sh0bud
Nonya Bidniss
The Orange Theme@Nonya_Bidniss My yard was blessed with a possum friend years ago (when I had a yard heh). I loved seeing them out there snoofin' around eating all the ticks. Possums are friends. :3
Pete Johanson@Nonya_Bidniss love me some possums, don't disagree with most of this, but my understanding is the tick thing has been debunked? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34298355/
Are Virginia opossums really ecological traps for ticks? Groundtruthing laboratory observations - PubMed
Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana) are a common synanthrope in North America, and serve as host to many species of ectoparasites. Research on captive Virginia opossums estimated that opossums eat, on average, 5500 larval ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) per week. To investigate this apparent preference …
Edelruth, PBS Passport HolderI do love opossums. They are much less ugly in real life.
eri 
@Nonya_Bidniss opens the door to my house instead
Spycrab@Nonya_Bidniss
"BITCH SHOULD HAVE PAID RENT"
*Ignites the large solid rocket motor I store in my garage; burning down the neighborhood*
"BITCH SHOULD HAVE PAID RENT"
*Ignites the large solid rocket motor I store in my garage; burning down the neighborhood*
Franklin Logan@Nonya_Bidniss these guys are cute
Jens Michael B.-Hansen@Nonya_Bidniss
You are obviously not in New Zealand.
If you were, I'm sure you would be thinking differently. Opossums were introduced from Australia to New Zealand back in the times by some ignorant people, probably English. They are now a threat to native birds and more for many reasons, one is ground nesting and no flying birds like the Kiwi.
You are obviously not in New Zealand.
If you were, I'm sure you would be thinking differently. Opossums were introduced from Australia to New Zealand back in the times by some ignorant people, probably English. They are now a threat to native birds and more for many reasons, one is ground nesting and no flying birds like the Kiwi.
TerrorBite 🦁@Onthebass @Nonya_Bidniss Australian possums are also not opossums, and don't eat ticks, they are herbivores.
shared public horse .not bitey@TerrorBite The invasive possum species in Aotearoa is omnivorous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_brushtail_possum_in_New_Zealand Certainly introduced by ignorant settler whites, though, and yeah, definitely not a poor, chilly Virginia opossum 
@Onthebass @Nonya_Bidniss
@Onthebass @Nonya_Bidniss
kopimi@Nonya_Bidniss as far as I know the claim about ticks comes from a lab study from 2009 which was not confirmed. Later studies of stomach content of wild individuals did not confirm that found no ticks in the diet.
DB Schwein@kopimi @Nonya_Bidniss @Tarnport
They do eat ticks as well as whatever other bugs are around, but the ~5000 was an estimation based on an experiment when they were put in a box with nothing but ticks. So yeah.
Still worth not harming or killing!
Daisy@Nonya_Bidniss Thank you! Didn't know everything, nice to read this. We actually would never make trouble for an animal (we collect any bugs and spiders and put them into the garden, unless it's really cold). But good to know more.
neville park@Nonya_Bidniss Opossums don't actually eat thousands of ticks; that was a flawed study. More here: https://flipping.rocks/@nev/110611517686321118
neville park (@[email protected])
Paper explaining & debunking 2009 tick study: Hennessy C, Hild K. Are Virginia opossums really ecological traps for ticks? Groundtruthing laboratory observations. Ticks Tick Borne Dis. (2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101780 :ClosedAccess: (but on :scihub: ) More about opossums, including reproduction: Krause & Krause. The Opossum: Its Amazing Story (2006) https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/15130/OpossumItsAmazingStory.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Opossum photo: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/112463822
Martin Vermeer 86 47@Nonya_Bidniss They also like cats ❤️
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Possum%27s_Book_of_Practical_Cats
