I'd started.

So the counts now up to 6 in the last week alone with 3 of them being bold ones that hardly reacted to the sound of my Jeep. On the side note what once was 5 has now went back down to 2 wandering cats.

After all this in the span of a week it's now put me on the fence on whether I want to even attempt to put in a bee hive or two this year.

 

[Ziabeam]

Set the hive base into concrete and use ratched straps to secure the hive to the base. From there forward a small electric fence will take care of any determined possum.

 

[torgo]

I leave the possums alone but shoot the cats. Feral cats decimate populations of rabbits, birds and squirrels.


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/feral-cats-kill-billions-of-small-critters-each-year-7814590/



On my 20 acres, if it isn't one of the three barn cats I have, it's a dead cat.

 

[JDShapp]

It seems the possums have now gotten wise and are steering clear of my property. As for the cats, I'm not going to shoot them. Given the proximity to a subdivision, and the farms nearby what I assume could be ferals could instead be shy outdoor cats. Also I rather much like the idea of them taking down rabbits and squirrels. The damn things have decimated any pecans I might have harvested for the last two years and the rabbits destroyed the hazelnut and pecan saplings I planted as well which is why they're both classified as kill-on-sight. Only things that get a higher ranking on my list are the raccoons and starlings.

 

[DuncanHynes]

I built a live trap that emails me when it is "full." I use a banana. Fuzzy britches tugs on banana...paracord pulls on pin, pin releases falling heavy steel door. Sensor emails me and Wildcat does the rest. Possum eats banana for the last 45 seconds of his life meantime content it's all his.