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Don't Kill Those Possums
#7389967
12/30/18 05:01 AM
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Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 495
HS2
OP
Bird Dog
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OP
Bird Dog
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 495 |
Well, who'd a thunk it? It turns out the lowly possum serves a benefit. Possums: Killers of Ticks
Podcast: Reasoning Through the Bible ReasoningThroughTheBible.com
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390037
12/30/18 12:26 PM
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 19,638
Pitchfork Predator
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Great info
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390045
12/30/18 12:58 PM
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 43,769
Stub
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They will get a pass from me from now on "I had no suspicion they'd be such efficient tick-killing animals," Ostfeld said.
Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)
Extrapolating from their findings, Ostfeld said, the team estimated that in one season, an opossum can kill about 5,000 ticks.
What ecologists are learning is how complex the interaction of ticks and mammals can be.
For example, foxes probably serve as a host for ticks seeking a blood meal. But foxes are great at killing white-footed mice -- the species in the environment credited with being the chief reservoir of the Lyme bacteria.
Likewise, Ostfeld said, opossums, waddling around at night, pick up lots of ticks. Some ticks end up getting their blood meal from the possum. But more than 90 percent of them ended up being groomed away and swallowed.
"They're net destroyers of ticks," Ostfeld said.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390053
12/30/18 01:14 PM
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 22,630
Cast
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I’ve always given them a pass.
Cast I have a short attention spa
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390068
12/30/18 01:35 PM
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Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 14,948
don k
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Around here I haven't see a tick in years. The fire ants have wiped them out.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390099
12/30/18 02:15 PM
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 9,942
Old Rabbit
THF Trophy Hunter
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THF Trophy Hunter
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Posts: 9,942 |
In the woods they get a pass, around the chicken coop all bets are off.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390108
12/30/18 02:25 PM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 2,316
White Falcon
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I give them a pass or relocate them, depends how I feel at the time.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390555
12/30/18 10:01 PM
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 5,558
Slow Drifter
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They get a pass from me. When I first built the house I'm in now we found a possum on the back porch about weekly, so often I kept a "possum stick" on the back porch. A hand snare made of PVC pipe and a piece of rope, and a possum cage we nick-named the "Drunk Tank" after George Jones. (points if you get that reference). I'd drop the open cage in a creek bank on the way to work and pick up the (hopefully) empty cage on the way home.
I had no idea what the tick-eaters they are, I've just always thought they were so ugly they're cute. And yes, I have seen them crawl out of dead cows.
"I have no idea what WW-III will be fought with, but WW-IV will be fought with sticks and stones." A. Einstein
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390576
12/30/18 10:21 PM
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 26,546
JCB
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I catch them all the time when trying to catch the feral cats around here. Just open the cage and let them go.
Let my Lab out one morning and she brought me back one with a bunch of babies. Had to round them all up and give them back to thier momma who was unharmed by the Lab.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390589
12/30/18 10:34 PM
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Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 25,138
Creekrunner
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'Jury's still out on whether they eat quail eggs. 'Kill 'em all 'til I know for sure.
...and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 1:28
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390652
12/30/18 11:20 PM
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,109
Ranch Dawg
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Drivers in Mt Vernon didn't give them a pass this weekend,,saw several dead in the middle of the road.
THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER AND THE PARTY NEVER ENDS.
F##K YOU JOE BIDEN !!!!!
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390740
12/31/18 01:17 AM
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 11,655
colt45-90
Texas colt45
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Texas colt45
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 11,655 |
and fox's, they eat the rodents ect that host the ticks
hold on Newt, we got a runaway
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390751
12/31/18 01:30 AM
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 11,857
Simple Searcher
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With these tic eating animals and animals that eat animals with tics... why do we still have tics? I blame pigs, it is always the pigs.
"Man is still a hunter, still a simple searcher after meat..." Robert C. Ruark
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390753
12/31/18 01:32 AM
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 2,810
RattlesnakeDan
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Oh they eat quail and eggs I assume. Raised quail and the stinky buggers would reach through the chicken wire and grab hold of a quail and eat him alive while pulling chunks out of them. I kill em'.
Just like Jesus, sometimes you gotta kill some hogs. Lone Star Mesquite . com RattleSnake Dan's Shredding Service
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390788
12/31/18 02:00 AM
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 1,670
Walkabout
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Yeah they prolly do attract a lot of ticks. I seriously doubt that they can remove the majority of tick infestation on their body as they simply cannot lick most of their body surface. The data from the study would seem to indicate these critters are highly infested with ticks.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390940
12/31/18 06:12 AM
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 65,416
SnakeWrangler
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My wife has a “pet” one that lives in the creek behind the house. Fat little sucker, well fed on table scraps...
I believe in science and I’m an insufferable [censored] Actually, BBC is pretty damn good "You Cannot Simultaneously Be Politically Correct And Intellectually Honest!"
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7390981
12/31/18 12:17 PM
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Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 3,457
redhaze
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7391280
12/31/18 04:53 PM
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 11,912
ntxtrapper
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No free pass from me. I control their population just like coons.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7391283
12/31/18 04:54 PM
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 7,402
TooLow
THF Trophy Hunter
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Posts: 7,402 |
Always give them and dillos passes
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7391297
12/31/18 05:14 PM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 4,459
majekman
Extreme Tracker
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Posts: 4,459 |
No reason to kill something if I’m not going to eat it and I’ve tried possum ONCE....never again.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: TooLow]
#7391299
12/31/18 05:16 PM
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 65,416
SnakeWrangler
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Always give them and dillos passes
I believe in science and I’m an insufferable [censored] Actually, BBC is pretty damn good "You Cannot Simultaneously Be Politically Correct And Intellectually Honest!"
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7391324
12/31/18 05:36 PM
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,052
Dodge_Rock
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Not only ticks, but rattlesnakes, copperheads and water mocassins are also on the menu. Opposums are immune to snake venom and get a lifetime free pass.
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: Cast]
#7392197
01/01/19 02:52 PM
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Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 29,010
Western
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I’ve always given them a pass. Same here, their lifespan is so short I figure what the hell, they dont usually cause a big problem anyway. Easy to trap and relocate if needed.
If at first you dont succeed, then skydiving is not for you..
"Don't trust everything you read on the Internet"- Abraham Lincoln Dennis
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: majekman]
#7392248
01/01/19 03:38 PM
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 11,857
Simple Searcher
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No reason to kill something if I’m not going to eat it and I’ve tried possum ONCE....never again.
I kill mice, rats, and coyotes, I am not eating them
"Man is still a hunter, still a simple searcher after meat..." Robert C. Ruark
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Re: Don't Kill Those Possums
[Re: HS2]
#7392256
01/01/19 03:46 PM
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Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,226
QMC SW/EXW
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Never saw the reason for killing them in the first place. Don't see where they do any harm and they are kind of cool. One of the few mammals that have remained unchanged for millions of years. There are fossils of possums that are nearly identical to the ones wandering around today. Can't say that about many things. Possums and dillos always get a pass from me, just have no desire to kill or bother them.
Retired Navy Chief NJROTC Instructor for Tascosa High School
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