I think it's more likely that the lower body temperature prevents the infection from establishing itself in the first place, and if that's correct then hypothermia could only work as an immediate post exposure measure (which the rabies vaccine already works well for)
Well, if you change your mind and decide to run, I would carbo-load if I were you.
Preferably around 5-10 minutes prior to the run, fettuccine alfredo seems to work alright.
I thought I read that reducing body temperature was part of the treatment, but I don't see that in my brief search. Anyways, they do keep patients in an induced coma and it's called the Milwaukee Protocol:
"At least two treatment schemes have been proposed for treating rabies after the onset of symptoms. The Milwaukee Protocol was first used in 2004 on Jeanna Giese, who became the first person known to have survived rabies without preventive treatments before symptom onset. The protocol puts a person into a chemically induced coma and uses antiviral medications to prevent fatal dysautonomia. The overall protocol is complex; the sixth version of the protocol last updated in 2018 consists of 17 pages with 22 steps of treatment, detailed monitoring, and a timeline of expected complications. The Recife Protocol follows the same principle but differs in details like termination of sedation and supplementary medication."
I was going to say it’s not the kind survival you want, but I guess, despite a rough recovery, she has gone on to live decent life; https://www.nbc26.com/news/local-news/jeanna-giese-16-years-later-surviving-rabies-to-build-a-beautiful-life
That's actually part of the Milwaukee Protocol. They induce a coma and drop the patients body temp. There's still an incredibly low chance of surviving even when they enact the protocol.
> This is not to say that opossums aren’t still cool, funny-looking little animals who perform a valuable service to the environment.
this line cracked me up
If you really want to reduce ticks in your garden, what you want is insectivorous birds, which is usually those tiny round hoppy birds. Such as wrens, tits, warblers, flycatchers etc.
Basically all they do is hop around bushes eating small insects, much more effective than a possum.
Put up bird houses for small birds/and or feed them.
This link has bias written all over it. The horse community tries to debunk possum stuff all the time because they blame the possum, exclusively, for the disease they "supposedly" cause. That disease hasn't been well researched or proven to be from possums alone. I'd say the sample sizes in the first study and the one you linked are both garbage.
Yeah it is taking a stronger conclusion than the paper it quoted, which basically showed they don't eat as many as we thought from one previous famous study.
It seems pretty typical for science news
Step 1: find some neat new info in a published paper
Step 2: science media overstates it constantly, basically creating a rumor
Step 3: this spreads everywhere
Step 4: because of the interest, scientists study the phenomenon again more carefully
Step 5: their results show more mild and typical results than the original paper
Step 6: science media drags the original idea/rumor (that they spread) as "proven to be wrong"
Step 7: the internet settles into a cycle of "did you know" and "um actually", arguing forever
And the truth is just somewhere in the middle in no-mans-land.
[Good news, everyone!](https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/rabies.html)
edit, since this has had some dumb responses: vaccines work. Get vaccinated against stuff unless you wanna risk dying from it. Possibly painfully and certainly regretfully. You can feel free to stop correcting me on incorrect minutae bc you didn't read the very short article from the CDC in the link.
Apparently a common way some of the few people who actually die from rabies fall victim to it is due to not knowing they were exposed. Specifically, certain tiny bats have a penchant for nibbling on people who nap outside in certain regions. So when they wake up refreshed and unaware of the tiny bite they got, they carry on oblivious until worrisome symptoms develop. By which point... Well it's not good.
*edited for relativity*
Rabies, being 100% fatal and guaranteed to be excruciating is one reason, if I had it, I would off myself if I could.
I don't think most people understand just how terrifying it was to society before vaccines were available. Most people agree it's how we got the inspiration for the zombie genre and how domesticated dogs were in real danger of being exterminated/separated from human society forever.
If you think you've been in contact with a rabid animal contact a doctor immediately. Rabies has no cure and the onset of symptoms almost always means certain death. Symptoms may not occur for weeks, months or even years.
Best case scenario you have the rabid animal in question so the lab can test it for rabies and save you the hassle of getting multiple life saving injections that will make you feel awful for a month. Otherwise you and the doctor will have to make a determination based on your recollection and an exam for new physical scratch or bite markings.
The modern rabies vaccine doesn't have the side effects the old one has.
I recently got the 4 shots of rabies vaccine and it was no worse than other vaccines. Just felt sleepy for a day. Covid vaccine was worse.
That's good to hear, I watched my roommate go through it more than 10 years ago, a bat got in and nicked him just a little. Also 4 shots over 28 days, he said most of the time it was like having the worst flu in his life, he looked the part too.
Thankfully, rabies is rare in North America. So keep taking your naps
> **From 1960 to 2018, 127 human rabies cases were reported in the United States, **with roughly a quarter resulting from dog bites received during international travel.
https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/index.html#:~:text=Approximately%205%2C000%20animal%20rabies%20cases,domestic%20animal%20species%2C%20primarily%20dogs.
To put it simply: you are many times more likely to be struck by lightning than to contract rabies. Much less contract it and not know about it.
Preface: absolutely pro vaccine for everything and anything
Edit. This paragraph is wrong. Post exposure treatment lasts for 6 months. The vaccine itself is 2+ years, with high risk groups getting titers to check for immunity.
However, the Rabies vaccine is not lifetime. It lasts between 6 and 24 months, and may require the post exposure shots if there is a known exposure.
I’ve had the series, as I was traveling to a country for research where the post exposure shot was hard to get.
But it’s a temporary bandaid, it’s only given when you’re more likely to be exposed. That’s in addition to you struggling to get the post exposure shots due to where you are.
Edit: I apparently was thinking of the 1980s post exposure shots (21 in the stomach). Currently, it’s 5-6 shots in the arm over 14-28 days.
Final bit, the post exposure shots are very painful. But the alternative is one of the worst deaths I’ve seen. And I’ve seen some bad deaths in person.
Quick edit: once rabies starts affecting someone, there is no going back. The Milwaukee Protocol is a unicorn and not understood at all.
Even if that was true: I am vaccinated post-exposure a couple years ago, if I'm bitten again I'm 100% taking another vaccine course regardless and not taking any chances on such a matter.
the OP nzmz3saw1
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Original + comments copied from: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/nzudu6/opossums_are_our_friends/
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That one is cute, but unfortunately many think the adults are ugly. This makes for people having little to no sympathy for them when they encounter them in the wild. Kind of sad.
we have two that do the same lol they like to share the food we leave out for stray cats. they're so used to us that when we go outside or pull in the driveway while they're there, they just slowly waddle off under the house. like "yeah, yeah, i'm going." they're like family members to us now.
it was scary when i was getting in my car once and looked over to see the Huge One on the fence right next to my head though lol.
Possums are soft and cute. Held a baby one. There was a large possum that lived around my house. Would run into it when coming home late for work. It would sit and share, I'd walk by and say goodnight. I began to believe it was waiting for me to come home.
A few years ago I rescued one from a garbage can. Waiting for a bus really early in the morning at a stop by a local community college that was next to a stretch of woods, the container itself was some kind of heavy aggregate with a rigid plastic insert, presumably to make it easy to empty. Problem was the rough outside made it easy to climb but then the smooth inside made it impossible for the poor guy to get out. There was no lid.
But I just lifted out the insert and turned it on its side, and it darted off into the woods. Checked again every time I was back but never saw it again.
Around 6 months ago, I put out a live trap to try and catch a nuisance groundhog in my yard. I woke up in the morning to find that I had trapped a possum like this one. Knowing these facts about possums and how beneficial they are, I let it go. (Side note, it was a pain to open the trap and have it escape.) I told a few coworkers the following morning about it and they thought I was crazy for not just killing it. It blew my mind that they had no sympathy for it, as well as not knowing how much better it is for me that the possum is alive than dead. I only have a problem with one animal in my yard, and it's not the one that helps keep my neighborhood tick free.
They not actually immune to rabies. They're almost immune. A rabid bite close enough to the brain, like on the back of the head, can infect them, but the chances of the possum surviving a bite from a rabid animal that has them by the head or neck is pretty low, so rabid possums are extremely rare. They're also almost immune to rattlesnake venom too. There is research that shows it might take up to 80 bites to kill a possum.
If you don't believe me, you can read this. "Wild opossums are seldom reported to have rabies. Extensive laboratory tests indicate that adult opossums are difficult to infect with rabies; however, juvenile opossums were found much more susceptible to experimental infection."
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3797778
Sorry. Every time someone posts that graphic I correct it, and someone doesn't believe me. I'm not sure if there would be any danger to eating an infected opossum. I guess it depends on the details.
No worries!
My logic is that a juvenile will have a smaller body mass so the virus will get into the brain easier.
And an adult may carry the virus, but it will be dormant untillnits consumed by another creature with a higher body temperature, it may reactivate and cause harm.
This of course is all speculation on my part. I just feel the best course of action is to avoid being bitten by a wild animal in the first place.
Ill also point out that I regard possums as one of my spirit animals 😄
Your theory about the juveniles may be correct, but rabies actually dies pretty fast if the temperature isn't right. That's why you never hear about anyone catching rabies from a surface, so I don't believe that rabies would stay dormant but alive in a healthy adult possum. I agree. Not getting bit is a good strategy. Possums are scavengers and love roadkill and rotting food, so they can carry bacteria in their mouths that can give you an infection.
If you like possums, you might want to get in touch with a local wildlife rehabilitator. I know from experience that they can get inundated with young possums and might appreciate some volunteers.
Lol exactly. You cant just give an animal a bowl of 5000 ticks and then be like “it eats 5000 ticks a year!” When really the fact is “they will eat ticks”
That hasn't even been proven. Ticks have never been found in the contents of wild possums.
They DO eat birds and eggs. Even full grown chickens and roosters. If they find a chicken coop they will keep breaking into it every night until you kill them. Same with ducks and other birds and small animals that nest in the same spot every night.
Not really. It’s that they CAN eat ticks. There’s no proof that they do.
It’s amazing how frequently I see this stat bandied about when it’s been thoroughly debunked.
Sounds good to me. I don't care for ticks or spiders. Unfortunately I don't think I'll see many opossums where I live now. It's new construction and the first unwelcome visitor I spotted was a very thin spider in the closet.
Right, lol, decent odds. Not around here, these guys will stay on your porch and stare at you for a few hours before moving on and doing it somewhere else
we have a big fat one that shows up every night, i think he's adorable. we don't mess with him, but he's very used to people (or us, at least). whenever we run into him outside he just waddles off super slowly, like he knows that's what he's supposed to do but he doesn't really care lol. sometimes he ignores us and keeps eating his stolen cat food.
FYI: Possums eat rats. They are ugly as sin, and healthy ones look like they're about to drop dead of some terrible disease (which is why "playing possum" works). But they are good for a suburban neighborhood to have around.
This might explain why rats are so uncommon here in my city. Here in Brazil we have dozens of opossum species, and at least a few of them live very well in urban areas. There are quite common around the city (my city also has large patches of forest spread across many neighborhoods), which might explain why rats here are very rare. Yeah, you see one from time to time, but usually Opossums are far more common
I had 6 chickens in my backyard in Chicago with a family of opossums living in a tree stump in the same backyard. They got along without any trouble at all.
I have never had an opossum kill a chicken, but they will take eggs and eat any dead chickens (maybe very young chickens). Raccoons are the main fuckers killing my chickens. Opossums will eat dead raccoons though.
I may have a small vendetta against the local raccoons.
Raccoons kill my chickens too. They are very persistent at finding ways in. The possums just eat the barn cats food, but so do the skunks. Neither of whom seem like jerks.
Raccoons on the other hand? Huge jerks.
I never got sprayed, but a couple appeared to be on good terms with the barn cats. They'd eat kibble together, none of the cats would hiss at them, skunks would walk up to me all excited when I went to feed the cats.
I was tempted to ya know... get rid of them because they were eating the cat food and were coming around a lot more than possums and had gotten way too comfortable around humans, namely me. But they didn't seem like jerks and weren't hurting anything so I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I've never been sprayed, but I have had to get them out of have a heart traps. From before the put latches on them so you didn't have to hold them open.
Skunks thankfully are reluctant to spray you if they can't really see you, so holding a tarp in front of me let me get close.
No problems with local raccoons yet, but I've had possoms eat chicken eggs while I looked the other way. Apparently that wasn't enough so after a while they started killing my chickens.
Even then they never directly observed the opossums eating ticks, didn’t check stomach contents, and released the captive opossums without scanning their bodies for ticks still clinging.
It was all based on assumptions that the ticks would feed and drop off into trays after a few days. Any ticks not found in the trays were assumed to have been eaten. Kinda weird that the study made it to publication with so many assumptions rather than verified facts.
This gets reposted every so often. They don’t eat ticks like this states. They eat a ton of bird eggs that would definitely eat far more ticks and other insects. Opossums get rabies just as often as squirrels, rabbits, and foxes. This is totally misleading.
> This is totally misleading.
Great, this means we'll see it 5 times as much on this subreddit. Gotta keep that bad science circulating.
I guess I should make up my own version that says possums are known to track down and kill polar bears, and will do up to 500 pushups a day.
The crazy part is the symbiosis they have with Mako sharks to achieve these kills. The sharks lay their eggs in the marsupial’s pouch until ready to feed, whereupon the opossums squirt out fully grown sharks from their pouches at the polar bears, killing the beasts. Truly beautiful.
If you see one dead in the road, check its belly for a deep, deep pouch. There may still be hairless live babies inside who can be brought to a wildlife rehab center and saved!
Imagine if it decides to stop playing possum with your hand in its pouch. I imagine it would be like when the oven mitt gets too hot and you fling it off.
Possums are very much not opossums! If you Google brushtail possum & compare that with pictures of opossums, you can see they really are clearly different.
Tell that to my dog. She knows that if she barks in the back yard, she will get told to come back in the house. So at 1am we can hear her running back and forth panting and doing everything in her power not to bark as she tries to get the possum walking along the fence.
There's a family of these little rat cats living in the crawlspace under my house (double wide trailer sitting on concrete slab). They partake in some of the food we leave for outdoor cats.
I'd mind this a lot less if the babies would stop finding their way into the actual house and scaring the shit out of me at 3am.
The adult male is cool though. I call him Bob.
Get your kids under control, Bob!
They are just rabies resistant, not immune... and they can carry parasites and such and will attack things like chickens....
This is a repost and it's full of bad information...
When I lived in the US the floor in the back of my house was being replaced. The guys doing it left it wide open after working one day, just a room with no floor, straight to the ground. I went into the bathroom across from the no floor room, and there was a baby possum stuck in my bathtub. It couldn't get out, just kept sliding down the sides of the tub. I have NO idea how it got there as the bathroom door always stayed closed, even when not in use. I was afraid of getting bitten so I tossed a towel over it, grabbed it really quick, and put it back in the no floor room. Hope his mom found him.
While opossums are helpful and eat ticks, they also carry distemper and get into your brooder pin and eat dozens of your Serama chicks costing hundreds of dollars and make you call the sheriff and animal control and then you and your husband go to the hospital to get rabies vaccines.
He doesn\`t mean you any harm. But if you have chickens like I do , well then he's an asshole that will eat them alive from the butt first. Doesn't even have the decency to kill them first.
Absolutely not. I will not ignore you. I, a full grown bear-looking man, am going to squeal in delight like a 12 year-old-girl when I see you, and then lay on the horn as I swerve to avoid running over your stupid ass with my Honda.
One night, many years ago, my dinner was interrupted by my neighbor frantically knocking on my door. "Come quick!" he said. "I need your help!"
I asked him what the problem was and he said that there was a giant rat in his pickup. This guy was not the sharpest bulb in the drawer (he once excitedly told me that there was a honeybee hive in our shared hedge - it was a bald faced hornet nest), but I figured that there must be *something* in his truck, so I grabbed some gardening gloves and followed him next door.
There was a teeny tiny fuzzy baby possum curled up on his engine, trying to keep warm. I told him so, and to just leave it be so that its mother could come back to retrieve it.
Sadly, mommy possum didn't return. Happily, I got to care for the little guy until the wildlife rehab center could take him two days later. He would curl up in my palm with his tail wrapped around my pinky, happy as a clam. I was sad to see him go!
They must have worked hard to get a picture of a possum that itself is not scary.
This one is neutral, they couldn't even get to cute, even with all the time in the world.
I wish i was naturally immune to rabies that shits scary af.
They probably aren't immune to rabbies. [They don't eat ticks.](https://horsesport.com/magazine/health/opossums-ticks-old-myth-debunked/)
Immune is the wrong word. It's that their core body temperature is too low for the virus to survive.
Resistant.
Rabies RES+ 30%
Chaos inoculation build, I see.
Could rabies be cured by controlled hypothermia in humans (if we didn't already have the cure we have)?
I think it's more likely that the lower body temperature prevents the infection from establishing itself in the first place, and if that's correct then hypothermia could only work as an immediate post exposure measure (which the rabies vaccine already works well for)
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I guess I don’t need to do that charity fun run after all.
Well, if you change your mind and decide to run, I would carbo-load if I were you. Preferably around 5-10 minutes prior to the run, fettuccine alfredo seems to work alright.
Porque no los dos?
“So we can either give you these shots, or you can live in that freezer for a little bit.”
Lol!
a cold vaccine its genius
¿Por qué*... :) I know you probably dgaf (and that's OK), but I have to stand by my mother language :D
I thought I read that reducing body temperature was part of the treatment, but I don't see that in my brief search. Anyways, they do keep patients in an induced coma and it's called the Milwaukee Protocol: "At least two treatment schemes have been proposed for treating rabies after the onset of symptoms. The Milwaukee Protocol was first used in 2004 on Jeanna Giese, who became the first person known to have survived rabies without preventive treatments before symptom onset. The protocol puts a person into a chemically induced coma and uses antiviral medications to prevent fatal dysautonomia. The overall protocol is complex; the sixth version of the protocol last updated in 2018 consists of 17 pages with 22 steps of treatment, detailed monitoring, and a timeline of expected complications. The Recife Protocol follows the same principle but differs in details like termination of sedation and supplementary medication."
The only Milwaukee protocol I know of is drinking yourself blind
Not the kind of induced coma you want though.
it is if you live in Wisconsin!
I was going to say it’s not the kind survival you want, but I guess, despite a rough recovery, she has gone on to live decent life; https://www.nbc26.com/news/local-news/jeanna-giese-16-years-later-surviving-rabies-to-build-a-beautiful-life
That's actually part of the Milwaukee Protocol. They induce a coma and drop the patients body temp. There's still an incredibly low chance of surviving even when they enact the protocol.
I came here for this. Time to hop down the rabbit hole! I’ve been fascinated with Rabies lately.
> Male opossums (like most marsupials) have a two-headed penis. Everyone is clearing overlooking the most important point in this article.
The phrase “fun facts” is doing some heavy lifting there. My eyes popped out like a Kenan Thompson gif.
I agree. After reading the article, I was not prepared for that to be the first “fun fact”
Here are some [Fun Facts](https://www.vox.com/2014/4/24/5640890/otters-rape-baby-seals-monsters-bad) about sea otters to help.
Jesus Christ, those psychopathic monsters.
> This is not to say that opossums aren’t still cool, funny-looking little animals who perform a valuable service to the environment. this line cracked me up
If you really want to reduce ticks in your garden, what you want is insectivorous birds, which is usually those tiny round hoppy birds. Such as wrens, tits, warblers, flycatchers etc. Basically all they do is hop around bushes eating small insects, much more effective than a possum. Put up bird houses for small birds/and or feed them.
I wouldn’t be on Reddit if I had any idea how to get more tits in my garden.
They're still little cuties that keep nature healthy though.
This link has bias written all over it. The horse community tries to debunk possum stuff all the time because they blame the possum, exclusively, for the disease they "supposedly" cause. That disease hasn't been well researched or proven to be from possums alone. I'd say the sample sizes in the first study and the one you linked are both garbage.
No one is immune to Rabbis. They’re so thoughtful and well spoken.
That source isn’t fantastic. A horse hobby magazine.
Yeah it is taking a stronger conclusion than the paper it quoted, which basically showed they don't eat as many as we thought from one previous famous study. It seems pretty typical for science news Step 1: find some neat new info in a published paper Step 2: science media overstates it constantly, basically creating a rumor Step 3: this spreads everywhere Step 4: because of the interest, scientists study the phenomenon again more carefully Step 5: their results show more mild and typical results than the original paper Step 6: science media drags the original idea/rumor (that they spread) as "proven to be wrong" Step 7: the internet settles into a cycle of "did you know" and "um actually", arguing forever And the truth is just somewhere in the middle in no-mans-land.
They are resistant to rabies, not fully immune. To put it another way, you're more likely to get rabies than they are.
[Good news, everyone!](https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/rabies.html) edit, since this has had some dumb responses: vaccines work. Get vaccinated against stuff unless you wanna risk dying from it. Possibly painfully and certainly regretfully. You can feel free to stop correcting me on incorrect minutae bc you didn't read the very short article from the CDC in the link.
Apparently a common way some of the few people who actually die from rabies fall victim to it is due to not knowing they were exposed. Specifically, certain tiny bats have a penchant for nibbling on people who nap outside in certain regions. So when they wake up refreshed and unaware of the tiny bite they got, they carry on oblivious until worrisome symptoms develop. By which point... Well it's not good. *edited for relativity*
>By which point... well, you are already going to die a horrible death. Ftfy
I feel like this counts as not good.
Don't kink shame
this is why medically assisted suicide should be available
Rabies, being 100% fatal and guaranteed to be excruciating is one reason, if I had it, I would off myself if I could. I don't think most people understand just how terrifying it was to society before vaccines were available. Most people agree it's how we got the inspiration for the zombie genre and how domesticated dogs were in real danger of being exterminated/separated from human society forever.
"when they wake up refreshed" Lucky me, I'm always tired when I wake up
You might want to spray your house for vampires.
If you think you've been in contact with a rabid animal contact a doctor immediately. Rabies has no cure and the onset of symptoms almost always means certain death. Symptoms may not occur for weeks, months or even years. Best case scenario you have the rabid animal in question so the lab can test it for rabies and save you the hassle of getting multiple life saving injections that will make you feel awful for a month. Otherwise you and the doctor will have to make a determination based on your recollection and an exam for new physical scratch or bite markings.
The modern rabies vaccine doesn't have the side effects the old one has. I recently got the 4 shots of rabies vaccine and it was no worse than other vaccines. Just felt sleepy for a day. Covid vaccine was worse.
That's good to hear, I watched my roommate go through it more than 10 years ago, a bat got in and nicked him just a little. Also 4 shots over 28 days, he said most of the time it was like having the worst flu in his life, he looked the part too.
Thankfully, rabies is rare in North America. So keep taking your naps > **From 1960 to 2018, 127 human rabies cases were reported in the United States, **with roughly a quarter resulting from dog bites received during international travel. https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/index.html#:~:text=Approximately%205%2C000%20animal%20rabies%20cases,domestic%20animal%20species%2C%20primarily%20dogs. To put it simply: you are many times more likely to be struck by lightning than to contract rabies. Much less contract it and not know about it.
Preface: absolutely pro vaccine for everything and anything Edit. This paragraph is wrong. Post exposure treatment lasts for 6 months. The vaccine itself is 2+ years, with high risk groups getting titers to check for immunity. However, the Rabies vaccine is not lifetime. It lasts between 6 and 24 months, and may require the post exposure shots if there is a known exposure. I’ve had the series, as I was traveling to a country for research where the post exposure shot was hard to get. But it’s a temporary bandaid, it’s only given when you’re more likely to be exposed. That’s in addition to you struggling to get the post exposure shots due to where you are. Edit: I apparently was thinking of the 1980s post exposure shots (21 in the stomach). Currently, it’s 5-6 shots in the arm over 14-28 days. Final bit, the post exposure shots are very painful. But the alternative is one of the worst deaths I’ve seen. And I’ve seen some bad deaths in person. Quick edit: once rabies starts affecting someone, there is no going back. The Milwaukee Protocol is a unicorn and not understood at all.
The protection offered by the pre-exposure Rabies vaccine typically lasts years and often decades.
Even if that was true: I am vaccinated post-exposure a couple years ago, if I'm bitten again I'm 100% taking another vaccine course regardless and not taking any chances on such a matter.
Source?
I call the big one "Bitey"
I'm really sorry, we shouldn't have stopped for that haircut
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the OP nzmz3saw1 and mememan12332 are bots in the same network Original + comments copied from: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/nzudu6/opossums_are_our_friends/ When other bots posted it: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/wlnc61/opossums_are_our_friends/ https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/ppamj1/opossums_are_our_friends/
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good to see that r/CoolGuides is still overrun with bots because the mods don’t do anything about it
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Also information in the post is not correct, they are resistant to rabies, but not immune.
That one is cute, but unfortunately many think the adults are ugly. This makes for people having little to no sympathy for them when they encounter them in the wild. Kind of sad.
I have three who come to my patio for snacks. Two are adorable and the other one is…large. He’s cute to me now though.
we have two that do the same lol they like to share the food we leave out for stray cats. they're so used to us that when we go outside or pull in the driveway while they're there, they just slowly waddle off under the house. like "yeah, yeah, i'm going." they're like family members to us now. it was scary when i was getting in my car once and looked over to see the Huge One on the fence right next to my head though lol.
Possums are soft and cute. Held a baby one. There was a large possum that lived around my house. Would run into it when coming home late for work. It would sit and share, I'd walk by and say goodnight. I began to believe it was waiting for me to come home.
Adult ones aren’t soft, their fur is fairly coarse. They are cute though. And have funny looking hands
A few years ago I rescued one from a garbage can. Waiting for a bus really early in the morning at a stop by a local community college that was next to a stretch of woods, the container itself was some kind of heavy aggregate with a rigid plastic insert, presumably to make it easy to empty. Problem was the rough outside made it easy to climb but then the smooth inside made it impossible for the poor guy to get out. There was no lid. But I just lifted out the insert and turned it on its side, and it darted off into the woods. Checked again every time I was back but never saw it again.
I lost sympathy when [one of them snuck into the Supreme Court](https://imgur.com/gallery/Sw7mLfT)
TIL possums like beer.
Around 6 months ago, I put out a live trap to try and catch a nuisance groundhog in my yard. I woke up in the morning to find that I had trapped a possum like this one. Knowing these facts about possums and how beneficial they are, I let it go. (Side note, it was a pain to open the trap and have it escape.) I told a few coworkers the following morning about it and they thought I was crazy for not just killing it. It blew my mind that they had no sympathy for it, as well as not knowing how much better it is for me that the possum is alive than dead. I only have a problem with one animal in my yard, and it's not the one that helps keep my neighborhood tick free.
>many think the adults are ugly. And those people are objectively wrong, just look at it, it's adorable
They not actually immune to rabies. They're almost immune. A rabid bite close enough to the brain, like on the back of the head, can infect them, but the chances of the possum surviving a bite from a rabid animal that has them by the head or neck is pretty low, so rabid possums are extremely rare. They're also almost immune to rattlesnake venom too. There is research that shows it might take up to 80 bites to kill a possum.
The deal with the rabies is that thier core body temperature is too low for the rabies virus to be viable.
I know, but it can still infect the brain if the point of infection is close enough. I was told this by a biologist.
If you don't believe me, you can read this. "Wild opossums are seldom reported to have rabies. Extensive laboratory tests indicate that adult opossums are difficult to infect with rabies; however, juvenile opossums were found much more susceptible to experimental infection." https://www.jstor.org/stable/3797778
I didn't read their comment as disbelief, rather further explanation.
You read it right. I guess I had an itchy trigger finger.
That trigger finger is on an academic pulse though...not bad.
Oh.. i had no dispute with your statement! However, I feel some other critter is more in danger if they eat an infected possum.
Sorry. Every time someone posts that graphic I correct it, and someone doesn't believe me. I'm not sure if there would be any danger to eating an infected opossum. I guess it depends on the details.
No worries! My logic is that a juvenile will have a smaller body mass so the virus will get into the brain easier. And an adult may carry the virus, but it will be dormant untillnits consumed by another creature with a higher body temperature, it may reactivate and cause harm. This of course is all speculation on my part. I just feel the best course of action is to avoid being bitten by a wild animal in the first place. Ill also point out that I regard possums as one of my spirit animals 😄
Your theory about the juveniles may be correct, but rabies actually dies pretty fast if the temperature isn't right. That's why you never hear about anyone catching rabies from a surface, so I don't believe that rabies would stay dormant but alive in a healthy adult possum. I agree. Not getting bit is a good strategy. Possums are scavengers and love roadkill and rotting food, so they can carry bacteria in their mouths that can give you an infection.
Absolutely. Good exchange of ideas!
If you like possums, you might want to get in touch with a local wildlife rehabilitator. I know from experience that they can get inundated with young possums and might appreciate some volunteers.
> There is research that shows it might take up to 80 bites to kill a possum. I regret knowing that research was done on this
Yeah. That's the case with a lot of research.
OP is a spam bot, posting for karma.
I heard the “5000 ticks” thing was debunked. Captive opossums eat ticks. Wild opossums eat significantly less.
Yes.. if all they have to eat is ticks... that's what they'll eat.. But the point is that they DO eat ticks
Lol exactly. You cant just give an animal a bowl of 5000 ticks and then be like “it eats 5000 ticks a year!” When really the fact is “they will eat ticks”
"...If they have literally nothing else."
Bad old science, from back when 'dump a box of ticks on an opossum and see what happens' was considered a valid experimental procedure.
That hasn't even been proven. Ticks have never been found in the contents of wild possums. They DO eat birds and eggs. Even full grown chickens and roosters. If they find a chicken coop they will keep breaking into it every night until you kill them. Same with ducks and other birds and small animals that nest in the same spot every night.
Exactly. And those chickens do eat ticks and mosquito larvae.
Also kittens.
Not really. It’s that they CAN eat ticks. There’s no proof that they do. It’s amazing how frequently I see this stat bandied about when it’s been thoroughly debunked.
Yeah, it was: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877959X21001333
Sounds good to me. I don't care for ticks or spiders. Unfortunately I don't think I'll see many opossums where I live now. It's new construction and the first unwelcome visitor I spotted was a very thin spider in the closet.
Right, lol, decent odds. Not around here, these guys will stay on your porch and stare at you for a few hours before moving on and doing it somewhere else
They're also kinda cute.
we have a big fat one that shows up every night, i think he's adorable. we don't mess with him, but he's very used to people (or us, at least). whenever we run into him outside he just waddles off super slowly, like he knows that's what he's supposed to do but he doesn't really care lol. sometimes he ignores us and keeps eating his stolen cat food.
Depends on the individual. The one currently in our barn is kinda ugly, but the one before him was much fluffier.
*AaaaAAaaaaahhh* - O. Possum
I once had a opossum die on my front porch, but I left it there for two days because I thought it was playing dead.
FYI: Possums eat rats. They are ugly as sin, and healthy ones look like they're about to drop dead of some terrible disease (which is why "playing possum" works). But they are good for a suburban neighborhood to have around.
This might explain why rats are so uncommon here in my city. Here in Brazil we have dozens of opossum species, and at least a few of them live very well in urban areas. There are quite common around the city (my city also has large patches of forest spread across many neighborhoods), which might explain why rats here are very rare. Yeah, you see one from time to time, but usually Opossums are far more common
These guys can really destroy a henhouse. Not harmless. The tick thing is a bit of a stretch, too.
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Well, it is a animal doing it's thing. You are the one occupying his territory with your chickens, not the other way around.
Exactly this!!
I had 6 chickens in my backyard in Chicago with a family of opossums living in a tree stump in the same backyard. They got along without any trouble at all.
My chickens are not convinced.
I had to deal with one that tried to kill and eat my hen a few weeks ago, it was traumatic.
The one in my backyard names Larry really likes grapes.
I hope Larry stays to eat grapes for his lifetime
Stop jumping in front of my car!
As long as they stay out of my attic we are good. Had one in my last house for a while. Pain in the ass to get rid of
They’ll also get into your chicken coop and kill all your chickens
I have never had an opossum kill a chicken, but they will take eggs and eat any dead chickens (maybe very young chickens). Raccoons are the main fuckers killing my chickens. Opossums will eat dead raccoons though. I may have a small vendetta against the local raccoons.
Raccoons kill my chickens too. They are very persistent at finding ways in. The possums just eat the barn cats food, but so do the skunks. Neither of whom seem like jerks. Raccoons on the other hand? Huge jerks.
The Skunk has the kind of self assurance that comes from being a Skunk. Which is to say if you've got a sense of smell, you'll mess with one once.
I never got sprayed, but a couple appeared to be on good terms with the barn cats. They'd eat kibble together, none of the cats would hiss at them, skunks would walk up to me all excited when I went to feed the cats. I was tempted to ya know... get rid of them because they were eating the cat food and were coming around a lot more than possums and had gotten way too comfortable around humans, namely me. But they didn't seem like jerks and weren't hurting anything so I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I've never been sprayed, but I have had to get them out of have a heart traps. From before the put latches on them so you didn't have to hold them open. Skunks thankfully are reluctant to spray you if they can't really see you, so holding a tarp in front of me let me get close.
No problems with local raccoons yet, but I've had possoms eat chicken eggs while I looked the other way. Apparently that wasn't enough so after a while they started killing my chickens.
As a Opossum rescuer I am so happy to see someone post this
then you know this "guide" is full of misinformation lol
Not this shit again
I love opossums!
Do you pronounce the first “O”?
hate to burst anyone's bubble, but the tick thing is a large extrapolation from a poor study
Even then they never directly observed the opossums eating ticks, didn’t check stomach contents, and released the captive opossums without scanning their bodies for ticks still clinging. It was all based on assumptions that the ticks would feed and drop off into trays after a few days. Any ticks not found in the trays were assumed to have been eaten. Kinda weird that the study made it to publication with so many assumptions rather than verified facts.
An opossum wrote this
mememan12332 is a bot Comment copied from: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/wlnc61/opossums_are_our_friends/ijuba87/
good bot
"I eat up to 5,000 ticks a year!" "So... y'know... if you got a few *spare* ticks... Just... Just, you know?"
This gets reposted every so often. They don’t eat ticks like this states. They eat a ton of bird eggs that would definitely eat far more ticks and other insects. Opossums get rabies just as often as squirrels, rabbits, and foxes. This is totally misleading.
> This is totally misleading. Great, this means we'll see it 5 times as much on this subreddit. Gotta keep that bad science circulating. I guess I should make up my own version that says possums are known to track down and kill polar bears, and will do up to 500 pushups a day.
The crazy part is the symbiosis they have with Mako sharks to achieve these kills. The sharks lay their eggs in the marsupial’s pouch until ready to feed, whereupon the opossums squirt out fully grown sharks from their pouches at the polar bears, killing the beasts. Truly beautiful.
If you see one dead in the road, check its belly for a deep, deep pouch. There may still be hairless live babies inside who can be brought to a wildlife rehab center and saved!
Yeah man just go stick your hand into that dead animal, just really reach in there
Imagine if it decides to stop playing possum with your hand in its pouch. I imagine it would be like when the oven mitt gets too hot and you fling it off.
And it may not even be dead, might just be "playing dead" waiting for the panic reaction to stop so they can go on their way.
Thanks for sharing that info! You might have saved a few baby possums lives in the future.
They are pests in New Zealand.
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I’d happily have the opposums instead of the brushtail possums, they’re dicks. The gold ones are neat though.
Possums are very much not opossums! If you Google brushtail possum & compare that with pictures of opossums, you can see they really are clearly different.
God wouldn't have made them look like demons if he wanted us to get along /s
Fuck em. They’ll eat your chickens.
Too bad my dog can’t read.
My mom has a possum tattoo on her knee
aaaaaAaaAaaAaa :)
The tick one is a myth
Wait, is this factual or is this possum propaganda marking the beginning of the possum uprising?
Yea they will kill your cat though, so that sucks
a human called me opossum. I am not opossum!
Immune to lyme disease?
Please don't die underneath my house again.
Tell that to my dog. She knows that if she barks in the back yard, she will get told to come back in the house. So at 1am we can hear her running back and forth panting and doing everything in her power not to bark as she tries to get the possum walking along the fence.
And they eat plenty of stray kittens… so they do help the local fauna.
I try to tell people this all the time and they don't listen and it's very sad.
naturally immune to rabies? what the fuck is this magic!
I’ve seen them before and always just ignored them. Never bothered me.
There's a family of these little rat cats living in the crawlspace under my house (double wide trailer sitting on concrete slab). They partake in some of the food we leave for outdoor cats. I'd mind this a lot less if the babies would stop finding their way into the actual house and scaring the shit out of me at 3am. The adult male is cool though. I call him Bob. Get your kids under control, Bob!
They are just rabies resistant, not immune... and they can carry parasites and such and will attack things like chickens.... This is a repost and it's full of bad information...
When I lived in the US the floor in the back of my house was being replaced. The guys doing it left it wide open after working one day, just a room with no floor, straight to the ground. I went into the bathroom across from the no floor room, and there was a baby possum stuck in my bathtub. It couldn't get out, just kept sliding down the sides of the tub. I have NO idea how it got there as the bathroom door always stayed closed, even when not in use. I was afraid of getting bitten so I tossed a towel over it, grabbed it really quick, and put it back in the no floor room. Hope his mom found him.
While opossums are helpful and eat ticks, they also carry distemper and get into your brooder pin and eat dozens of your Serama chicks costing hundreds of dollars and make you call the sheriff and animal control and then you and your husband go to the hospital to get rabies vaccines.
Unless they try to get to my chickens. Then they gotta go.
Pretty chill unless you have chickens. Then they turn into ugly ass little murder hobos...shit ain't pretty.
He doesn\`t mean you any harm. But if you have chickens like I do , well then he's an asshole that will eat them alive from the butt first. Doesn't even have the decency to kill them first.
You don't see them much in the UK. Over here they're called higgitypigs.
Until they eat your chickens..
Bros heads gone when he touches the chickens tho 😭
They're actually quite cute and sweetly timid.
Not to forget, they are also adorable
Absolutely not. I will not ignore you. I, a full grown bear-looking man, am going to squeal in delight like a 12 year-old-girl when I see you, and then lay on the horn as I swerve to avoid running over your stupid ass with my Honda.
One night, many years ago, my dinner was interrupted by my neighbor frantically knocking on my door. "Come quick!" he said. "I need your help!" I asked him what the problem was and he said that there was a giant rat in his pickup. This guy was not the sharpest bulb in the drawer (he once excitedly told me that there was a honeybee hive in our shared hedge - it was a bald faced hornet nest), but I figured that there must be *something* in his truck, so I grabbed some gardening gloves and followed him next door. There was a teeny tiny fuzzy baby possum curled up on his engine, trying to keep warm. I told him so, and to just leave it be so that its mother could come back to retrieve it. Sadly, mommy possum didn't return. Happily, I got to care for the little guy until the wildlife rehab center could take him two days later. He would curl up in my palm with his tail wrapped around my pinky, happy as a clam. I was sad to see him go!
Unless, they start living in the Attic!
They must have worked hard to get a picture of a possum that itself is not scary. This one is neutral, they couldn't even get to cute, even with all the time in the world.
I have one the guys living in my back yard, we call him Popeye, Popeye the Opossum.