How To Kill Opossums

If you are dealing with opossums on your property, you may be tempted to kill them. After all, killing the possums will take care of the issue once and for all and ensure those animals don’t come back. However, there is never a single possum in your neighborhood. Unless you take care of whatever is attracting the animals to your property, you will find yourself with new possums, no matter how many you kill. To make killing an even worse option, it is not always legal and no method will work well. Don’t forget that you would still have to figure out a way to dispose of the carcass after killing it, a messy job.



Reconsider Lethal Traps
Many people who have decided they want to kill opossums will turn to lethal traps. Because these animals are roughly the size of housecats, you will need to get a fairly large trap. Unfortunately, there is no way to make sure that the animal you catch in the trap is a possum. It could be your pet dog or even your neighbor’s cat. Most lethal traps will also cause a slow, painful death, something that is inhumane. If you would like to use a live trap instead then kill the possum, this is just pointless; once you catch the animal, you can relocate it to a safe distance so it stays away.

Poison Is A Very Bad Idea
In addition to lethal traps, the other method of killing possums the average homeowner tends to consider is poison, but there are a few issues with this. The biggest is that you will not find any registered or legal poison that targets possums. Additionally, if you do manage to poison the animal, it is unlikely to die. Experience has taught any wildlife professional that instead, poisoning an opossum will make it more dangerous and reckless. If the poison does kill it, the animal is likely to die somewhere that it is hard to recover its body. Poison is also an inhumane method that causes a slow, painful death and there is no way to guarantee what animal eats the poison.

Shooting The Possums
If you live in a rural area, you may be tempted to just shoot the opossum and get rid of it. While this may seem like a good idea in theory, it doesn’t work as well. Since possums are rarely seen during the day, you would have to spend your whole night looking for them. Afterwards, you would have to clean up the possum. These animals bleed a great deal and can carry blood-borne diseases, meaning you would need to do a thorough disinfection.

The Alternative
Since killing opossums is clearly a bad idea, you may be wondering what to do. A wildlife expert can help you trap and relocate a possum in a humane manner. Then, make adjustments to your property to keep other wildlife away in the future.