A possum in my backyard is doing something weird

[LeftInTX]

It is picking up dead cast iron leaves and curling them up in his/her tail.

The leaves look like a huge bundle of sticks all wrapped around its tail.
There must have been at least a dozen in that tail!
I can't get a pic cuz of window glare.

I assume it's a female and has joeys somewhere.

[Solly Mack]

1. Building/reinforcing a nest. They collect with their tails.

They can have babies from around mid-July to mid-January.

[LeftInTX]

2. Thanks

Those cast iron leaves are kinda bulky and it sure looked funny!

[Solly Mack]

3. I love watching opossums. They're clean freaks.

I got it backwards, mid-winter to mid-summer, not the other way around.

They do keep a yard safe for pets and people by eating insects that can cause harm - deer ticks.

[Rollo]

4. I agree. They also eat slugs and snails...

So possums don't bother me.

Raccoons, on the other hand...

[Solly Mack]

5. Raccoons present a challenge but I still love them too.

My biggest beef is with the armadillos. They root around my flower beds, destroying them in their search of larvae and tasty roots.

Still, once one rears back on his hind quarters and throws up his T-Rex arms in a bid to intimidate you, you laugh and replant on the morrow.

It's their world, I just live in it.

[LeftInTX]

6. I don't like raccoons

We're always cleaning our roof, cuz they turned it into a latrine.
We had to bolt our chimney flap for good.
They figure out how to open it.
Having a fireplace down here is senseless..lol

[Solly Mack]

7. We had to build a shed for our trash cans to keep them out. So far, so good.

It's a pain the ass though. Can't simply toss trash bags into the outside container anymore. It's become a process.

Haven't gotten into the house yet. Come to the porches and look about though. Mostly they hang out by the big trees and bird feeders.

[LeftInTX]

9. Fortunately they have not gotten into the garbage

We have those city supplied bins. I think if raccoons succeed, they may have trouble getting out!
We only take our garbage to the bins the night before pick up and promptly take them to the curb!

We have a rat problem here.. and that is why we keep our garbage in the house until pickup.

My son called an exterminator and he caught 8 rroof rats in one night in his attic. The next night he caught 4. My son's house is over 90 years old.

[Solly Mack]

19. They leave when my dogs begin barking, so that helps.

I enjoy watching them. I don't tend to find them an annoyance, probably because we haven't suffered any sort of major damage.

I've always held the view that I'm intruding on their habitat. I don't try to harm them and I take precautions against them harming me. I don't pet them or encourage contact. Same with all the critters that come onto my property.

I keep my dogs and cats safe and allow the wild to be wild. I do make an exception for poisonous snakes. I call animal control when I have to, a no-kill trapper who removes the snake to a more wooded area. But if I should have to, I'd kill to protect my dogs, cats, my family.

I'd hate myself for killing an animal though. No matter the circumstances.

Whoops. Didn't mean to get so heavy. Sorry.

[safeinOhio]

13. Raccoons carry a round worm that is dangerous to people.

On the other hand possums don't carry rabies like mammals can.

[Laffy Kat]

25. They also carry canine distemper. nt

[mahina]

8. Why I love DU #7,689

Possums. Armadillos w t-Rex arms. Possums again. Raccoons!

We have none of these animals but we do have some wild wallabies

[Solly Mack]

17. I'd love to have wallabies!

The more critters the merrier.

[mahina]

22. I vote for wombats

George ❤️

[Solly Mack]

24. Yes!

Wombat belly rubs!

[man4allcats]

14. They also eat ticks and keep snakes away.

Possums are our friends.

[Solly Mack]

18. Yes! They are friends. Very good ones. And I happen to find them so ugly they're cute.

Adorable even.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. And they kill, eat copperheads. Very helpful. ❤ nt

[LeftInTX]

11. wow

[littlemissmartypants]

12. Yep. ❤ nt

[calimary]

15. Sounds good to me! Used to watch them lumbering across the back yard.

We had an apricot tree back there. One late afternoon when it was starting to get dark, I was picking apricots and noticed a big fat raccoon on the other side of the tree, availing itself of apricots. We both stopped “working” for a moment and looked at each other. Neither of us made a move. Then it felt as though we’d both sized each other up, decided there was no hostile or threatening behavior manifesting, and we each slowly resumed “working”. And we worked that tree for several minutes, across from each other until the raccoon evidently satisfied his appetite and slowly wandered away.

It was the coolest little “encounter”!

[littlemissmartypants]

16. I may have been unclear. Opossum kill and eat copperheads.

I don't know about racoons. I do know they can get big and are very solid. I had an unfortunate experience with three of them on my way back from election day, that did over $1000 worth of damage to the front end of my car. Sadly, I don't know the fate of the racoons and feel really bad about hitting them.

[pansypoo53219]

20. ahhhh, years ago i saw a big possum in our compost w/ leaves on its ass.

[LeftInTX]

23. Ha!.Never knew it was a "thing" until last night.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. I don't think they are terribly bright. I had to have my furnace ducts

re-insulated in the very low crawl spaces of my 162 yr.-old house. The workers discovered 3 possum skeletons down there. Said they got in and couldn't find their way back out and starved.