Johns Creek opossums are scavengers and creatures of opportunity. If you have left a door or a window open, they will take the opportunity to find food or somewhere to burrow. They enjoy confined spaces, so they might go in search of somewhere less out in the open. They are generally not animals that travel in packs, this means that there is probably just one or two in your home.



There it goes!
If you have seen it enter, the best course of action would be to follow it to see where it is going. Once it is inside, you have a few options:
• Open up all of the doors and windows and wait for it to leave on its own. I suggest shutting the bedroom doors in order to confine it to one area. If it has already entered your bedroom leave the door open for it.
• Use a broom or a stuck to prod it out. Do not try to hit it as this may hurt the creature. Simply try to push it out with the broom.
• Lure it outside with food. Georgia opossums are very reliant on their sense of smell to get around, so enticing them with food might get them to leave.
• Grab it by the tail and throw it out. I would not recommend this one for the skittish, but apparently, it works well if you are not scared.
• Use a snare pole to catch the opossum and take it outside. Don’t put it down close to your property as it may just go back in again.
• DO NOT SCARE IT! A Johns Creek opossum will “play possum” if scared. This means that they will essentially faint, making them easy to remove. However, they will also secrete a foul-smelling substance from their anal glands that will mimic the smell of a dead animal. The smell will linger far after you have removed the animal.
• Call a professional. There are companies that will remove the animal for you if you are having no luck.

How to identify whether it is in fact inside your home.
If you suspect that there may be an opossum in your home, there are some clues to look out for.
• There will be damage to the exterior of your house where they climbed in.
• They are drawn to food, so if your pet food is disappearing they may be the culprits.
• They are very vocal creatures. You will hear them if they are inside your home.
• They make loud scratching noises.
• Their excrement is large and foul smelling.

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