[Ag-eq] Varmints

[Tracy Carcione]

We had the animal catcher out, setting traps for a couple weeks.  We asked
him if he could take what he caught elsewhere and let it go, and he said he
would.  All he caught was 2 possums.  Well, 3, but we told him he could let
the last go here and stop.  I think I can live with possums.  Maybe a
mistake, but we'll see.

I had no idea possums lived in suburban Jersey.  I thought they hung out in
the woods in the South, but no, they're very widespread.  They eat anything
they can get.  I'm hoping they might eat some squirrels, or giant bugs.

I'm disgusted that my neighbors apparently can't tell the difference between
a groundhog and a possum, which are quite different.  Unless they actually
did see groundhogs, but they don't live at my place.

It's frustrating that I can't observe the wildlife that's apparently all
around me.  But that ain't going to happen.  And, if I could, I don't think
I'd be living here at all.  I'd be out in the country, and probably working
outside, instead of sitting at a desk all day.

 

I looked up possums in Wikkipedia.  They're interesting.  So far as I know,
they're our only native marsupial.  They're immune to snakebite.  One of the
original colonists described a possum as having "head of a pig, tail of a
rat, bigness of a cat."  The animal control guy says they look like big,
ugly rats.  I thought they could hang by their tails like monkeys, but they
can't.  They can use their tails to carry stuff, though.  Pretty handy.

 

I've made a mental list of things the varmints eat and things they leave
alone.  They don't like lilies, anything in the onion family, and any
strong-scented herbs.  They love any greens, including mustard, but maybe
not kale.  They like coreopsis and coneflowers.  They don't seem to like the
nightshade family, tomato plants, for instance.

Not sure how I can use this list, but I'm giving it some thought.

Tracy