How To Remove Possums In Your Attic?

Hearing critters scurrying feet in your attic or crawlspace can be alarming. Most might expect to find mice, or a rat. Sometimes, the critter in your attic is an opossum instead. Opossums are native to North America. These marsupials are nocturnal animals that can have litters in your home and cause an infestation before you know it.

Opossums are wild animals that come into your home through entry holes. They are omnivores that can eat your pet food, leave feces (poop) in your home, and bring in parasites, including fleas.

Finding an opossum in the attic is more common than most might think. To learn how to get rid of possums in your attic, keep reading.

Locate the Sources

To get rid of possums living in your attic, you’ll want to locate both the entry point and attractant before you can focus on getting rid of the opossum.

Opossums are typically classified as a pest species because they scavenge and live in attics and crawl spaces. In an attic, opossums can make noise while crawling around, leave large droppings, spread pathogens and parasites to your home, and can damage ducts and insulation. Often you will find females in your attic because they are safe spaces for them to raise their young.

Additionally, these animals can pass away in your attic or walls, causing a huge odor issue. Baby opossums can fall from attics and become stuck inside your walls as well. It’s important to remove opossums from your attic as soon as you suspect they may be there.

Check And Seal Loose Boards and Holes

One of the easiest ways for opossums to gain access to an attic or a crawl space is through loose fascia boards.  Possums are great climbers, and by sealing up all the possible entryways in your home, you’re removing the methods an opossum can use to skirt its way inside.

Check out the video below to see how this simple process can be accomplished yourself.

Be sure to check the structure of your home, inside and out, on a regular basis to make sure that everything is still standing in good order. This should be done as a routine animal control strategy. If you haven’t already implemented this every few weeks, now is a good time to start.

Here’s a comprehensive checklist you can follow around your home to get started.

Fill In Access Entries And Hole With Caulk

If there are any holes or small openings in your home’s structure or around windows, seal them with caulk immediately.

Each unsealed hole can be a point of entry for a small pest, or manipulated into a large entry point for an opossum, raccoon, mouse, or even a skunk. By sealing up your home, you’re closing all the doors to the outside — as they should be.

Search for Deceased Animals

This is a highly unpleasant task, but one that must be accomplished nonetheless. Sometimes, animals sneak upstairs and pass away unbeknownst to homeowners.

The only sign of their presence occurs when a scavenger appears to sniff out and consume the carcass. In this case, the opossum could very well be that scavenger.

Because opossums regularly feast on dead animals when given the chance, it’s not unusual for this to be a leading factor in their arrival. If an opossum smells a decaying carcass in an attic, it will make its way up there to pick the bones clean. And because the opossum eats the dead animal as it decays, this usually removes the putrid smell normally associated with carrion.

Removing the Opossum From Your Attic

Once you’ve found and resolved the issues that led to the opossum inside your home, you can begin the process of wildlife removal.

Take a look below at some of the best methods to ward off these critters and get your attic back.

Purchase a Trap

There are several types of traps for pest animals on the market. They can be used to confine opossums that have taken residency in your attic.

Live traps, or cage traps, work using a system of springs attached to the door and the bait platform. Once an opossum crawls inside the trap to take the bait, the door will snap shut behind it, locking it inside. After identifying areas of high activity, set traps to capture the animal and return it to a safe place.

For our recommendations on top traps, be sure to check out our guide to opossum traps and cages. Be sure to check the trap twice a day to see if you have caught anything. You will want to release them quickly, so they do not become ill from malnourishment.

Tidy Things Up

More often than not, opossums are simply looking for a place to crash for a few weeks. They like to make dens out of unorganized spaces because they will be left alone in these places.

If your attic is disorganized, opossums see this as prime real estate to settle down in. By cleaning, you’re removing the opportunity for the opossum to be left alone in its solitude. It will likely scurry away, as these animals are very shy and passive in nature.

Watch how this opossum reacts when freed from a trap where it spent the night. The animal is so afraid of the human letting it go that it seems to be paralyzed.

Call In a Professional

When all else fails, call someone trained in animal trapping to handle these animals. It may cost you a few extra bucks, but in the end, you’ll be paying to have your opossum removed safely and securely.

In addition to that, you’ll get the peace of mind in knowing that your wildlife control, or pest control, can offer you expert advice on how to prevent opossums from coming back in the future. If you have located the possum but aren’t comfortable removing it from your home, you can call professional wildlife removal personnel to help as well.

Repellents & Deterrents For Opossum Removal

While there are a ton of deterrents targeted toward opossums and other pesky animals that you can purchase and use to sway these animals out, I don’t recommend that you use them in your home.

Unfortunately, these products typically employ an undesirable quality (aroma, sound, or light) to drive off the opossums. For example: many repellents are made from the urine of predators, which is pungent. In the garden, this is no problem. In the attic, the smell wafts through the vents and throughout the entire home.

Deterrents and repellents like ultrasonic repellers are effective, but I don’t recommend using them inside your home.

Opossum Removal in a Nutshell

Removing opossums from your attic is difficult, but it can be done. The most important thing to remember is that the presence of these animals in the attic is often the first indication of a larger problem — an unsealed entry point somewhere, an unchecked food source out in the open (including inside of trash cans), or both.

Make sure to locate these key aspects in your attic before driving the opossum out or they will come back in. Clean up the attic, set traps, keep garbage cans clean (inside and out), and when all else fails, know you can recruit an exterminator or animal control expert to help.