Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

I thought we had a "predator" topic, but I can't find it. Anyway, I just thought I'd let our Eastern Ontario members know that possums are (un)officially moving east. They've been seen, and killed on roads, near Belleville. Yippee

Great tick eaters .

Ah, ! I drove by a dead strange looking creature and thought, hey I bet that was a possum. Then thought, hey I live in Canada. We don't have possums. Well, I guess I was very wrong!

We've had them here in Stratford for close to 30 years.

Sorry every time I hear "possum" I think the Clumpets...fine eating

I saw one here about 15 years ago crossing the road and didn't know for sure what it was until my cousin got one cornered in her garage one nght. .They are NASTY when they're cornered!

Catch about one a month or so in live traps & release beating & rolling the trap . No not same one cause I spray paint a strip on back . Have never seen a tick here . Once had um get a hen in an outside breeding pen . That’s when I let my birds free so could get away .

I've. never had them bother the chickens here.

Possums seemed to have become established in our area, Durham Region, about a decade ago. And shortly after that our Veterinarian clinically diagnosed her first case of domestically acquired EPM in a horse in Bowmanville. The costs to manage a horse with EPM are high, with no permanent cure, and frequently the condition is fatal or requires the affected horse to be put down. I would not tolerate possums on our farm.

For ticks, the information I have dug up indicates that possums only consume the ticks that latch onto them, while they groom themselves - they don't actually seek ticks out as a food source. Apparently wild turkeys do consume ticks as part of their diet and they consume many times more ticks on average than possums do.

Thanks for the info! Lots of folks with horses around here.