Opossum Removal

Opossums are one of the many nuisance wildlife that can cause big messes and damages to your property. These mammals are renowned diggers and will dig up piles of dirt on your lawn, creating burrows around your property and ruining your landscape.

Opossums prefer to live inside tree cavities, underground burrows, logs, and brush piles, but when they have access to attics and garages they gladly seize the opportunity. If an opossum finds its way into your building, it’s certain to leave some serious damage in its wake.

For instance, these animals will build nests in attics and garages and while at it, they can destroy attic insulation and tear out ductwork, they will also leave large piles of messy fecal matter. They feed on grains, fruits, and insects and will not hesitate to raid trash cans in search of discarded food.

When cornered, an opossum will bare its teeth and growl or screech in defense, they can also release an awful smelling liquid from their anal glands to scare off the intruder. Opossums will also play dead to trick an attacker and in very rare cases they will bite to defend themselves.

Excluding nuisance wildlife from your property requires skill, experience, and of course the license to do so. Removing animal pests from your home is better done before the breeding season rather than when they have little hungry mouths to feed. And for opossums, this is towards the end of fall and the beginning of winter.

Opossum removal is best done by live trapping using the appropriate baits and right cages. For an animal of its size, the appropriate cage should be about 30 to 40 inches in length and 12 inches in height. You can either use a 1-door cage or a 2-door cage, each has its advantages and they both work well when used properly with the right bait.

Placing the trap

To place the cage properly, you first have to find the opossum’s den and the location of the den will determine the most accurate way of placing the trap. For instance, if an opossum lives in the attic or garage, placing the trap may not be much of a challenge, but if the den is in the crawlspace or under the porch, this becomes a little challenging and you will have to use your intuition to ensure the trap is placed correctly. However, you have to ensure the trap is placed on an even surface and no less than 3 feet and no farther than 5 feet from the entrance.

Choosing a bait

Opossums eat fruits, grains, and insects, but not every one of these can act as a proper bait when trying to trap the animal. Baits such as fish, canned pet food, or apples are good and will lure in the animal, and ensure you place the bait so that the opossum will have to step on the trigger plate while going for the food. This way, the door of the cage will snap shut and the animal will be successfully trapped. If the bait isn’t placed appropriately and the opossum doesn’t step on the trigger plate, the door won’t close and the animal will not be trapped.

Setting your trap

Opossums are nocturnal animals; therefore, they go out to forage at night. With this information, opossum traps are best placed just before nightfall so that when it comes out to search for food, the bait will lure it in while the cage traps it. When you set your trap, it’s important to monitor it frequently, keep an eye on your trap to ensure that your catch isn’t left for too long in the cage. If you find nothing in the trap by morning, remove the trap and put it away.

Wildlife removal is safer, smoother, and more effective when professionals handle it. If opossums have taken shelter in your building, call us to get them out. Our experts at Norcal Wildlife Removal will get opossums on your property out and ensure they never return.

How to Get An Opossum out of Your Attic

As opossums become bolder in their interaction with humans and their homes, there have been many more situations that require opossum removal. Living with opossums is dangerous, as they present a wide variety of health risks, in addition to the property damage they cause. If you have an opossum that made its way into your attic, you will likely want to remove it, but you may not know how. Continue reading to learn more about how you can get opossums out of your attic. To learn more about opossums in the attic visit opossumattic.com

What Problems Can an Opossum Cause in my Attic?

While opossums might seem like lethargic creatures that do not do much harm, they can cause a wide variety of problems. The most serious problems they cause involve the diseases that they are often found to be carrying in abundance. Leptospirosis, tuberculosis, tularemia, spotted fever, and many other illnesses are often carried by opossums. These diseases can all cause serious harm, and possibly even death to humans and pets. Opossums can spread these diseases by directly biting or scratching a human. They can also be spread through an opossum’s feces or urine. Finally, any water, food, or even any surfaces that opossums contact with their saliva, feet, or hair can even hold these diseases.

On top of the health risks opossums present, there are also many different damages that opossums commonly cause. One of the more serious damages opossums can cause is creating large exit and entry points for themselves, which will allow many other nuisance animal species in. On top of these large problem areas, the insulation in the attic of homes will be destroyed by opossums, which can end up making your home less energy-efficient, costing you serious money. Finally, opossums love to create as much damage as possible, so do not be surprised if they even chew up lumber and drywall. As you can see, removing opossums from your attic is a very important thing to do as soon as possible in order to limit health exposure and property damage.

How Can I Remove Opossums from my Attic?

Taking a do-it-yourself approach when an opossum is in your attic might not be the best idea for a few reasons. The most important reason is that when an opossum gets into your attic, there are pretty good chances that it is a pregnant opossum that is preparing to have young. If the opossum has its babies in your attic and you remove the mother opossum, the babies will die and create foul odors throughout your home. In addition, many opossums are trap-shy and will not go into a cage trap or go out through a one-way door. Since these reasons can present problems, many homeowners prefer to hire a professional wildlife removal company. An expert will search your attic for any baby opossums and remove them, as well as the mother humanely.

If you would prefer, you can check your attic for baby opossums and perform the removal on your own. Try a cage trap, as they are completely humane. If the cage trap does not seem to work, you could try a one-way door, as this will let the opossum leave, but not come back in. Always be sure to wear the proper protective equipment to keep yourself safe from the diseases opossums carry.

Why Hire Norcal Wildlife Removal?

Here at Norcal Wildlife Removal, we have years of experience with removing nuisance wildlife of all kinds. Our humane wildlife removal techniques have been mastered over the course of years, and we know exactly how to remove animals humanely while keeping you and your family safe. Norcal Wildlife Removal is proud to serve San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco Counties. If you have a nuisance wildlife problem of any kind, give us a call today at Norcal Wildlife Removal.

Our service area:

Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco, Woodside, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Los Gatos, Los Altos, Campbell, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Francisco, etc.

How to Remove Opossums Under Porch

Most people find it hard to believe that creatures like Opossums (or Other Pests) live under their porch. If you consider that these little creatures are opportunistic, and like to stay close to any source of food, then you may even consider tearing out your Porch.

Opossums choose to live below your Porch for the simple reason that; there are many nutrient sources there. It is easy to scavenge for leftover pet foods, worms, trash, compost piles, and anything swept under the Porch. Therefore, they will prefer to stay under your Porch for a long time.

What do I do about Opossums under my Porch?

You don’t have to tear down your Porch unless there is an irredeemable size in the colony. However, you must understand that even in small numbers, Opossums are problematic.

They stink; causing an unpleasant odor throughout the home
They can kill your gardens, store, or plants
They can contaminate your foods
They are aggressive to pets
They can gnaw on wood or other cables beneath and lead to structural decay.

If you notice an opossum invasion in your home, the next step is to contact our professional services. It is suitable for the environment that you deploy a humane tactic to rid your property/porch of these animals.

Getting Rid of Opossums includes the following steps

Inspection of areas around the Porch

You should first confirm if they are only on the Porch and have not spread to other house areas. It can be difficult dealing with the Porch if they have already spread to other home areas.

Use Live traps

It is an efficient and humane way to ensure that opossums are relocated from your Porch to other house areas. Live traps trick Opossums into a waiting cage or bag to ensure they are conveyed to other regions.

You can get such traps from Pest control shops and install them near the Porch.

Opossum repellents

The Pets shops near you have various chemicals specially designed to repel Opossums. Rather than injure these animals, they make such areas uncomfortable for them. Some of these repellents can include DIY substances like;

Ammonia solution,
Predator’s Urine,
Mothballs

You can prepare it by soaking a rag in ammonia and tossing it close to the shed or under the Porch.

Take out the Trash

The most important part of keeping out Opossums is to prevent them from staying in such a region in the first place. Functional environmental sanitation is an excellent way to prevent these scavengers from inhabiting your property.

Also, the trash bags in your homes should be pest repellents or sprayed with such substances. And you should not place them too close to the houses (it can give the Opossums the idea of nesting there).

Close up all Access holes

While inspecting the areas around the house, it is important to cover up any hole, crack, or outlet that can aid these pests. The truth is that most pests cannot burrow their way in unless they see cracks or holes to usher them.

Use motion-detecting repellents

A practical method of controlling scavengers or pests is to inflict them with fear. Such a device will trigger a response by sprinkling water or flooding the area with lights when the Opossum enters.

It is also good for keeping out other kinds of Pests.

Conclusions

It can get overwhelming to tackle Opossum problems all by yourselves, and that is why we offer professional Pest removal services. We choose humane methods because we understand the impacts of these animals on our environment.

How to Keep Opossums Out Of Your Garbage Can?

Opossums are fascinating creatures. For one, they are the only marsupial in North America. Second, they are known for “playing dead” when threatened – and that’s where the phrase “playing possum” comes from.

While opossums may look docile, they can be very destructive and messy when they access garbage cans. But who can blame them? The promise of good food is enough to make even the best of us go gaga. In the same way, the garbage holds all kinds of foods that opossums cannot dream of having in the wild – from leftover pizza to an eclectic variety of organic fruits.

Unfortunately, if opossums have access to your garbage cans, they will litter your entire yard with rubbish. They can also destroy the can with their strong teeth. And in no time, they can build their nest underneath your house or in the attic to stay near this free food.

That’s why you need to keep them out of your garbage can now! Here’s how you do that:

Keep trash cans indoors (especially at night)

If you can, try to keep your garbage cans indoors. That way, opossums will be unable to get to them. Even if it is outdoors, consider bringing it indoors at night. Opossums are nocturnal creatures, so keeping your garbage cans indoors at night is a great way to keep opossums from getting access.

Use animal-proof garbage cans.

Ensure your garbage can is an impenetrable fortress. That’s why purchasing aluminum cans with a good lid is a great idea. We recommend metal cans because opossums and other wildlife can chew through plastic cans. But even more importantly, the lock must be secure at all times.

Secure the can with clamps or a locking system

Opossums have opposable thumbs and are incredibly dexterous. This means they can figure out how to open a poorly locked garbage can. As an added protection layer, it helps install a locking system on your garbage can. You can tie the lid of your can with a rope or secure the lid around the can’s handles. That way, opossums will be unable to enter.

Seal waste in plastic bags before throwing it into your garbage can.

Opossums have a fantastic sense of smell. They have 1,188 olfactory genes, compared to the 396 that humans have. This means they can smell food from a long distance. By tying your waste in plastic bags, you limit the odor they emit, reducing the probability of attracting opossums and other wildlife.

Apply repellents

Another great strategy is to apply repellents to your trash cans to deter opossums. Opossums dislike the scent of potent chemicals like ammonia and mothball. Consider using these chemicals around your garbage cans. Because these repellents quickly dissipate, they must be constantly reapplied to remain effective.

Eliminate other attractants

Attractants like easy access to food and shelter will draw opossums to your house. And it’s only a matter of time before they find their way into your trash cans. That’s why you must keep your property unattractive to opossums. Some of the suggestions to bear in mind include:

Eliminate covers like brush piles and wood piles that can potentially serve as hiding spots.
Do not leave pet food outside, especially at night
Sweep away bird seeds from underneath your bird feeder.
Keep your garden clean at all times.
Get rid of abandoned objects from your yard.
Seal all potential entry holes underneath your house or any other building section