Are Opossum good to have in your yard? Yes! Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) should not be treated as an enemy to your yard. There are actually many pros to having them around.
Opossums are native to Florida and help keep your yards and neighborhoods clean! They help keep the population of pests such as ticks, cockroaches, rats, and mice, snakes and more. Topping it off opossums are not aggressive animals. While yes, you can see them many times with their mouth open showing teeth and hissing. This is merely a bluff to look vicious towards a threat in hopes they are left alone. When that doesn’t work, they play dead when really scared, and this is where the term “playing possum” comes from.
Why Can’t Opossums Get Rabies?
But today, possums are one of the most misunderstood animals in the continent. They’re often believed to be stupid, dirty creatures, but the truth is just the opposite – possums are smarter, cleaner, and more beneficial to humans than many of their wild neighbors.
While they’re not the cutest creatures, they should be a welcome addition to your backyards. Unlike other mammals that carry ticks, and potentially spread Lyme Disease, possums gobble up more than 90 percent of the ticks they encounter. Since they constantly self-groom with their tongues and paws, they’re one of the cleanest critters you’ll come across. And while they’re not totally immune to rabies, they rarely carry it. As a marsupial, possums have a lower body temperature than most other mammals, so their bodies don’t provide a suitable environment for the virus. – National Park Service Opossums
Find more information on Living with Opossums (myfwc.com) from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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