What Bait To Use For Opossum Traps

Opossums are omnivores, and scavengers. So they will eat just about anything! Seriously. More than any other animal, possums are unpicky eaters. You can bait a trap with any sort of food, and it'll work. That said, there are two primary considerations:

Stinky Bait: For best success, use bait that is a tad stinky. This includes meat-based baits, or even meat that is rotting a little bit. Cat food or dog food is good, and wet is better than dry.

Avoid Stray Cats: If stray cats are a concern, then you may want to skip the meat baits, especially cat food. In this case, use breads or sweets. Marshmallows work great.

But be aware - a lot more goes into trapping than just the type of bait used! Read the below for more tips on how to catch a possum in a cage trap.



The opossum can cause real problems for owners that want a healthy, happy yard, especially when you consider the sheer amount of babies that these creatures can have, as well as their scavenging ways to find food. They often make homes under decking and porches, and love brush and wood piles, so although exclusion methods are a good choice to rid your yard of these odd little critters, opossum trapping is the key if you want to safely get rid of them.

There are a lot of things that you will need to take into consideration with opossum trapping. Thankfully, we have compiled a how-to guide to get you started.

Choosing a trap
There are a few things that you will need to consider with opossum trapping. Firstly, you are going to want a trap that actually fits the animal inside.  A raccoon-size trap, at least 10x12x30, like the Havahart 1079, is good. You are also going to want a trap that is easy to set up and use. If it is too complicated, you are likely to make mistakes and all will not go as planned. Lastly, you are going to want a trap that actually works. There are a few features on traps these days, some of which will be more state of the art than others, but these features are there to make your life easier, and also to ensure that the animal is not planned.

Just a few of the traps that you may consider are:
• Easy set – these are basically like pop up traps that are designed to be as easy as possible to assemble or set up
• Single door – one door that closes when the animal causes the trigger to react
• Double door – perfect for rats and similar animals as the creature can see right through so it doesn’t even look like a trap. It works in the same way as the single door, but with two.
• You will want a trap that is durable enough to be outside for long periods of time, especially if you have more than one animal to catch.
• Safe – no sharp edges that could cause you or the animal physical harm. No gaps that could enable the animal to crawl out and, again, hurt itself.
• Effective – you want one that is going to be effective in the job that it says it does.

Choosing a bait
When you want to trap an opossum, you are going to want to choose the right bait for the job. There is no point in putting a food that it is not going to go for, so make sure that you use one of the following, all of which have been proven to be effective in opossum trapping:
• Fish – tinned sardines and even tuna can be used for this
• Apples – many types of fruit can actually be used as opossum bait, but oranges and apples have proven to be the most effective
• Pet food – it can be either cat or dog food, it will just look like you have put pet food out; this is what probably attracted the animal to your yard in the first place!

After you caught your oppossum, learn how to relocate your opossum safely.

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More in-detail how-to opossum removal articles:

Information about how to kill an opossum - with poison or other methods.
Information about how to catch an opossum - remove one stuck in the house.
Information about opossum repellent - analysis of types and effectiveness.

I can show you the kind of Damage Opossums Cause, if opossums climb or live in trees, and if they attack cats, dogs or other pets.