While in some states in the USA it is legal to shoot and kill or trap and kill a possum. In Ontario, you are not allowed unless the animal has already caused severe damage to your home in the form of a costly repair. Most if not all native wildlife is protected by strict rules and the safest thing to do is to not attempt to harm them as you could suffer a severe fine. However, they are a shockingly large issue as they are very dirty animals, eating rotting meat left by another animal and dragging it into their nest which could be under your porch or even in your attic. They tend to create terrible smells and live in their own feces and urine. This is essentially the same as having a raccoon in your attic, only smaller. They are outdoor hunters so living in the attic is for nesting, not for finding food in your home. They will go outside and find insects, fruit, preferably rotting as well as whatever they can get out of the garbage. They will eat your pet food and any human food you leave outside and they have at times killed smaller animals for sustenance so they are a danger to your pets. If you have a possum on your property then it can be resolved domestically, however, if the animal has entered your attic or another part of the interior of your home then you will need to call a commercial wildlife technician unless you have roofing and exclusion experience.
Possums are a type of animal called a marsupial. They are not rodents like most people would assume, like mice, rats and squirrels. Though the differences are minor. Marsupials are most known for their parenting. When a female gives birth to pups they are immobile and underdeveloped, like humans. They must carry the young until they are old enough to move around and hunt on their own. At that point, the young will leave and find their own home as possums are extremely independent loners. That is one reason why you will never find two adult possums on your property unless it is the mating season. They would more likely try to kill each other. Possums can give birth to a massive number of children at once, and they do it twice a year. A possum can give birth to up to 17 pups at a time and averages at around ten. While they will leave when they are older they will be there as youths and will add to the damage and disarray of your yard and home. It is an especially bad situation when the possum lives in your attic and then produces a litter while nesting there. The mess would become massive as ten to eighteen possums defecate for weeks in your attic while the mother pulls in rotting animal carcasses and garbage from your own garbage cans. This will not just involve full attic remediation when you get them out, you may need to have a new ceiling installed along with a whole new roof.
The best way to deal with a possum in your yard is to trap it using a humane animal trap sized for the possum in question or to scare it away and, generally, make your lawn a place no possum wants to be. There are a large number of ways of doing this and every way is different. To prevent possums from coming to your home or property start by sealing your garbage bags in tight containers with tight-fitting lids that lock. It should not break open if it is tipped over as this is how possums access the garbage. You will also want to make sure you do not put meat, eggs or fats into your compost pile as this will attract all kinds of animals to your property. If you have had rodents or other burrowing animals on your property fill their burrows in and pack them down hard. Possums rarely make their own burrows and prefer to find old burrows from other animals. If you fill them all they will have nowhere to live and will move on. If you try to trap them you have to make sure that you clean and sterilize the trap after every capture. Possums, like rats, have a great sense of smell and can identify the smell of a dead, scared or suffering possum on your traps.
The best way to deal with possums is not to capture them but to make them run away. You can do this with new electronic devices that can blast sounds to scare off intruding animals, a bright spotlight using motion detection which can also set off the sprinklers, soaking the animal to the bone and sending them off to another yard. This is the most effective method and the devices are affordable and easy to install. Another method many people try is repellents like animal urine, just remember if you are in an urban environment or even in a subdivision the chance that this animal has come in contact with a real predator is thin. Stick to the strobe lights and leave the urine on the shelf.
