Released May 22, 2009
MOUNT IDA, Ark. - A sign welcomes visitors to Montgomery County: "Possums Unlimited."
Montgomery County doesn't actually have the market cornered on opossums, says Lisa Martin, Montgomery County extension agent with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service.
"The sign is really more in jest," Martin explains. "We don't have any more opossums than any other rural area in the state. They can be a problem but not any more so than anywhere else."
The sign has more to do with the events held in Montgomery County by the Frontporch Stage and its auxiliaries, Possums Unlimited, and the Nocturnal Order of the Possum. "It's a little bit of a play on Ducks Unlimited, our logic being that we ain't got a lot of ducks, but we got a lot of opossums," says Jerry Babbitt, Frontporch's technical director and sound engineer. But, he assures, "No opossums have been harmed in our endeavors."
The non-profit Frontporch auxiliaries do occasionally host events to raise money for charity or for their neighbors in need - a family with exorbitant medical bills, the humane society, area churches, high school students in need of scholarship money - all under the name of the state's only marsupial.
The new Possum Queen will be crowned at the Possum Picnic in September, elected by penny votes to remove roadkill from area highways. She will be presented with a scepter - a flathead shovel with a gold head - and she will be charged with providing roadkill for the potted meat distributed at the picnic.
Rebecca McPeake, wildlife specialist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, says opossums slow, ambling gaits do make them especially prone to becoming road kill.
"Opossums are fascinating creatures," says McPeake. For one thing, opossums have 50 teeth, which is more than any other mammal in the state. A surprised opossum will play dead, hence the saying "playing opossum."
They are omnivores, meaning they will eat almost any kind of food, although their favorite fruit is persimmon. Their young are tiny - about the size a bumblebee at birth - and they are born without fur. Babies live inside their mother's pouches for about the first three months of their lives.
Their fur is sometimes used to trim coats, though their pelts don't bring in much money. Opossum hides fetched less than a dollar each during the 2007-2008 Arkansas harvest season.
Opossums can climb, but their most common offense is probably tearing into garbage containers.
Martin says she gets more calls from residents about raccoons than about opossums, but opossums do turn over their fair share of trash cans. Her advice to those having problems with the pesky creatures is to make sure to put their trash bags in a sturdy container and to make sure that container has a secure lid.
Folks who have problems with opossums in their yards can trap and relocate them. The state's nuisance wildlife code says property owners may use live traps for the removal of nuisance wildlife, like raccoons and opossums, provided trapping is done according to ordinances and statutes established by their municipalities.
Captured wildlife, according to the code, is to be released alive and unharmed outside their municipalities' boundaries within 24 hours of their capture. Traps must bear the name and address, vehicle operator's license number or vehicle license number of the people setting them.
"I've caught opossums in a trap before, and they can be quite smelly," says McPeake. "They will hiss and snap to protect themselves - or play dead."
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http://www.uaex.edu/news/may2009/0522opposums.htm
Editor: Elizabeth Fortune, (501) 671-2120, efortune@uaex.edu
