An opossum trapped in an attic


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Attics And Opossums Go Together - Although winters are usually mild in Florida as compared to the northern states, they are still enough for critters like opossums to go looking around a warm place to ‘den’ i.e. spend the winter months. The colder the climate gets, the more you can expect that there will be at least one phone call from some desperate homeowner about the ruckus being created in their attic by a group of opossums. The time when I caught this anxious looking opossum was no different. I received a call from a concerned resident who had a hunch that the weird noises coming from his attic were being created by some animal.

When I reached their place, the sight of opossum droppings on the attic insulation was enough to let me know that the culprit had to be an opossum. Since the weather was cold, I was almost sure that there have to be more than one of these critters around the place. Looking around the attic, I located a hole in the eaves, which was undoubtedly not only created by the opossums but was also their entry point into the attic. And sure enough, there were two opossums resting nicely in the eaves. I set up a trap with cat food as bait and caught the intruders in no time.

Since I did not know how many opossums there actually were, I set up a few more traps in the attic and on the roof, and stuffed a newspaper in the eaves to close the hole temporarily. The next morning, I got another call from the homeowner saying he could hear a metallic sound coming from the attic. I went back and found what you can now see in the picture. There was nothing in the roof traps and the newspaper I stuffed in the eaves was untouched, which meant that this little guy was also inside all along.

After removing the opossum from the attic, I repaired the eaves and cleaned out the mess created by the three critters.