do not kill Opossums because they kill Lyme desease Ticks

[MicErs]

Two points.


1) You can eat possum.


2) Mom said it is greasy.  I've never had it.

Rule 3 edit-BZ

That season is a frustration.

[Extreme]

   Well, the Possum is gone!!! George Jones 
All I can say  about this is they are tasty little critters. I worked many many ranches in West Texas, I saw many rabid coyotes, fox, coons, skunks, dogs, and cats. But, never a possum they are funny looking animals and can bite, I don't recall ever seeing one play possum though.
Take Care Fellas

[bubba zanetti]

Two points.


1) You can eat possum.


2) There is a rule about politics, apparently it does not apply to everyone equally.

Oh but it does and when I catch it I do something about it.

I try and not be draconian, but with that special season upon us I am concerned as I have grown tired of political 'things' sliding in. Anybody is free to PM me if I missed something or politics is being discussed and its not being addressed.

Also, I know GTA Staff wants this place to be a 'haven' for air guns for good reason.

BZ

[wimpanzee]

I've only seen one opossum on my property, and he was leaving, so I just let him go.

I saw a few in the woods while squirrel hunting...don't bother me and I don't bother them.

I don't really have a pest problem on my residence...I have to drive somewhere to shoot more than paper or steel...but we do have enough woods around the neighborhood to support a heard of deer, some foxes, and somewhere, apparently, some coyote, but the only thing I've ever seen in my yard is one whitetail and one opossum.

I guess everyone has their own set of ethics, I just mind my own...

[dv8eod]

Props to you guys that can stomach them. Personally, I can't stand the thought of eating a critter that will crawl inside a dead horse and take up residence. Kind of ranks right up there with eating a vulture.
We have one running around our neighborhood. I don't mind, but it's giving the neighbor two doors down fits.  He ain't caught on to cleaning up the dog food spread all around his yard.
Unless the scavenger is being a nuisance, I let them be. They provide a valuable service preventing diseases spreading from dead animals to living ones.

[stonykill]

 A friend of mine sent me that article in it's entirety. I can't find it now, but remember a lot of mis information in the article.

  A lot of critters eat ticks. Wild turkeys come to mind. Still we hunt and eat them.

  I kill possums as they kill my chickens, raid the nests of wild ducks and eat all of their eggs, raid the nests of grouse, woodcock, phesants, etc etc etc. Here on my land, there re more reasons to kill a possum than not too. And my wife has chronic lyme disease. As do several of my lifelong friends.

  To each there own. I'll continue to do my part to keep the possum population in balance.

[wwonka]

I say bring back DDT. I will leave the fate of possums and varmints up to you all, But we never had all this insect problem before the green hug a tree people took hold. I know the eagle!! and the bird eggs, on and on. thank you for the information.

Di-chloro Di-phenyl Tri-chloro Ethane (DDT)... kills eagles because it has a nasty way of remaining in animals (like Mercury, but worse) all the way up the food chain - until it reaches maximum lethal concentration in the Apex Predator. Eagles are an apex predator, which is why they were so harmed by DDT - but it would be in the entire food chain from pond scum to trout to beavers, on up.  I would think that hunters would be concerned about that. Also, there is another apex predator in the food chain - called humans. The countries that use DDT for malaria are doing so because malaria is killing more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined every year... so it is a desperate thing. I, for one, do not want my children splashing around in DDT ponds in the USA...

[mpbby]

Btw, "opossum" x "possum" ..

https://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/2015/Opossums.aspx

[Mod90]

Every critter has it's place and selective harvesting is key to keeping a balance as for C-rat's they too have their place but harvesting them when needed go's a long way in putting meat on my table. As with our GTA hunters here we harvest, kill to consume or remove a pest problem, never kill for the thrill. Ed

I couldnt have put it better myself brother.


my personal favorite is stewed possum with coconut dumplins & plantains. whoever doesnt want any, i aint mad at ya, more for me

[Austringer]

I personally see no reason to kill a possum except to eat it or skin it...unless it was killing my stock of any kind in which case it is history. I expect it tastes good although I've never tried any. Raccoon tastes good, but I wouldn't shoot one just to eat it.

As a kid, I caught a few in my traps. They were greasy, thin skinned and hardly worth skinning and putting up the fur as at the time they only fetched about 3 bucks. I wouldn't skin one for 20 now.

As I recall, they have 50 teeth...and a considerably smaller cranium than any of the other carnivore sculls I collected.

I see no reason to bring back DDT all things considered.

However, while completely unrelated, I do like pellet guns:)

Troy

[Air4All]

Props to you guys that can stomach them. Personally, I can't stand the thought of eating a critter that will crawl inside a dead horse and take up residence. Kind of ranks right up there with eating a vulture.
We have one running around our neighborhood. I don't mind, but it's giving the neighbor two doors down fits.  He ain't caught on to cleaning up the dog food spread all around his yard.
Unless the scavenger is being a nuisance, I let them be. They provide a valuable service preventing diseases spreading from dead animals to living ones.

Ditto, I still remember seeing 4 come out of a dead cow carcass in a pasture one time. As some say with sweet potatoes they are fine, but not on a plate of mine.

[39M]

We used to have quail and horny toads around here, but now we don't. Not sure if their decline was because of ddt, fire ants, increase in predators like c-rats and bandits, or loss of habitat.

[MicErs]

I say bring back DDT. I will leave the fate of possums and varmints up to you all, But we never had all this insect problem before the green hug a tree people took hold. I know the eagle!! and the bird eggs, on and on. thank you for the information.

Di-chloro Di-phenyl Tri-chloro Ethane (DDT)... kills eagles because it has a nasty way of remaining in animals (like Mercury, but worse) all the way up the food chain - until it reaches maximum lethal concentration in the Apex Predator. Eagles are an apex predator, which is why they were so harmed by DDT - but it would be in the entire food chain from pond scum to trout to beavers, on up.  I would think that hunters would be concerned about that. Also, there is another apex predator in the food chain - called humans. The countries that use DDT for malaria are doing so because malaria is killing more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined every year... so it is a desperate thing. I, for one, do not want my children splashing around in DDT ponds in the USA...

When I was a child on Guam in the late 50's the military came round every day at 5 pm spraying DDT in the housing area and all the children would run down the street following that vehicle playing in the clouds of DDT. We had no idea.  Maybe that is my problem?    Actually so far it appears not to have affected me.  Maybe I was lucky, I don't know.


On the other hand, the effect of DDT on Eagles was that it made the egg shells softer and the birds sitting the nest were breaking their eggs.  It almost wiped out the Eagles, and who knows what other bird species.