They are great to have around for the most part, but the whole tick eating thing is overblown. They can have fleas but no more so than rabbits or some other mammals.

https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/?am

tj

Jack, are you sure it's a 'possum?

I'm sure the possums stink.

I think the possums and raccoons team up on the melons.

Jack, I recently relocated one using my old van. Let's just say that these critters have nothing to do with hygiene and I'm glad that I drive that old van just once a month.....and I've seen less flys on a cow paddy ;-)

PS, although they are really cute when babies Kate

I let mine go

I have LOADS of possums. Never noticed a stink, and I trap routinely. For me, they are the WORST with melons. Yep, just ripe melons. They ignore just about everything else. They have an incredibly good sense of smell. I pull my traps when it's going to rain, and set them on my porch. Quite often, I'll come out in the morning to find a possum in the trap on my porch! My porch is a long meander away from my garden beds. But they can smell the bait from a long ways away.

Be sure get your dog vaccinated for leptospirosis. :)

I do like opossums. I suspect they eat my fruit, but the squirrels do it in front of me so they get my ire.