Best way to kill raccoons and opossums?

[GunRelated]

Is it trained to litter boxes yet? They'll go like 20-30ft for one, but past that it's a crapshoot.

Not yet. She just started using the bathroom on her own about a week ago. The wife was having to rub her with a wet q-tip to make he go. She also just started munching on crickets and mealworms.
We have a cat that is an inside / outside cat, she stays inside a lot but also goes out to use the bathroom and hunt. I'm sure once we get a litter box, they will both end up using it. Hoping that the saying "like a possum eating sh!t" doesn't become a reality.
The wife and daughter love it though and she's pretty chill. She likes to hang out in a hoodie, or even on top of your head.
Drives the dog crazy though. If we have it out, the dog will be right there, staring at you and trying to get all in your face the whole time. Doesn't matter if it's an hour or more, she's right there, drives her nuts.

 

[Manimal]

Not yet. She just started using the bathroom on her own about a week ago. The wife was having to rub her with a wet q-tip to make he go. She also just started munching on crickets and mealworms.
We have a cat that is an inside / outside cat, she stays inside a lot but also goes out to use the bathroom and hunt. I'm sure once we get a litter box, they will both end up using it. Hoping that the saying "like a possum eating sh!t" doesn't become a reality.
The wife and daughter love it though and she's pretty chill. She likes to hang out in a hoodie, or even on top of your head.
Drives the dog crazy though. If we have it out, the dog will be right there, staring at you and trying to get all in your face the whole time. Doesn't matter if it's an hour or more, she's right there, drives her nuts.

lol, just wait until she starts bathing y'all out of love and adoration. I fed the one I kept raw chicken thighs, random wet cat food leftovers(rarely), and fruit. You have to make sure they get to eat thin bone or they'll get a calcium deficiency disease and die. Chicken legs are cheaper, but they'll break opossum teeth and it's important to avoid that because of the limited care available for them. On that diet she will have a very thick and soft fur coat, and stay healthy fat.

 

[thperez1972]

I missed this thread along the way and only saw it now. I see a lot of people ranting about "save the opossums." I would suggest if you live around horses, save yourself the trouble and use the 22 on them. Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis is a neurologic disease in horses. It is usually spread through opossum waste that may be on grass or hay. We worked for 6 months to nurse a horse back from epm. The horse would walk around in circles because of muscle issues. Of course, that would tire him out so he'd lean up against a tree or the side of the barn if he could. He looked like he was always slowly falling and trying to catch himself so he would spin around. He could stand but he couldn't stand still. Feeding him was a challenge. We'd have to bring some food in a bucket out to him. We'd have to almost step in front of him as he was turning. I'd have to lean against him to give him some support so he could stop for a few bites. But he kept leaning into me more and more so I could only hold the 1000 lb horse up for so long. Then I had to move out of the way to keep from being pushed out of the way. I'd then have to catch him again when he turned around again and repeat the process until he had finished his food. I would gladly have traded all that work for a 6 cent 22lr round. He eventually recovered. Mostly. He only recovered to about 75-80% of where he started.

 

[Manimal]

Good job getting him back that much! Yeah, I wouldn't mess around either if I had horses.

"Most cases of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis are caused by an apicomplexan protozoan, Sarcocystis neurona. Horses are infected by ingestion of S neurona sporocysts in contaminated feed or water. The organism undergoes early asexual multiplication (schizogony) in extraneural tissues before parasitizing the CNS. Because infectious sarcocysts are only rarely formed, the horse is considered an aberrant, dead-end host for S neurona. Like other Sarcocystis spp, S neurona has an obligate predator-prey life cycle. The definitive (predator) host for S neurona in the USA is the opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Opossums are infected by eating sarcocyst-containing muscle tissue from an infected intermediate (prey) host and, after a brief prepatent period (probably 2–4 weeks), infectious sporocysts are passed in the feces. Nine-banded armadillos, striped skunks, raccoons, sea otters, Pacific harbor seals, and domestic cats have all been implicated as intermediate hosts; however, the importance in nature of each of these species is unknown. "