Thank you for not hurting it and setting it free.

Couldn't that result in MOTHERLESS BABY ATTIC POSSUMS? Just sayin'.

@2: No, baby possums ride on mommy's back. if they are too big to ride, they are big enough to get around on their own.

D'aaw!

2x4s make a pretty handy club so the possum doesn't invade your neighbor's house next. They are introduced vermin, no need to get all excited about saving one.

I heard a good trick once. If a mama possum or racoon has taken residence in your attic- put a radio in there and blare it. Can't remember if music or talk radio was more effective. The mama will remove the babies one by one and find a quieter home. When you are sure they are gone seal whatever opening they were using.

@3: A neighbor told us a story of seeing a baby possum mistakenly clinging to the back of her collie while the mother possum patiently waited nearby.

Hooray Dominic!

We came back from a weekend away once to find a dead possum wedged in an impossible hole between our house and shed. Yuck. Poor thing must have suffered horribly, but I had zero desire to pull him out myself (I tried). Thank god for the dead animal police.

If you have a possum in your attic, you're probably in New Zealand, Australia, or thereabouts.

What you have there is an opossum, and despite what @5 says, they are not introduced. They've been in the Western Hemisphere longer than humans have.

@7, Human chesthair will also work.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a…

@10 - animal nerd.

Possums are another problem cars are good at solving.

I would have just eaten the fucking thing. OK, they're not exactly known to be "good eats" or anything, but come on, free food? I'd do it.

We'd heard?

@15: Just make sure it isn't a raccoon:

Raccoon Barbecue.

@6: We tried the radio trick. Talk, country, jazz, soul, rock: nothing seemed to bug our incontinent guest. I was so angry. Nothing triggers atavistic rage like one mammal peeing in another mammals lare. They also say "install a bright light with flasher switch", and we tried that. No effect. Critter probably just curled up around it to stay warm. In the end, we just waited until one night in fresh snow we found footprints moving away from the house.. Then I climbed all slippy slidey up a ladder in the snow, and sealed up the hole in the soffit, before racoon came back from her foraging expedition.

Madcap, if our Wa. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife is a credible source http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/opossums.html possum were indeed introduced to Washingon. It is open season on them year round too and if you live trap them you can only release them on your own property.

You could have made a nice stew.

I'm afraid I wouldn't have been nearly as nice. Opossums aren't exactly an endangered species. I'd rather just kill it and be done with it.

They were brought up here by the boys from the South who came to work on WPA projects during the Depression.

Mothballs in the attic, just to be sure.

@10 THANK YOU!! "Opossums" people, it's not fucking rocket science.

Hi y'all. I shoot 'Possums, 'Coons and 'Dillas in muh yard! Mm-mm, dem's good eatins! Ah make fun of Texans fur thayre lack of schoolin and viremental education but I dunno the name of the native varmint livin under muh own porch. I live in Seattle. I drink kaufee.