Opossums
Didelphis virginiana
A slow, mostly harmless night visitor that eats fallen fruit, slugs, beetles and a great many ticks. Usually blamed for damage a raccoon did.
How to know it
A cat-sized gray animal with a pointed white face, black ears and a long naked prehensile tail, moving slowly and deliberately at night. If cornered it will hiss, show fifty teeth, and then quite possibly fall over and play dead. The tracks show a distinctive opposable thumb on the hind foot.
What you'll see
- Fallen fruit and windfalls cleaned up overnight.
- Compost heaps and rubbish bins turned over, though less thoroughly than a raccoon would.
- Occasional damage to very ripe low fruit and sweetcorn, usually after something else has opened it.
- Tracks with a thumb-like toe on the hind foot in soft ground.
- An animal under the deck or in the shed that leaves again after a night or two.
Where it comes from
North America only marsupial. Young are born tiny and finish developing in the pouch, then ride on the mother back. They are nomadic rather than territorial, using a den for a few nights and moving on, which is why a resident opossum is rare and a passing one is common. They live only two or three years.
Suburban gardens with fruit trees, compost heaps and accessible rubbish, throughout the east, midwest and increasingly the west coast. Numbers are highest in autumn.
Dealing with it
- Establish what actually did the damage. Neat peeled husks and hand-like prints mean raccoon; an opossum usually arrives after the event.
- Secure the compost heap and the bins, which is what draws them in.
- Pick up windfalls and clear fallen fruit.
- Block access under decks and sheds once you are sure nothing is denning there.
- Leave them alone otherwise. An opossum eats slugs, beetles, rodents and — by some estimates — a remarkable number of ticks.
Keeping it out
- Keep bins latched and pet food indoors.
- Clear windfalls under fruit trees.
- Fence the compost heap or use a closed bin.
- Close off den spaces under structures in early spring.
- Accept the visits. This is one of the more useful animals that will come into a garden.
What it goes for
Fallen and over-ripe fruit, sweetcorn and compost. Little that is still growing.
See also
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's bestiary at cottagegardencompanion.com