Wildlife division · Opossums
The opossum is rarely the problem.
Possums move between dens constantly and usually move on by themselves. The gap that let one under your deck or into your attic does not — and it is almost always a gap something else made first. That is the part worth fixing.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front
Where they turn up around Fredericksburg
Opossums are everywhere in this part of Virginia and most of the time you never know it. The calls come when one has picked somewhere inconvenient to spend the day.
- Under a deck, shed or porch — the most common by a wide margin, usually through a gap in the skirting or an old burrow somebody else dug
- Crawlspaces — through a failed foundation vent or a door that no longer seals
- Attics and garages — less common, and a bigger signal, because the opening has to be substantial
- Rubbish disturbed overnight, or pet food going missing off a porch
- Droppings noticeably larger than a rat's, often in the same spot
- A heavy, unhurried shuffling at night rather than the scurrying of a rodent
Not sure what you are hearing? The pace is the clue — possums are slow and deliberate where rodents are quick. Call (826) 203-0343 and describe it.
Why your house
It did not make the hole. It found one.
This is the thing worth understanding before you pay anyone anything. An opossum is a reasonably large animal with no real digging ability and no interest in chewing through your soffit. It gets in the way anything else would: through an opening that already existed.
So when we are called to an opossum in an attic, the question we are actually there to answer is what made the hole. Frequently the answer is a raccoon, sometimes it is a squirrel that started something the weather finished, and sometimes it is a gable vent that failed two winters ago. The opossum is the animal that happened to walk through the door, and treating it as the whole job leaves the door open.
They are transient, and that is genuinely useful
Opossums do not hold a territory or maintain a den the way a raccoon or a squirrel does. They use somewhere for a few nights and move on. That means a great many opossum situations resolve themselves, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a removal you did not need.
What does not resolve itself is the opening, and the next thing through it may be considerably less easygoing.
The exception worth taking seriously
A female with young on her back is not going anywhere quickly, and forcing the issue goes badly. If what you have seen is carrying passengers, say so when you call — it changes the timing and it changes the approach.
How we handle it
Find the opening, not just the animal
A full look at the roofline, the deck skirting, the foundation vents or whatever applies, because the entry point is the actual deliverable. You get photographs of what we find.
Let it leave where it will
Which, with an opossum, is most of the time. Where there is a clear way out and nothing holding it there, the right answer is usually to make leaving the easy option and let it take it. Where that is not the situation — young involved, or an animal that cannot get out of where it has got into — we deal with it directly and tell you what we are doing.
Then close what it used
Steel, not foam or filler. Under a deck or shed that usually means a dig barrier along the structure; at a roofline it is ordinary exclusion and repair work, and if the original hole was a raccoon's then it needs closing to a standard that keeps raccoons out rather than merely possums.
Exclusion work carries a 1-year warranty unless we have discussed otherwise.
Opossum questions we get asked
Is it dangerous? It hissed at me.
Hissing, drooling, gaping its mouth open and eventually keeling over are a bluff — that display is essentially the whole defensive repertoire, and 'playing possum' is not a figure of speech. It does not want a confrontation. That said, do not corner one, do not handle it, and keep the dog away from it.
It looks like it's dead.
Quite possibly it is not. An opossum under real stress goes rigid and unresponsive and can stay that way for a surprisingly long time before getting up and leaving. Give it space and time before assuming anything.
Will it leave on its own?
Often, yes — which is genuinely the answer and not us talking ourselves out of work. Opossums move between dens constantly and rarely settle anywhere for long. If one is under the deck with an easy way out and nothing keeping it there, it will usually move on. What will not move on is the opening, and that is the part worth paying someone for.
Then why call you at all?
Because it got in somehow. An opossum is a fairly large animal that does not chew or dig its way into much, so it is usually using a gap that was already there — one something else made, or one that has been open long enough that you stopped noticing. Finding that is the job. The animal is a symptom.
There's one in my attic.
Then the opening is a significant one, because an opossum is not getting through a mouse hole or a torn vent screen. Something larger has been at work, most often a raccoon, and it is worth finding out what rather than assuming the opossum is the whole story. We inspect the roofline for the actual point of entry.
Can you relocate it?
No. Virginia does not permit releasing a trapped nuisance animal elsewhere, whatever competitors promise. Where an opossum will leave of its own accord we set things up so it does, and then close the way back in.
Related
Possum under the deck, or in the attic?
Worth finding out what made the opening before you close the book on it.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front