Possums are prevalent in Pittsboro, but are they pests? Did you know that that possums kill thousands of ticks every summer?
Speaker 1: Well, can you tell us about Chatham County’s possums?
Speaker 2: Possums. I know all about possum. Seriously having possums on your property is a good thing. I used to think it was a bad thing. I used to think it was a nuisance. That they snuck onto your porch and ate your cat food in the middle of the night. But possums aren’t rodents. Everybody thinks they’re a big rat, but they’re actually marsupials. They’re like more closely related to kangaroos and cute little koala bears than they are rats. And they’re highly resistant to disease. Chatham County is the state leader and the cases of rabies, and it’s extremely rare for a possum to get rabies. But they’re relatively clean as far as diseases and what they can get. But the biggest advantage to having a possum on your property is a single possum eats 4,000 ticks per week. I had no idea. And so I was just like, well, what does that mean of possum eats 4,000 ticks, whatever?
But everybody talks about getting chickens or guinea heads. And you know, that will clear up the ticks on your property or whatever. Guinea hens and chickens will eat four to 500 ticks a week. So a possum will actually go and kill mice, voles and moles, which are considered a nuisance and do carry diseases or whatever, because those three animals also like to eat ticks and a possum will kill them. Not always eat them. Just kill them because they consider them competition for ticks. See I’m itching just thinking about ticks, but having a possum … So I used to eliminate the possums of my property and I have a newfound respect for them there. It’s good to have possums on your property.