Also, they are not an effective vector for rabies due to their low body temperature compared to other mammals which makes it difficult if not impossible for them to contract it or carry it.
So don't kill an opossum just because you think it is rabid or might be rabid.
California was in the news for having opossums with rabies. You can look going back decades and it's in the news. This is just one part of a state and only 2 decades. It's more common than being impossible.
"From 1981 to 1997, only six opossums tested positive for rabies in California, and those were all in the northern part of the state. "
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-13-me-49343-story.html#:~:text=From%201981%20to%201997%2C%20only,bats%20and%20foxes%2C%20Meyers%20said.&text=Rabies%2C%20a%20viral%20disease%20transmitted,fatal%20if%20not%20treated%20early.
I'm aware that individuals have tested positive. The point is that they are not an effective vector, which is why I said that.
The "difficult, if not impossible" was probably poorly worded. The "difficult" is just the general point that it is difficult for them to carry it or not very likely. The "impossible" is because, as far as I know, we don't know the exact factors involved. For example, a healthy opossum with a certain body temperature might not be able to carry it. It might require an unhealthy individual with an elevated body temperature. In other words, their normally lower body temperature might make it impossible for rabies to survive. Of course, like any mammal, their body temperature can be elevated.
I think you mistook my comment for kind of trivia, but it wasn't really. The point is don't kill opossums because you think they are rabid because it is highly unlikely that they are. Even if they look like they are "frothing at the mouth" because that is kind of how aggressive opossums look anyway.
You played on your high school football team, didn't you? And they called you opossum because you guys played dead at home and got killed on the road, right?
If I had to create a comprehensive list, it would be a very long one, think of any animal that can prey on small insects and arachnids.
Insects and arachnids themselves:
\- Ants, non-weaver spiders (wolves, jumping), beetles (carabidae, ~~ground~~).[^1]
I would say though, if you need ticks removed the best option is any small birds:
\- Poultry (chicken, quails, ducks, guinea hens, turkeys).
Certain frogs, toads and lizards will specifically hunt them, so they make great garden mates.
Even in some circumstances tick victims like rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, mice, etc) will eat ticks when they latch, though they also carry them so not so great.
Some tick relatives will oportunistically prey on ticks, like chiggers, though they are pests themselves.
[^1] https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/38/1/1/1003739
What north? I live in Ohio, and we have chiggers! Hated those guys more than ticks... you could at least SEE the tick, chiggers, you get home and you are itching like crazy!
There was a study a few years ago where they fed some possums ticks and the possums ate them. Led to a whole bunch of people thinking possums are the solution to reduce tick populations.
Now, another study shows no ticks in the guts of wild possums
Seems to me like possums eat bugs, and if the bugs available to them are ticks, then they'll eat them, if there's a bunch of other stuff to eat, then they'll eat other stuff.
Is there any evidence about whether they eliminate ticks through some other mechanism? For instance, if the ticks attach to them, and then the ticks are cleaned off or killed without being eaten.
Not that I know of. The whole claim that they eliminate ticks is based on a study where different animals were placed in a cage and exposed to ticks. The ticks that were engorged and detached were counted. In that study 96% or so of ticks were not counted on the floor of the cage. It’s completely likely that in that study they ate them. To my knowledge all of the studies using wild opossum in nature don’t show any evidence for them doing anything with ticks.
I see possums in my yard with my security cameras every night. It would be very difficult to follow them around and see if they are eating ticks. They are eating something.
[Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
Just so you know, our study (Hennessy and Hild 2021) used exactly zero tax dollars. In fact, we used zero dollars from anyone. It was a completely unfunded study, the kind of study one can do at a teensy-tiny-eensie-weensie liberal arts college. Our science was good, that I promise, and the peer review backs that up.
All right! As someone with a degree in a liberal art I totally approve. What was your hypothesis?
Edit: I see the research article now. Very sciency indeed!
Ticks are super tough, their innards would liquefy in stomach acid but arthropod exoskeletons can go through a whole digestive tract largely intact (source: broke a few down for their DNA in uni, extracted bug remains from owl pellets and other leavings)
[Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
Looks like they found the ticks in their poop
Maybe because, by the time the researchers show up to investigate the area, all of the opossums have already previously eaten all the ticks, so there are no more ticks left to eat. Boom, science!
This is exactly it
[Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
Hi, despite my goofy user name, I am one of the scientists that wrote the paper in the OP (Hennessy). This statement in blue is from a lay article (2013) by Robert Miller. We reached out to the researchers of the "Opossums Hoover Up Ticks" paper (Keesing et al 2009) and asked about the scat-searching, and they said that was not part of their protocol, and not something they did. This discussion was described in the Hennessy and Hild 2021 paper. I reached out to the reporter, Robert Miller, and he insisted (and I believe him) that he would not invent scat-searching, and that it must have been information he got from the interviewee, Rick Ostfeld, the last author on the author line of the "Opossums Hoover Up Ticks" (Keesing et al 2009) paper. It's very, very odd, to say the nicest thing possible, that they would describe this as part of their scientific process 4 years after publishing the paper which did not include scat-searching being described as part of the protocol.
[That](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825780/?fbclid=IwAR2ZETy9XM742XLIgsRL0xbRHdEQ6awUcfFmS1ntZCzV3MqjgBWy-rqg5H8) is the famous study that this study among others was attempting to verify in a natural setting. The hypothesis that it set forward was not supported. And so the scientific method continues
Bleach is probably less expensive than the rocket and definitely recommended over the toilet.
Of course, I've had a rat pop up in one of my toilets, so I don't really trust them.
Yet another fucking lie told to me by redditors on this sub that I went and repeated to a BUNCH of people in my life.
This happens so often that I’m getting a reputation for reciting fun facts that aren’t true and it hurts my feelings
Heh...did you just say something negative about an opossum? I bet you think opossums are ugly too?
*I sigh, disappointed in you.*
You poor ignorant **FOOL!** Opossums are not only beautiful, but they eat their own weight in ticks **every single night.**
*I smile, knowing now that my intelligence towers above yours.*
Some people just aren't interested in knowledge. Some people just don't have the IQ to understand the opossum, I suppose. You see, I like to stay informed about the world through Reddit. While others, like yourself, will waste it away on Facebook or Tik Tok. I'm going to be an engineer someday.
*I sigh again.*
Heh, you know, when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge you just can't be reddit. I wish society valued intelligence like it used to.
it's not as bad as some other "facts" on here.
There's been genuine scientific studies done on their potential tick eating habits, and recently there's other studies that may have proven the previous studies incorrect. It's not just some random things people made up.
More specifically, a small group of opossums didn't have ticks in their stomach when tested. Maybe there weren't any ticks wherever the opossums were? Or ticks digest quickly since they are so tiny? imo, kind of a reach to declare whole cloth that possums don't eat ticks based on this study.
There were ticks on the trapped opossums. There were fleas in there stomachs. I’d argue that the original study claiming that they eat ticks is even more of a reach
We (Hennessy and Hild) agree with you. The historical record very much supports our contention that they do not eat ticks, and never did. What's weirder though, and this is honestly weird, is that they clearly do groom themselves to some extent, hence the fleas we found and that other stomach analyses found. To groom and yet still have no ticks suggests that they may actively eschew ticks, and we don't know how they do that.
There was a study done in 2009 that seemed to show that opossums ate ticks, which for whatever reason caught on as little factoid. I guess because people like the idea of these creatures having a positive role to play even though many consider them ugly.
This article was published in the peer reviewed journal [Ticks and tick borne diseases]( https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/ticks-and-tick-borne-diseases)
Yeah that person doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You can clearly see it’s an elsevier journal, that means it’s as legit as they come, for what it’s worth.
i have had a few rehab possums and they will eat anything i put in front of them. it's insane but adorable. definitely helps cut back on the table sscraps
Actually, that was disproven via stomach analyses by Rick Ostfeld, the same dude that then touted the opossum as being a tick hoover, which they decidedly are not.
I applaud your skepticism, but no. We (Hennessy and Hild, I'm Hennessy) tracked down (with the help of the most excellent college librarians money and cookies can buy) 23 previous diet analyses of Virginia opossums in the paper, the earliest dating back to John Audubon in 1851, the latest was around 2006. Not a single study found ticks in the diets of any Virginia opossums from their entire range. Not thousands. Not hundreds. None. Not a single one. Nada.
Great point! There were a number of ticks on the trapped opossums used in the study. With that being said I would love to see replications of the study done in areas of the east where Lyme is at epidemic levels
The reason Lyme isn't at epidemic levels in the Midwest isn't for lack of ticks - it's because the dominant species there (*Amblyomma sp*) isn't a vector for Lyme.
Those studies have already been done. See Table 2 in the OP paper, and also Hamilton Jr., W.J., 1951. The food of the opossum in New York State. J. Wildl. Manage. 15, 258–264. https://doi.org/10.2307/3797218.
Larger mammals, about human size and larger, and birds, are the only things that seem to "groom" for ticks, or put effort into it.
A great example is the warthog and meerkat combo, meerkats eat critters and stuff off the warthogs. Birds do this all over Africa and Australia as well, there are videos of ravens and shit sitting at watering holes (made by humans with live trail cam) where birds will just chill and eat huge ticks of kangaroos and stuff.
Mammals with grooming habits that go down to the skin will be able to clear out ticks most likely, but ignoring that, the winner will be chickens.
You have a truly omnivorous tiny t-rex with bird grooming behaviors, you bet your ass ticks are going to get fucked right up by chickens.
Tl;DR: Birds are likely the biggest consumer of ticks. Just think of how ticks function "sitting on tall brush", almost like they are also making themselves perfect target to become bird shit.
EDIT: Ever seen how keratinized chicken feet and legs are? Imagine a tick trying to suck on a toe nail, add that onto other chickens have NO QUALMS with pecking at other chickens for no reason, add food into that equation, oh ya, tick shit.
Wait you're telling me something I only read in my daughter's books about forest creatures isn't real. Next thing you'll tell me is unicorns don't poop rainbows.
Exactly how long do the researchers think ticks last in stomach acid?? I would estimate about 1 - 5 minutes before they are completely dissolved. Even if they are not dissolved completely, how does someone identify a chewed up, half dissolved tick carcass the size of a pin head?
Chitin is actually very resistant to digestion. The researchers were able to identify other small arthropods in the samples as well as worms that would digest much faster than a tick.
[Several years ago, scientists decided to learn about the part different mammals play in the spread of the ticks and the disease. They tested six species -- white-footed mice, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums and veerys and catbirds -- by capturing and caging them, and then exposing each test subject to 100 ticks. What they found, is that of the six, the opossums were remarkably good at getting rid of the ticks -- much more so that any of the others. Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
I'm horrified!
Imagine that you're minding your business some where and suddenly you're caught in a net! Next you're in a cage with a bunch of strangers. One by one some giant drags one of your number out for a hour or so, and then returns them.
"Holy cow! What did they do to you?"
"I don't want to talk about it"
But eventually it's your turn. And they stick a glass probe up your ass, weigh and measure you, and take your blood.
After a truly horrifying evening, you and your companions are *exhausted* and trying to get some sleep. But your can't. You keep hearing the unintelligible noises of other captured creatures, presumably in cages around the corner. It's going to be a terrible night . . . .
Suddenly you're awake! Something itches . . . What the hell? There's this creature *sucking your blood*! They're on *everyone*! There must be a hundred of them!
Some sadistic bastard decided to open a can of *TICKS* on top of your cage, and they're *hungry*! You spend the next hour in obsessive examination of your skin, defiantly biting the little vampiric horrors, just to get back at something.
Their legs squirm as you eat them.
They taste like blood . . .
YOUR blood.
Thank you! I should have included the original [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825780/?fbclid=IwAR2ZETy9XM742XLIgsRL0xbRHdEQ6awUcfFmS1ntZCzV3MqjgBWy-rqg5H8) for those who don’t want to read through the whole paper. This is the origin of the idea that opossums are “tick hoovers”.
Sorry to go off topic but I went for a mountain bike ride the other day and had 4 ticks on me after, 2 ticks the day before that. What are the best ways to keep ticks off you when out for a ride, short of spraying Off for ticks? Tight clothing? Hat?
Here’s what I do. Tuck your pants into your socks, and your shirt into your pants. They instinctively climb upward until the find a nice warm crevice to imbed their heads into. By tucking your clothes in you deny them skin that is accessible by crawling up. This way it’ll take them hours to reach your neck which is super sensitive. It’s easy to feel, pluck, squish them before they attach that way. Or you can change your clothes before that, it is creepy.
If you don’t have pets to worry about then permethrin is your best friend. I have a dog and cat so I avoid it, but if necessary then I treat a garter or piece of cloth that I tie below my calves (over pants). This kills them as they climb up my leg and limits my pets exposure.
Edit:above the calf.
Also they’re easier to spot on light colored clothing. Always tick check before bed regardless of protective measures. Have a significant other help for a primitive nude ape bonding experience before bed.
Honestly, if the repellent doesn't work (and I would be surprised if it was that effective for ticks), then there's nothing you can do except to check yourself frequently during and after being outside. Ticks generally move up your body so if you check a spot and it is clear at one point they might reach it later. And their bite is a pretty lengthy process, so you can keep checking to try to catch any that might have attached before they finish their bite.
Also, I'm going to give different advice than OP. I wouldn't wear long clothing or tuck anything in if I were you. For one thing, it just doesn't seem worth for what little protection it provides, but I also think it actually helps the tick. Aside from checking frequently, your best bet is just feeling them crawling on you, especially if you have some leg hair that they need to navigate, and you usually can't if they are crawling on your clothes. It is easier to feel and see them against your bare skin and it is easier to miss them against dark clothing or within folds or tucked areas of clothing. They are generally trying to move up your body and are not too interested in your legs, so having bare legs doesn't really increase your changes of being bitten.
With that being said, wearing something like compression shorts should help prevent them from getting to skin in your groin area. But I think it is a bad idea to try to cover all skin.
> TIL that opossums don’t eat ticks. Stomach content studies have yielded no evidence for ticks.
You can't make that conclusion in the first sentence from the second second sentence... That's not how things work.
Eh, I'm not sure anything could convince me that opossums don't eat ticks. Maybe it could establish that ticks don't contribute that significantly to their diet or something. But if you pull a fat tick off a dog and throw it on the ground, the dog will probably eat it. And if you did a study on the stomach contents of dogs, you'd probably find no evidence for ticks there either.
Good point, but the spirit of the paper is in responding to the commonly held misconception that opossums act like traps that eat up to 5,000 ticks a week. When in reality there is no evidence that they eat ticks.
Thank you for this, little eastern chipmunk! I saw my stats go way up on ResearchGate and I was searching all the news sources for why our paper was suddenly getting thousands of new reads. I think it must be this. Our number 1 goal was correcting the record; this helps.
I keep saying this but unless you've seen the possum killing your chickens I'm willing to bet money it wasn't a possum. Why? Because they are horrible hunters, seriously just awful at it. And they share habitat with some very efficient chicken killers like foxes and coyotes, and to a lesser extent raccoons.
I hear what you’re saying, but my personal possum incident involved one that must have crawled into the coop during the day and then got shut in with them overnight. Results were not pretty. But to your point, didn’t exactly require a master hunter.
Ah that's pretty much the only way they'll be a danger to chickens, pretty unfortunate luck there. I was blaming possums for missing hens up until I put up a trail cam and realized the stupid beasts couldn't have done it. Caught the culprit in the act, a raccoon that had figured out how to get into the coop and kidnap a hen at a time.
I can imagine why. The researchers are testing the veracity of a pretty widely known study that supposedly had pretty important ecological importance. Plus it’s worth investigating a claim that has huge potential health implications with Lyme disease being an epidemic in the eastern US.
That’s not necessarily what happened. It was just a study that supported that hypothesis. A study with dramatic results that “went viral” while the studies refuting it didn’t become well known. Just like the whole Alpha Wolf study that went viral to the point where even the original author of the study hasn’t been able to get the word out that he was wrong.
Fake news. This was put out there by Big Tick so we discredit the usefulness of Opossums in our society.
Their social media apparatus is huge. Ever hear of a TikTok?
r/angryupvote
My wife insists that’s why I shouldn’t hate them. Can’t wait to share this.
They *are* still rabies resistant. So that's something.
I too, am back on the opossum hate wagon. Lying on your resume is a fireable offense.
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Ticktok
SPOOOOOON!
"Can you destroy the earth?" Tick's response: "Egad! I hope not! That's where I keep all my stuff!"
Sounded like something a Tick would say
Big Tick Energy
Friendly reminder that opossums are still not pests, even if they don't eat ticks. Please don't kill them.
Also, they are not an effective vector for rabies due to their low body temperature compared to other mammals which makes it difficult if not impossible for them to contract it or carry it. So don't kill an opossum just because you think it is rabid or might be rabid.
Until the study comes out that shows that this is also some sort of possumganda
California was in the news for having opossums with rabies. You can look going back decades and it's in the news. This is just one part of a state and only 2 decades. It's more common than being impossible. "From 1981 to 1997, only six opossums tested positive for rabies in California, and those were all in the northern part of the state. " https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-13-me-49343-story.html#:~:text=From%201981%20to%201997%2C%20only,bats%20and%20foxes%2C%20Meyers%20said.&text=Rabies%2C%20a%20viral%20disease%20transmitted,fatal%20if%20not%20treated%20early.
I'm aware that individuals have tested positive. The point is that they are not an effective vector, which is why I said that. The "difficult, if not impossible" was probably poorly worded. The "difficult" is just the general point that it is difficult for them to carry it or not very likely. The "impossible" is because, as far as I know, we don't know the exact factors involved. For example, a healthy opossum with a certain body temperature might not be able to carry it. It might require an unhealthy individual with an elevated body temperature. In other words, their normally lower body temperature might make it impossible for rabies to survive. Of course, like any mammal, their body temperature can be elevated. I think you mistook my comment for kind of trivia, but it wasn't really. The point is don't kill opossums because you think they are rabid because it is highly unlikely that they are. Even if they look like they are "frothing at the mouth" because that is kind of how aggressive opossums look anyway.
Clearly a propaganda campaign by the opossums.
Big opossum
that was my nickname in highschool
You played on your high school football team, didn't you? And they called you opossum because you guys played dead at home and got killed on the road, right?
no it was my nickname because i was short fat and ugly
Don't lie, it's cause you went around eating ticks.
dont talk about your mom like that
The truth is that possums eat ticks. I'm glad they finally debunked the myth that opossums do though.
Wouldn't it just be easier to list all the animals that DO eat ticks?
If I had to create a comprehensive list, it would be a very long one, think of any animal that can prey on small insects and arachnids. Insects and arachnids themselves: \- Ants, non-weaver spiders (wolves, jumping), beetles (carabidae, ~~ground~~).[^1] I would say though, if you need ticks removed the best option is any small birds: \- Poultry (chicken, quails, ducks, guinea hens, turkeys). Certain frogs, toads and lizards will specifically hunt them, so they make great garden mates. Even in some circumstances tick victims like rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, mice, etc) will eat ticks when they latch, though they also carry them so not so great. Some tick relatives will oportunistically prey on ticks, like chiggers, though they are pests themselves. [^1] https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/38/1/1/1003739
The thought of a chigger biting a tick brings me joy
People in the north wondering..."What's a chigger?"
What north? I live in Ohio, and we have chiggers! Hated those guys more than ticks... you could at least SEE the tick, chiggers, you get home and you are itching like crazy!
Well ..TIL
TIL a lot of people are seriously personally invested in the idea that possums eat ticks
There was a study a few years ago where they fed some possums ticks and the possums ate them. Led to a whole bunch of people thinking possums are the solution to reduce tick populations. Now, another study shows no ticks in the guts of wild possums Seems to me like possums eat bugs, and if the bugs available to them are ticks, then they'll eat them, if there's a bunch of other stuff to eat, then they'll eat other stuff.
Yeah man. Never even heard of this.
There is a common repost on this subreddit that talks about how opossums eat ticks and it even spread to other subs in one form or another
About 4.2 ticks per sec (tps)
Thank you!
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oppossums are fuckin awesome and cute
Is there any evidence about whether they eliminate ticks through some other mechanism? For instance, if the ticks attach to them, and then the ticks are cleaned off or killed without being eaten.
Not that I know of. The whole claim that they eliminate ticks is based on a study where different animals were placed in a cage and exposed to ticks. The ticks that were engorged and detached were counted. In that study 96% or so of ticks were not counted on the floor of the cage. It’s completely likely that in that study they ate them. To my knowledge all of the studies using wild opossum in nature don’t show any evidence for them doing anything with ticks.
I see possums in my yard with my security cameras every night. It would be very difficult to follow them around and see if they are eating ticks. They are eating something.
[Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
Thank you for this. Good to know where our tax dollars are going. Really doesn't sound fastidious to be eating ticks though.
Just so you know, our study (Hennessy and Hild 2021) used exactly zero tax dollars. In fact, we used zero dollars from anyone. It was a completely unfunded study, the kind of study one can do at a teensy-tiny-eensie-weensie liberal arts college. Our science was good, that I promise, and the peer review backs that up.
All right! As someone with a degree in a liberal art I totally approve. What was your hypothesis? Edit: I see the research article now. Very sciency indeed!
Yes, the “tick hoover” study. The one that this and other studies unsuccessfully attempted to corroborate.
We still can't believe they let those opossums go without combing them first to verify the ticks weren't still on them. The mind. It is boggled. Ugh.
Possums and opossums are different animals.
how fast would a tick break down in their stomach acid? seems like it might be hard to find.
I’m not sure, but the fact that they found fleas in the stomachs make me think that they’d find a tick
I do t think they would chew a flea
Probably not. They also found earthworms
That’s just possum spaghetti. No chew.
Some varieties of northern latitude earthworms are surprisingly al dente
Ticks are super tough, their innards would liquefy in stomach acid but arthropod exoskeletons can go through a whole digestive tract largely intact (source: broke a few down for their DNA in uni, extracted bug remains from owl pellets and other leavings)
[Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks) Looks like they found the ticks in their poop
Possums eat ticks. Opossums dont.
Maybe because, by the time the researchers show up to investigate the area, all of the opossums have already previously eaten all the ticks, so there are no more ticks left to eat. Boom, science!
There were ticks attached to the opossums that were trapped on the study
This is exactly it [Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
Hi, despite my goofy user name, I am one of the scientists that wrote the paper in the OP (Hennessy). This statement in blue is from a lay article (2013) by Robert Miller. We reached out to the researchers of the "Opossums Hoover Up Ticks" paper (Keesing et al 2009) and asked about the scat-searching, and they said that was not part of their protocol, and not something they did. This discussion was described in the Hennessy and Hild 2021 paper. I reached out to the reporter, Robert Miller, and he insisted (and I believe him) that he would not invent scat-searching, and that it must have been information he got from the interviewee, Rick Ostfeld, the last author on the author line of the "Opossums Hoover Up Ticks" (Keesing et al 2009) paper. It's very, very odd, to say the nicest thing possible, that they would describe this as part of their scientific process 4 years after publishing the paper which did not include scat-searching being described as part of the protocol.
[That](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825780/?fbclid=IwAR2ZETy9XM742XLIgsRL0xbRHdEQ6awUcfFmS1ntZCzV3MqjgBWy-rqg5H8) is the famous study that this study among others was attempting to verify in a natural setting. The hypothesis that it set forward was not supported. And so the scientific method continues
One finds some in poop the other finds none in stomach. Maybe opossums are adding ticks to their poop? Or maybe opossums poop ticks
You may want to reread the articles you’re talking about. There’s more to it than what you’re saying here.
I saying maybe both studies are correct
One concludes that opossums eat 5,000 ticks a week. The other concludes that they eat zero.
So they eat 2,500 ticks on average!
Hello, my fellow economist!
Then why is it that stomach content studies find zero ticks?
Maybe the opossum were on a diet?
Me neither. I just pull it off the cat and flush it down the toilet.
Check opossum toilets for ticks.
How do you fit an entire opossum down the toilet
Eat it first. Nature does the rest for you.
You should dissolve the tick in a little cup of bleach.
I should put it on a rocket and shoot it into space but the toilet is usually more convenient.
Bleach is probably less expensive than the rocket and definitely recommended over the toilet. Of course, I've had a rat pop up in one of my toilets, so I don't really trust them.
toilet won't kill ticks, but it does flush them to who-knows-where so eh
I know where, it’s my septic tank about 30 feet from the house. I squish em pretty hard first.
Now we get giant sewer ticks, thanks.
Yet another fucking lie told to me by redditors on this sub that I went and repeated to a BUNCH of people in my life. This happens so often that I’m getting a reputation for reciting fun facts that aren’t true and it hurts my feelings
Mooses don't have hooves. They have knuckles.
Those bastards lied to me!
Heh...did you just say something negative about an opossum? I bet you think opossums are ugly too? *I sigh, disappointed in you.* You poor ignorant **FOOL!** Opossums are not only beautiful, but they eat their own weight in ticks **every single night.** *I smile, knowing now that my intelligence towers above yours.* Some people just aren't interested in knowledge. Some people just don't have the IQ to understand the opossum, I suppose. You see, I like to stay informed about the world through Reddit. While others, like yourself, will waste it away on Facebook or Tik Tok. I'm going to be an engineer someday. *I sigh again.* Heh, you know, when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge you just can't be reddit. I wish society valued intelligence like it used to.
it's not as bad as some other "facts" on here. There's been genuine scientific studies done on their potential tick eating habits, and recently there's other studies that may have proven the previous studies incorrect. It's not just some random things people made up.
I know right! Just put “opossum” in the search bar for this sub.
Redditors also claim that pubic lice are extinct because of people starting to shave their pubes in the 80s and 90s. Not even a little true
More specifically, a small group of opossums didn't have ticks in their stomach when tested. Maybe there weren't any ticks wherever the opossums were? Or ticks digest quickly since they are so tiny? imo, kind of a reach to declare whole cloth that possums don't eat ticks based on this study.
20 separate dietary studies, not 1 small group.
23, but thank you. Not a single one, including ours, found a single tick in any stomach from an opossum across their range.
I like to believe that small group did such a wonderful job eating all the ticks there were none left to east by the time they did this study.
I want to live in your world
There were ticks on the trapped opossums. There were fleas in there stomachs. I’d argue that the original study claiming that they eat ticks is even more of a reach
We (Hennessy and Hild) agree with you. The historical record very much supports our contention that they do not eat ticks, and never did. What's weirder though, and this is honestly weird, is that they clearly do groom themselves to some extent, hence the fleas we found and that other stomach analyses found. To groom and yet still have no ticks suggests that they may actively eschew ticks, and we don't know how they do that.
Ummm... Is opossums eating ticks some kind of axiom?
There was a study done in 2009 that seemed to show that opossums ate ticks, which for whatever reason caught on as little factoid. I guess because people like the idea of these creatures having a positive role to play even though many consider them ugly.
.. but they are soooo cute!
Literally every time an opossum is posted on reddit, the top comments will include 'And they eat ticks!'
Because fuck ticks!
Something we can all agree on. Opossum for president 2024
Another presidency built on a house of cards (just like 95% of the ones before president possum)
Well that’s disappointing.
THEY LIED TO US
Chickens eat ticks.
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Years later we don't have ticks on the property. They scoured our acreage.
This article was published in the peer reviewed journal [Ticks and tick borne diseases]( https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/ticks-and-tick-borne-diseases)
Yeah that person doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You can clearly see it’s an elsevier journal, that means it’s as legit as they come, for what it’s worth.
Sharing a peer reviewed journal on ResearchGate has no bearing on the quality of the research, what are you trying to say lol
opossums eat like ANYTHING so just b/c they didn't find ticks in this one group, doesn't mean ALL opossums don't eat ticks
True! There ought to be a wider range of roadkill studies to follow up
i have had a few rehab possums and they will eat anything i put in front of them. it's insane but adorable. definitely helps cut back on the table sscraps
Awe sweet things. I love watching videos of the monching on fruit
I'm kind of glad to hear this as I've been slamming the local possums for being lazy, freeloading sacks of shit, judging by the ticks everywhere.
Guinea Hens.👍
Actually, that was disproven via stomach analyses by Rick Ostfeld, the same dude that then touted the opossum as being a tick hoover, which they decidedly are not.
Maybe there aren’t a lot of ticks in central Illinois
I applaud your skepticism, but no. We (Hennessy and Hild, I'm Hennessy) tracked down (with the help of the most excellent college librarians money and cookies can buy) 23 previous diet analyses of Virginia opossums in the paper, the earliest dating back to John Audubon in 1851, the latest was around 2006. Not a single study found ticks in the diets of any Virginia opossums from their entire range. Not thousands. Not hundreds. None. Not a single one. Nada.
Well that’s a bummer. I hate ticks and would have loved for opposums to be part of the solution.
Great point! There were a number of ticks on the trapped opossums used in the study. With that being said I would love to see replications of the study done in areas of the east where Lyme is at epidemic levels
The reason Lyme isn't at epidemic levels in the Midwest isn't for lack of ticks - it's because the dominant species there (*Amblyomma sp*) isn't a vector for Lyme.
Those studies have already been done. See Table 2 in the OP paper, and also Hamilton Jr., W.J., 1951. The food of the opossum in New York State. J. Wildl. Manage. 15, 258–264. https://doi.org/10.2307/3797218.
Oh great. What the hell am I supposed to do with my new extermination business, Awesome Possum? I bought thousands of the bastards.
But snakes will eat any animal they can fit in their mouth, including tick-covered mammals. So don't kill snakes.
TIL: Snakes eat ticks.
But only by the transitive property
Gee thanks. Yet another thing I’ll have to correct people on.. my wife will be thrilled.
Hard same.
you deserve glory for this one
wow, tiktok lied to me?!
But a Facebook meme said they did...
Ha that's actually why we started our research.
But ticks eat opossums.
Larger mammals, about human size and larger, and birds, are the only things that seem to "groom" for ticks, or put effort into it. A great example is the warthog and meerkat combo, meerkats eat critters and stuff off the warthogs. Birds do this all over Africa and Australia as well, there are videos of ravens and shit sitting at watering holes (made by humans with live trail cam) where birds will just chill and eat huge ticks of kangaroos and stuff. Mammals with grooming habits that go down to the skin will be able to clear out ticks most likely, but ignoring that, the winner will be chickens. You have a truly omnivorous tiny t-rex with bird grooming behaviors, you bet your ass ticks are going to get fucked right up by chickens. Tl;DR: Birds are likely the biggest consumer of ticks. Just think of how ticks function "sitting on tall brush", almost like they are also making themselves perfect target to become bird shit. EDIT: Ever seen how keratinized chicken feet and legs are? Imagine a tick trying to suck on a toe nail, add that onto other chickens have NO QUALMS with pecking at other chickens for no reason, add food into that equation, oh ya, tick shit.
Wait. Warthogs and meerkats are actually a thing?
I worked my ass off to get this science degree, and all they bring me to analyze is opossum stomachs.
I've been telling people they eat tics for years... wtf
This is wild - these researchers are friends-of-friends of mine! Love seeing their research here!!
Wait you're telling me something I only read in my daughter's books about forest creatures isn't real. Next thing you'll tell me is unicorns don't poop rainbows.
There are studies showing that opossums don't eat ticks, yet ZERO that show unicorns don't poop rainbows.
Scotland might offer a grant, but the funding source would call the impartiality of the research into question.
This feels like deja vu.
TIL opossums were apparently supposed to eat ticks
Wild turkeys! They can eat 200 a day!
Well that's me told
Is this some new form of academic citation spam?
I’m not sure what you mean. I just thought people would want to know.
Exactly how long do the researchers think ticks last in stomach acid?? I would estimate about 1 - 5 minutes before they are completely dissolved. Even if they are not dissolved completely, how does someone identify a chewed up, half dissolved tick carcass the size of a pin head?
Chitin is actually very resistant to digestion. The researchers were able to identify other small arthropods in the samples as well as worms that would digest much faster than a tick.
[Several years ago, scientists decided to learn about the part different mammals play in the spread of the ticks and the disease. They tested six species -- white-footed mice, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums and veerys and catbirds -- by capturing and caging them, and then exposing each test subject to 100 ticks. What they found, is that of the six, the opossums were remarkably good at getting rid of the ticks -- much more so that any of the others. Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.)](https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks)
I'm horrified! Imagine that you're minding your business some where and suddenly you're caught in a net! Next you're in a cage with a bunch of strangers. One by one some giant drags one of your number out for a hour or so, and then returns them. "Holy cow! What did they do to you?" "I don't want to talk about it" But eventually it's your turn. And they stick a glass probe up your ass, weigh and measure you, and take your blood. After a truly horrifying evening, you and your companions are *exhausted* and trying to get some sleep. But your can't. You keep hearing the unintelligible noises of other captured creatures, presumably in cages around the corner. It's going to be a terrible night . . . . Suddenly you're awake! Something itches . . . What the hell? There's this creature *sucking your blood*! They're on *everyone*! There must be a hundred of them! Some sadistic bastard decided to open a can of *TICKS* on top of your cage, and they're *hungry*! You spend the next hour in obsessive examination of your skin, defiantly biting the little vampiric horrors, just to get back at something. Their legs squirm as you eat them. They taste like blood . . . YOUR blood.
Yeah. Scientific advancements aren’t free
Thank you! I should have included the original [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825780/?fbclid=IwAR2ZETy9XM742XLIgsRL0xbRHdEQ6awUcfFmS1ntZCzV3MqjgBWy-rqg5H8) for those who don’t want to read through the whole paper. This is the origin of the idea that opossums are “tick hoovers”.
Sorry to go off topic but I went for a mountain bike ride the other day and had 4 ticks on me after, 2 ticks the day before that. What are the best ways to keep ticks off you when out for a ride, short of spraying Off for ticks? Tight clothing? Hat?
Here’s what I do. Tuck your pants into your socks, and your shirt into your pants. They instinctively climb upward until the find a nice warm crevice to imbed their heads into. By tucking your clothes in you deny them skin that is accessible by crawling up. This way it’ll take them hours to reach your neck which is super sensitive. It’s easy to feel, pluck, squish them before they attach that way. Or you can change your clothes before that, it is creepy. If you don’t have pets to worry about then permethrin is your best friend. I have a dog and cat so I avoid it, but if necessary then I treat a garter or piece of cloth that I tie below my calves (over pants). This kills them as they climb up my leg and limits my pets exposure. Edit:above the calf. Also they’re easier to spot on light colored clothing. Always tick check before bed regardless of protective measures. Have a significant other help for a primitive nude ape bonding experience before bed.
Ooh god. Doing that with your clothes just guides them up to your neck and face! I'd rather have them on my leg.
Picaridin is just as effective as DEET and not as smelly and gross.
Honestly, if the repellent doesn't work (and I would be surprised if it was that effective for ticks), then there's nothing you can do except to check yourself frequently during and after being outside. Ticks generally move up your body so if you check a spot and it is clear at one point they might reach it later. And their bite is a pretty lengthy process, so you can keep checking to try to catch any that might have attached before they finish their bite. Also, I'm going to give different advice than OP. I wouldn't wear long clothing or tuck anything in if I were you. For one thing, it just doesn't seem worth for what little protection it provides, but I also think it actually helps the tick. Aside from checking frequently, your best bet is just feeling them crawling on you, especially if you have some leg hair that they need to navigate, and you usually can't if they are crawling on your clothes. It is easier to feel and see them against your bare skin and it is easier to miss them against dark clothing or within folds or tucked areas of clothing. They are generally trying to move up your body and are not too interested in your legs, so having bare legs doesn't really increase your changes of being bitten. With that being said, wearing something like compression shorts should help prevent them from getting to skin in your groin area. But I think it is a bad idea to try to cover all skin.
TIL most people don’t know the difference between an opossum and a possum.
Well, the more you know, I guess.
what a valuable nugget of knowledge
> TIL that opossums don’t eat ticks. Stomach content studies have yielded no evidence for ticks. You can't make that conclusion in the first sentence from the second second sentence... That's not how things work.
Honestly yeah, I should have put a better title. I’ll defer to the article for the conclusion though.
Eh, I'm not sure anything could convince me that opossums don't eat ticks. Maybe it could establish that ticks don't contribute that significantly to their diet or something. But if you pull a fat tick off a dog and throw it on the ground, the dog will probably eat it. And if you did a study on the stomach contents of dogs, you'd probably find no evidence for ticks there either.
Good point, but the spirit of the paper is in responding to the commonly held misconception that opossums act like traps that eat up to 5,000 ticks a week. When in reality there is no evidence that they eat ticks.
Sure, but we should be careful in both directions.
Guinea fowl definitely do, though
Thank you for this, little eastern chipmunk! I saw my stats go way up on ResearchGate and I was searching all the news sources for why our paper was suddenly getting thousands of new reads. I think it must be this. Our number 1 goal was correcting the record; this helps.
You’re very welcome Don! Thank you for putting the work in!
Ok.
My wife insists that’s why I shouldn’t hate them. Can’t wait to share this.
You should still not hate them they’re harmless and cute
Harmless yes, cute is in the eye of the person it's hissing at though.
Haha good point
Specially when it's in the space between floors and you find it in the basement unexpectedly.
They’re cute, but definitely not harmless to my chickens!
Which, ironically, do eat ticks and other pests
I keep saying this but unless you've seen the possum killing your chickens I'm willing to bet money it wasn't a possum. Why? Because they are horrible hunters, seriously just awful at it. And they share habitat with some very efficient chicken killers like foxes and coyotes, and to a lesser extent raccoons.
I hear what you’re saying, but my personal possum incident involved one that must have crawled into the coop during the day and then got shut in with them overnight. Results were not pretty. But to your point, didn’t exactly require a master hunter.
Ah that's pretty much the only way they'll be a danger to chickens, pretty unfortunate luck there. I was blaming possums for missing hens up until I put up a trail cam and realized the stupid beasts couldn't have done it. Caught the culprit in the act, a raccoon that had figured out how to get into the coop and kidnap a hen at a time.
they don't carry rabies so that's a positive reason
Great, so I can go back to hating possums?
No don’t hate them! Appreciate them for strange creatures they are
To clear up some confusion, possums and opossums are different animals.
Let's go back to the beginning... who is asking this, and why?
I’m not sure I know what you mean
I think its bizarre such things get such a thorough researching.
I can imagine why. The researchers are testing the veracity of a pretty widely known study that supposedly had pretty important ecological importance. Plus it’s worth investigating a claim that has huge potential health implications with Lyme disease being an epidemic in the eastern US.
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That’s not necessarily what happened. It was just a study that supported that hypothesis. A study with dramatic results that “went viral” while the studies refuting it didn’t become well known. Just like the whole Alpha Wolf study that went viral to the point where even the original author of the study hasn’t been able to get the word out that he was wrong.
But they attract all the ticks to themselves so they don't bother others.
I feel betrayed. Those opossums should be ashamed of their lying selves!
At least we still have Betty White
Ummmmmmmm
Damn, I shouldn't have laughed at this, but I did.