No matter it’s a plant or animal, death is inevitable. However, if you have a garden, then you may discover only some particular creatures dying now or then.
One such creature is a possum which you can often find in your lawn, alive or dead.
Now, people who have allergies to such things may often ask, why is there a dead possum in my yard?
Dead possums always don’t mean that they are slow. That is to say, possums often act like the dead when they feel threatened by any predator larger than their size. And, you can therefore find them in such condition on your lawn as they like to be on your property in search of plants and pests.
In this garden gild guides we’ll discuss the following:
- Why is there a dead possum in my yard?
- What to do if you find a dead possum in your yard?
- Is it wrong to have a possum in your yard?
- Do possums breathe when playing dead?
- How do you know if a possum has rabies?
- FAQs
Let’s no further waste time and get to the main points.
Why Is There A Dead Possum In My Yard?
Dead is a sure thing that occurs for everyone. But, some living beings like the possums like to play with these and therefore acting like they are dead.
But, in actuality, it is just a part of their self-defense, leaving the predators to think that they have passed away. As a result, many predators don’t like to eat dead possums and therefore get away without harming them.
Many of such predators also remain, which like to eat dead possums that are not dead. So, those predators end up harming them in real, which can cause their actual death.
Now, this death can occur anywhere, especially at those places where those opossums like to live. One such favorite place is your yard full of plants and all those things they want to eat and survive on.
Coming towards their eating habit, these creatures almost eat anything they find, especially on your lawn. Their most favorite foods are plants and fruits.
Sweet things are something that they prefer the most and love to eat all time.
But, these animals also survive on eating insects and the pests that are found in your garden. While living in your yard, they can fall in front of many such animals that are larger than their size.
And, any larger animals would like to become their predator and kill them just at your lawn, leaving no reason that you can’t find a dead possum in your yard.
What to do if you find a dead possum in your yard?
Before knowing what you should do, you first need to see the reason that can make you fall under such circumstances.
That is to say; you can find some real dead possums which are not playing to be dead. It can happen due to any such animals that are larger than their size. Those every animal become their predator and keep searching for attacking them.
Some of those predators can be foxes, coyotes, owls, hawks, and so on. Even wild or bobcats can become predators as many of the possums can remain at the size of a rat.
As a result, you often go through those dead possums that cannot be left at the mercy of nature. If done so, those dead bodies will decompose and turn into smell and disease-transmitting objects.
Further, the air and the environment also tend to get polluted. Dead bodies in your garden can also hold negative impacts upon your plants.
So, you should be the one to get rid of their dead bodies on your own. To do so, you can hurry them under the soil. While doing that, keep in mind that you should at least dig the ground by 2 feet.
Also, don’t make direct contact with your hands with the dead body of possums. For that, use gloves or plastic bags while disposing of them.
One more thing you should keep in mind that, wait up to 4 hours before taking any steps against the possums. Because there are no other options left for you to know if they are dead or not.
Is it wrong to have a possum in your yard?
It depends from yard to yard as such creatures balance out the bounties and losses. When there is a good, there always remains the existence of evil as well.
Goodness and bad things mix and balance out the need of nature.
One of the most prominent examples is darkness. Darkness is often regarded as a sign of uncertainty. But, if there would not remain darkness, the importance of light would never be observed.
The very same thing applies to every component of nature. That includes the possum living in your yard in search of their food. Their primary source of food are plants, insects, pests, and all those components.
Their habit of I’m taking plants can end up taking the test if your patient, as you are the one who passed through those genuine efforts in cherishing your yard with those beautiful plants, vegetables, and fruits.
So, it is very usual that you could not accept anyone to have a portion from those and lead them to suffer.
But, if you come out of your emotion and go through some reality check, you can see those lasting benefits led by possums. Of course, you can control possums by killing them, but how many of the other harmful insects can you take care of?
Possums, in actuality, don’t do that much damage like the pests and insects cause to your lawn. However, possums can work as the best natural insecticide against them as they like to have them as their meal.
If the number of pests in your years is more, it is more likely for the possums to leave your plants and go for those insects. This, a whole level of balancing is seen through them, without which the natural maintenance of your yard is impossible.
So, lawns with higher levels of pests are good places for the dwelling of possums. But, again, it comes to the case with such yards that are so much controlled against pests and insects.
For such lawns, possums wouldn’t find anything other than your plants to be eaten for their life.
As a result, it is wrong or not to have possums is dependent on the scenario and type of your yard.
Do possums breathe when playing dead?
All the signs go against their life when these tiny creatures pretend to be dead.
With that being said, their body goes limp while playing death. Then, when threatened, they start to discharge bowels, stick their tongue outs, and breathing also appears to stop!
How do you know if a possum has rabies?
Any mammal animal can carry rabies which leaves the chances for possums as well.
But in actuality, the reality is something different. Possums are cold-body-temperate animals. This creates difficulties for the virus to sustain in their body.
As a result, it is a very extreme case that possums will carry rabies. But anyway, they can do so in some instances. You can assume the possums with rabies by seeing them pretend death for most of the time.
Again, some possum can call actual death due to the presence of this virus inside them.
people also ask
1. What scent do possums hate?
The pungent smell of ammonia is something that possums hate the most. But, again, you can use garlic to prevent those possums from your lawn and make their escape from such smells.
2. What animal would eat a dead possum?
Possums act to be death from escaping from choosy predators like foxes, coyotes, dogs, and so on. But, even the actual death possums will not flee from real-level predators like the Turkey Vultures.
Possums will suffer death to rot until the vultures come and pick them away.
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Conclusion
Possum can fake its death. So if you see an inert possum in your lawn, don’t ever think it’s dead. If your lawn has too much of pest and insects, you might see a lot of possums.
