|
|
Opossum Removal & Control Services
The Opossum can adapt to human environments easily and usually by choice. In human environments Opossum can adapt easily due to the abundance of food and shelter. Humans provide food sources such as bird feeders, trash cans, and pet food bowls that are replenished regularly. Urban landscapes provide attractive nuts, buds, and fruits from trees that Opossum will favor. Once an Opossum has found a prevalent food source it will look for a den site that is relatively close to that food source. Your home is the den site due to increases in urbanization or land development in Opossum inhabited areas, and the overpopulation of Opossums in these areas does not help. Loose foundation vents, drain pipes, and low laying decks or porches are the most common den locations around your home. Opossums are very mild mannered, nocturnal or nighttime animals. Most people think they are vicious because of their hiss and grin pose when they are threatened. Their droppings and urine leave a lingering odor, not to mention a biohazard in crawl spaces and attics. As long as we continue to urbanize and provide an abundance of food to the Opossum they will continue to adapt to human environments and pose a threat to homes and human health.
If you need Opossum removal services, Blue Ridge Wildlife Management, LLC is here to help you. Please Contact Us to help solve your problem.
Trapping Techniques
Professional grade single door live capture traps are used to trap opossums damaging landscapes. These traps are placed next to the damage areas on your property. Like all of our traps for other animals these traps are covered with a custom galvanized sheet metal cover. Opossums appear to be aggressive by the site of their teeth and hissing, but in reality they are very docile animals.
Damage and Damaged Areas
Urban environments offer the ideal place for opossums to thrive due to their biological habits and their ability to live in man made landscapes. Vacated burrows created by other animals, such as striped skunks and woodchucks, offer a great home for opossums. Low lying decks or shrubs are at times convenient to them as well. They create more of a nuisance to people than damage to your property. Most of the damage created by opossums is found in crawl spaces and occasionally in an attic. The opossum is the most common animal that we find in homes and businesses when a dead animal odor is sensed. Loose or missing foundation vents can lead to costly clean out and deodorizing services due to their droppings and urine smell. Opossums tend to pull the insulation down in crawl spaces looking for nesting areas that lead to costly repairs as well. Their foraging habits can eliminate thousands of dollars in ornamentals around your home and vegetable gardens.
 |
|
 |
| Dead Opossum under house trailer. |
|
Opossum feces on insulation. |
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Install burial fencing to keep opossums from living under a porch. |
|
|
Health Concerns
Health concerns related to the opossums include the parasites fleas, ticks, mites, lice, roundworms, and tapeworms. The opossum can also serve as a reservoir for protozoan, fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases. See the Virginia Department of Health web site for information on these parasites and diseases.
Identification
Opossum
(Didelphis virginiana) Order Marsupialia
Description:
Overgrown rat with 50 teeth.
Body Size:
- Males may be more than twice the size of females at the same age.
- Ave. Length (Adult): 24” – 34” from nose to tip of tail.
- Ave. Weight (Adult): 4 - 15 lbs.
- Young at Birth: ½” long, blind, incomplete development except well formed claws on front legs, attached to teats inside pouch on mother around 60 days.
- 60 Days: About the size of a full grown mouse, eyes and mouth open and will release from mothers teat.
- 80 Days: About the size of an adult rat, will leave pouch for short periods of time, can be seen riding mothers back.
- 100 Days: Weaned from mother and are less than 24” long.
Fur Color:
Single hair is pure white to white with a black tip, total appearance being grayish white, pink nose with a white face, ears are mostly black and hairless, eyes are black, tail is black at base becoming pink, feet are pink to white.
Voice & Sounds:
Low growls or hissing noises and chattering of teeth when disturbed.
Tracks:
Often confused with a raccoon.
Scat:
Varies with diet.
Reproduction
Time of Year: (Twice a year.) December to February and May to August
Gestation: 12 - 13 days.
Young Born: January to March and May to September
Number of Young Born: 5 - 13
Average Reproductive Age: 1 year
Weaning: 2 ½ months. Independent at 3 ½ months.
Other Information
Habitat:
Wooded areas, farm land and suburbs close to water.
Home:
They may have several. Typically another animals shelter, a hollow tree, cavities in rocks, brush piles, and even a trash pile will keep them cozy. They do not dig burrows. They use other animal’s burrows.
Home Range:
Aabout 40 acres.
Food:
Just about any dead animal remains, insects, berries, corn, dog food, cat food, and any table scrapes you throw away.
Habits:
Nocturnal. Active year round.
Hibernation:
They do not hibernate. Active regardless of the temperature.
Average Life Span:
1 1/2 years in the wild and up to 7 years in captivity. Most of the young will die in their first year of life.
Defense:
When threatened they will expose their teeth, salivate, emit a fowl smelling green fluid from their anal glands, and or fake death “Playing Opossum”.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you charge for opossum services?
- Yes. We are not funded by your local, state or federal government. We are a private business and must charge for our services.
- See our Services page or Contact Us for pricing.
Do you guarantee your opposum service?
- We guarantee that you will receive the most courteous, honest, and professional wildlife management service in southwest Virginia or its FREE!
- See Warranty page for more details.
What does the price per opossum fee cover?
- Cost effective to the customer knowing that we may not catch two or more opossum every trip.
- The price per opossum fee covers us coming out, removing the contaminated trap and opossum from your property, re-setting a clean trap with fresh bait, disposal of the opossum, cleaning and disinfecting the contaminated trap for the next customer.
How do you prevent from catching non-target animals?
- Most urban nuisance animals have adapted to eating anything but what they biologically should eat.
- We use species specific paste baits, but they do not always work the way they should.
- We try our best to set the traps in the area where the opossums are traveling.
Do you charge for non-target animals?
- Yes we do. We still have to come out, release the animal if needed or remove the contaminated trap and animal from your property, re-set a clean trap with fresh bait, disposal of the animal if needed, clean and disinfect the contaminated trap for the next customer.
- It is the customers' decision to have us remove or release non-target animals.
- See our Per Animal Fee page for more details.
What if the trap is stolen?
- The customer is responsible for the trap. If the trap is set in an area that you feel like it will get stolen, please let us know so that we can move it or anchor it to the ground.
- There is a replacement fee for stolen traps.
Can I release non-target animals myself?
- No. There is a chance that the animal could turn and bite you.
- See our Per Animal Fee page for more details.
Do I have to sign a contract agreement?
- Yes. In order to protect you and our company a contract must be signed.
- Our contracts spell out the services to be provided, as well as our guarantee and warranties.
- You should not do work with a company that is not willing to back up their work in writing.
- See our Contract page for more details.
How many traps will you set?
- We set a minimum of two professional grade single door humane live capture traps.
Why are the traps covered?
- We have rigid metal covers fabricated to cover the top, sides and bottom of the trap for several reasons.
- To prevent anybody from getting sprayed by a non-target striped skunk.
- The top and sides are to protect the opossum from the weather.
- The bottom is covered to help reduce any urine or feces from being left on your property. It also reduces damage that the opossum can create by trying to dig its way out of the trap.
- This cover also prevents curious people that may pass by from seeing the opossum in the trap.
- It also reduces stress to the opossum while it is in the trap because it feels protected and unseen.
- We do not use cloth material to cover our traps because the wind may blow it off and the opossum will usually pull the cloth into the trap leaving it uncovered.
- See our Animal Care page for more details.
Do you put enough food and water in the traps for the opossum in case you cannot get to it right a way?
- Yes. There is plenty of food for the opossum.
- Yes. In the warmer months we will attach water bottles to the traps if necessary. We like to place the traps in shaded areas to reduce heat and dehydration.
Will you inspect my crawl space?
- Yes, we will needed to inspect the crawl space to look for any biohazards (fecal matter) once the opossums have been removed.
- See our Biohazards page for more details.
Can you remove the insulation from my crawl space?
- Yes, we offer insulation cleanout and installation services.
- See our Biohazards page for more details.
Can you deodorize my crawl space where the opossum nested?
- Yes, we offer deodorizing services.
- Sometimes it is necessary to remove the insulation that got the direct hit from the urine and feces.
- See our Odor Control page for more details.
How long is the opossum service fee good for?
- Your contract will specify the time period that it is good for, which is usually a minimum of 30 days.
- If the opossums have not been caught in 30 days, which is rare, we will leave the traps out as long as it takes to catch them at no additional service fee cost.
How long does your standard opossum service last once you pull the traps?
- Our standard service fee is usually a minimum of 30 days. Once we pull the traps or after the opossums have been captured, we will re-set the traps if another opossum is seen within one week.
Why did you pull the traps before 30 days?
- Once the opossums have been captured and we have not had any captures or you have not seen any in a week we will pull the traps. Leaving the traps set will only increase the chances of capturing non-target animals.
- See our Per Animal Fee page for more details on non-target animals.
- You also have the option of purchasing the optional service warranty.
- See our Optional Service Warranty page for more details.
Will you repair the damaged areas to prevent future problems with opossums?
- Yes. We will inspect the ground level area of structure to find the current problem area(s), as well as any potential problems areas that should be repaired. We will give you an itemized estimate of these repairs and prices in your contract. You have the option to do what repairs you feel comfortable with. We will only recommend repairs that we feel are important to prevent future problems.
- See our Repairs page for more details.
Do you warranty your opossum repairs?
- All of our warranties have a one-year minimum.
- See our Warranty page for more details.
How long does your optional service warranty last for opossums?
- Till December 31st of that calendar year.
- See our Optional Service Warranty page for more details.
What is covered in my optional service warranty fee for opossums?
- Once the target animal(s) have been captured or we pull the traps the optional service warranty period will start.
- This warranty will cover coming out, setting traps, re-baiting as long as it takes to catch the opossums and the per opossum fee.
- See our Optional Service Warranty page for more details.
Will you renew your optional service warranty?
- No. January 1st of the next calendar year will require a discounted service fee, plus price per opossum service fee.
- See our Warranty page for more details.
What does exclusion mean?
- It is a technique where damaged areas or possible penetration points are made uninhabitable or penetrable to the opossum.
- See our Repairs page for more details.
How often do you re-bait the traps?
- Every 1 to 5 days depending on the time of year and weather.
- We like to keep the bait as fresh or not dried up as possible. If you feel like the trap needs bait or you do not see the bait in the trap, call us and we will send someone out to re-bait it as soon as possible.
How soon can you set the traps?
- We will typically set the traps the day you call.
- We always have traps available.
- We carry the necessary traps needed in our trucks daily on a seasonal basis to better service the customer the day they call.
- We do not like to put anything off until tomorrow.
How often do you check the traps?
- State law requires that the traps are checked daily.
- We ask you as the customer to check the traps and notify us when we have an animal in the trap.
- By the customer checking the traps, this will eliminate additional costs to the customer and it will also speed up the removal process.
How do I get in touch with the technician once an animal is trapped?
- The contract has our office number on it as well as our business card.
- Our secretary will notify the technician.
- See the Contact Us section for more details.
We live out of town and cannot check the traps everyday?
- We can provide a complete service to you.
- If this is a rental property we can contact the tenants and ask them to check the traps if necessary.
We are going out of town next week and do not have anybody that can check the traps daily?
- We will make arrangements to have our technicians check the traps for you.
- An additional cost may be incurred.
Will you pick up trapped animals on the weekend and holidays?
- Yes, we work on the weekends.
- We typically shut the traps down for holidays so that the customer does not have to be bothered with checking them.
How long does it take for a technician to pick up an animal once I have called it in?
- We will make every effort we can to pick up the animal and re-set a trap as soon as possible.
- We often have two to three trucks out at a time and the secretary will notify the closest technician to your property.
Where do you relocate the animals?
- Our permit only allows us to relocate squirrels.
What do you do with the animal after you catch it?
- Our permit allows us to transport the live animals to another location to be euthanized.
- Relocating a opossum may risk the chance of spreading parasites or disease to an uninfected area.
How do you euthanize the animals or put them to sleep?
- There are several ways to euthanize an animal. We use the most humane methods approved by the American Veterinary Association.
What if a opossum is trapped when you come out to re-bait?
- We will call you or leave a note on your door that we picked up an animal.
What types of bait do you use?
- We use specialty paste baits that are formulated for opossums designed by professionals in our industry for professionals
How many traps will you set?
- We set a minimum of two traps, more if available.
- See our Trapping page for more details.
Where do you set the traps?
- As close to the damage area as possible.
Can the opossum get out of the trap?
- No. We use a professional grade trap with doors that lock once they close.
How much are the repairs?
- We will inspect the ground level areas of the structure to find the current problem area(s), as well as any potential problems areas that should be repaired. We will give you an itemized estimate of these repairs and prices in your contract. You have the option to do what repairs you feel comfortable with. We will only recommend repairs that we feel are important to prevent future problems.
- See our Repairs page for more details.
|
