While some nuisance animals have at least one redeeming feature, the opossum does not. Its only distinction is being the one marsupial  native to the US. It is as large as a house cat and has a rat-like pink tail. It is an opportunistic forager, viewing your garbage cans as a fine grocery store.

To invade your home, it will enlarge an existing hole in a wall by chewing it. They are lured by the scent of your pet’s food dish. If one should die in your attic, the resulting bio-hazard will put the whole family in danger. It is extremely difficult to get rid of this unattractive pest. When you do, you will have large piles of feces to clean up.

Sylvia and Jean met on the back patio to commiserate with each other. They both had their garbage cans opened during the night and were disgusted at the mess found in the morning.

“I spotted a gigantic rat in the yard right after sunset,” Sylvia said to her next-door neighbor.

“It might have been a opossum. They’re really ugly.”

“I’m kinda scared to go clean up the mess,” Sylvia shuddered at the thought of getting up close and personal with a rat or a possum.

“I never expected to find a scared opossum in my Charlotte North Carolina back yard.”

“I know. What’s next a sneaky raccoon in my Charlotte NC Home? Maybe we shouldn’t have moved down south.”

Jean wanted to call a pest removal service. “Let’s have one come out and check both our houses. They give free estimates.”

When he arrived they asked if he would kill the animal or trap it and release it. “I don’t like the idea of poisoning it,” Sylvia said.

They were alarmed when told the opossum reproduces at an alarming rate of three litters a year.

“How soon can you set the traps?”

They made the arrangements immediately.

“We had to do it. One family had a raccoon in their attic. It chewed up their insulation and some electrical wires.”

I don’t mind as long as they trap it without hurting it and take it someplace else. As the animal control guy said, “We don’t kill em we just get them off your property.”