How To Keep Pesky Opossums Off Your Rhode Island Property

What To Do If There Is An Opossum Outside My Home

While sometimes scary animals because they bear their teeth and hiss, opossums are mostly docile. If you see an opossum in your yard, you don't have too much to worry about as they aren't likely to attack unless cornered or threatened—even then, they're more likely to pass out. Opossums have an unusual defensive behavior: They play dead. You might call it playing possum.

The act of playing dead is more than you might expect. The opossum actually loses consciousness. It can be out for up to four hours! It also releases an unpleasant smell, which helps to outsmart predators that would eat them. When a predator finds an opossum lying on the ground surrounded by that bad aroma, it thinks it is rotten carrion and may pass on the meal. So, as you can see, opossums aren't as much of a threat as you might think. In fact, they offer some benefits.

What benefit do opossums offer? They hunt poisonous snakes and eat them. They can do this because they are not impacted by the neurotoxins in snake venom. While there are no venomous snake populations in Rhode Island, it is nice to have an animal around that likes to eat snakes.

Unfortunately, there are downsides to having any wild animals frequenting your yard. As we pointed out, they can get into things they shouldn't, such as your trash, garden, structures, and voids underneath structures. They can transmit certain diseases and spread ticks and fleas around your property. It is best to take steps to prevent opossums from being in your yard. They can do their snake hunting along the border of your yard and beyond.

Long before you need professional wildlife pest control, there are ways to deter these and other animals from spending too much time on your property and keep them from getting into places they shouldn't. Here's what you should do if you detect an opossum in your yard.

• Keep your trash in covered receptacles.
• Make sure you don't overfill your trash receptacles so that the lid doesn't fit securely on top.
• Secure your trash receptacles so that they aren't easily knocked over.
• Get animal-proof lids if you have trouble with animals getting into your trash. 
• Get your trash to the curb weekly if you have service, or remove trash from your property weekly if you don't. 
• Clean any receptacles that start to have an odor that could attract opossums.
• Properly mix your compost. Opossums have a powerful sense of smell. They can pick up the smell of decomposing matter from a distance. Properly mixed compost has an earthy smell that doesn't remind opossums of food.
• Do you have fruit or nut-bearing trees? Pick up fruits and nuts routinely and store them in a sealed bin away from your exterior.
• Construct fences around any gardens to keep opossums out. Make sure your fencing is at least four feet high. 
• Refrain from feeding your pets outside or pick pet food up before nightfall.
• Keep your chickens securely in a pen if you have chickens. 
• Use hardware cloth to keep opossums from getting underneath your deck, patio, or porch. Install the material at least a foot into the ground to deter opossums from tunneling underneath.
• Trim branches away from your roof. Opossums are great climbers and can access your home easily if you have branches that hang over your roofline.
• Trim your bushes and landscaping to remove hiding places opossums can use.
• Install motion-sensitive sprinklers or lights. These can spook opossums initially. If opossums don't have a reason to keep attempting to explore your yard (such as a food source), an initial scare could cause them to go elsewhere and not eventually get used to these deterrents.
• Clean your gutters and fix any spots in your gutter system where there are breaks. What does this do? It prevents rainwater from leaking over the sides or running out of a broken spot and soaking your perimeter soil. Oversaturation of the ground next to your home can cause puddles that sit for days after it rains. These become watering holes for opossums and other animals.
• Pick up yard clutter. Any objects in your yard that can capture rainwater will provide a water bowl for opossums. Some examples are a toy dump truck, kiddie pool, frisbee, tarp, a seat on a lawn mower, and a plastic pail.  

There are more prevention tips we could share, but these lay the groundwork for how you can manage opossums and other wildlife pests that may enter your yard. The secret is food, water, and harborage control. If animals don't find what they're looking for in your yard, they'll likely move to the next.