Are You Attracting Opossums To Your Durham Yard?

If you've seen a nest in your attic, garage, or crawl space, your first thought might be mice or rats. However, you could have opossums in your house if it's a larger nest. It is best to leave opossum control to professionals because of the threats opossums can cause. Call a professional Durham pest control company immediately for help removing these Durham wildlife pests.

Habits And Behaviors Of Opossums 

Opossums are nocturnal, which means they're only active at night. They prefer to live alone unless they're breeding. They normally have two or three litters every year, and each litter has about seven young. The babies stay in their mother's pouch after birth and leave when they're two to three months old to find their own homes – which they can find by swimming or climbing if need be.

Typically, opossums make their nests in hollow trees or logs, brush piles, mounds of debris, and the burrows of other animals. They're also happy to become your new roommates, whether that be in your house or in an outbuilding. You don't want to tangle with opossums. Instead, you should call for professional wildlife control in Durham to take care of the problem for you.

All The Problems Opossums Can Create Around Your Property

If an opossum makes its way into your Durham house, it can easily wreak havoc on your insulation and ductwork as it creates its nest. It can cause big problems in your yard as well, as it digs for food. Also, if you have chickens in your yard, opossums can kill them.

Opossums rarely have rabies, though when they "play possum" in reaction to a perceived threat, they will fall over, let foamy saliva leak from their mouth, and produce a nasty-smelling liquid from their anal glands. That gives many people the impression they have rabies.

Even though they may not have rabies, opossums carry other diseases they can pass on to humans, including leptospirosis, tuberculosis, and tularemia. If you startle them badly enough, opossums may bare their teeth and hiss and, in some cases, even bite. These reactions are why you need a professional wildlife removal company to get rid of them.

What Kind Of Things Attract Opossums To Your Yard

Opossums prefer to eat fruits, grains, and bugs, but they're perfectly content to eat anything in your garden or that drop from trees into your yard. Make sure you're keeping up with any fruit or nuts that fall from your trees. 

Opossums also love your pet's food, so make sure you bring it inside in the evenings. Do the same with the water bowl. Opossums will take any opportunity to eat and drink, so removing those possibilities will help keep them at bay.

As a wildlife control company, we also have a few more suggestions to opossum-proof your yard:

• Cut back tree branches, so they're at least eight feet from your house. Opossums are powerful jumpers.
• Put locking lids on your compost bin and outdoor trash cans. Put a cinder block or another heavy object inside your trash cans to ensure they won't tip over.
• Take down your bird feeders and remove your birdbaths.
• Install mesh under your decks and outbuildings to keep opossums from nesting underneath them.

The Most Effective Wildlife Control For Your Property

You want to have the most effective opossum control in Durham at your disposal when dealing with this furry little problem. North Carolina laws around trapping, releasing, or killing opossums are murky at best. You need a professional local wildlife removal company like The Eco Man Pest Solutions, LLC working with you because they know and abide by the laws.

Eco Man Pest Solutions has over 25 years of experience in the pest control business. Our trained professionals work with you to provide innovative, eco-friendly solutions to your opossum problem. We also use Integrated Pest Management to remove your opossums safely and humanely. Reach out today to request your free quote and learn more about our residential and commercial pest control services in Durham.