How to get rid of possums in the attic — Connor’s student essay

How To Get Rid Of Possums In The Attic

There are many ways to effectively get rid of possums in your attic. If possums are in your attic, which you can usually denote by the smell, the large amount of poop, or scratching noises, there are several tricks to getting rid of the possum. First and foremost is you can call a professional, such as Nashville Pest Control (if you’re in the area). They will effectively get rid of the possum.

However, there are other ways. The best way would be to trap the possum. This is accomplished by first identifying where the possums’ entry point is; doing a search around your roof you will be able to find a loose board or other open gaps. 

Once located, purchase a large cage live trap at your nearest pest control store. Then lather or add bait to the trap and put it near their point of entry into the attic. Once captured let the possum go at least 10 miles from your home and in a rural area so as to not disturb other people. 

Or, if you’d like, turn it over to your local animal control. Finally, seal their point of entry so others don’t return.

Possum Caught In a Trap

Most websites also say to not purchase repellents, deterrents, lights, or high-frequency machines. Mostly, these do not work also they may leave you house smelling putrid. However, other methods like adding an exclusion door (one-way door) at the point of entry do work.

Although these are tried and true methods to removing possums, there are other ways to kill possums and I have some personal stories on how my grandfather “gets rid of possums”. I’ll start with my earliest memory.

Opossum

To preface, my grandparents own a farm in Midwest Ohio. Mostly grain but they have chickens and beef on the side to make money outside of the traditional farming season. With chickens come possums. One night while I was staying with my grandparents we were doing the daily chores which included gathering eggs. All the chickens were out of the pen, which is not normal for late afternoon/ evening, so my grandfather noticing this goes inside the coop and sees it. A thin possum eating egg. 

So like he has done many times before, he grabs his 12 -gauge and tells me (who is eight) to go inside the nearby shed so if the possum ran out I would be safe. That possum did not make it out.

The second story is one of my father’s. He grew up on that farm so he had many more stories to tell. One of which was a story about a family of possums living in one of the tractor sheds. He told my dad to wait by the entrance of the shed with a pitch fork so that when they ran out he could kill them. He was also around 8. So my grandfather went into the shed with the 12 gauge and fired a few times. My father on the other hand, witnessed a possum run at him trying to escape or attack and my dad recalls stabbing the thing but being extremely lucky in doing so. He said he was milliseconds from the thing attacking him.

These are some examples of how to get rid of possums in the attic as well a few personal stories on honesty, what not to do as they are semi-idotic and should not be replicated.

Author: Connor Klein

University of Cincinnati

Student Scholarships

Every year Thrive Pest Control hosts an essay contest and the reward is a 1-year scholarship at a 4-year university in the United States. This blog post is one of those scholarships.