actual stomach content studies show that ticks are not a preferred diet item

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34298355/

perhaps we can finally kill this stupid internet story.

Just a BS story some bunny hugger made up that story to give them a purpose to breath air.

I hear that crap all the time what a load of BS. My sister is a Vet Tech and spouts this nonsense. I’ve told her a million times it’s false and there is no evidence to support it but she just keeps telling people. Eric

If possums ate all the ticks they wouldn't be covered with them. I've seen dozens of ticks on many of the smelly buggers.



Charlie

What's a possum ?

Look how many peaple buy the Darwin.

Look how many peaple buy the Darwin.

In this part of the world many of us a direct correlation between possum populations and ticks, at one time we didnt have much of either, the possums showed up, and then so did the ticks. Not the other way around.

I hate that myth they started about the value of possums

There are a LOT of extreme tree huggers on the gardening forums and gardening sub reddits, I tried to tell them but they have Disney syndrome, they think Bambi movies and Chip & Dale cartoons are real. Sad. They won't listen. They also hate trappers and don't listen to facts.

I knew it was a lie , and looked at the origin of the study that said they eat 5000 ticks

all the references spread around the internet kept leading back to the same study that wasn't a tick possum study at all.

they were putting various animals in a cage basically a glass box to see what they would do and how the ticks would effect them , when they had half as many ticks in the possum box as they had put in the night before they smized the possum ate them.

well if you put me in a prison cell with nothing but black licorice , 2000 piece puzzles and hip hop albums on a music player.

I might eat the licorice , assemble the puzzle and listen to the audio , if my only other option is nothing at all.

you won't find me doing any of those things in my natural environment

the original hypothesis was published by Cary institute for ecological studies in 2009

a look at their website even they appear to have taken down the information

The entire myth was started about ten years ago by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. They didn't conduct the original experiment and it is hard to track down but basically, scientists (pseudo-scientists?) put six species -- white-footed mice, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums and veerys and catbirds into cages then put 100 ticks in there with each test subject.

Th possums ate more than the other species. By using some form of extrapolation, and this is where the science goes wrong, the team estimated that in one season, an opossum can kill about 5,000 ticks.

That's all it took for this persistant and totally false internet legend to be born.

They didn't observe that the possums ate the ticks if I remember that study correctly. They stated that they couldn't find them.

I believe you are correct they assumed that because there was no place for ticks to exit the cage they must have been eaten by the possum

hence solitary confinement and black licorice analogy/example it doesn't mean it happens in the wild

aka junk science

Ain’t you lucky, brother! If you have to ask, there is no need to know! lol

Reminds me of an article I saw in a local newspaper. A trapper had a photo of some beaver and otter he had trapped from a local trout stream.
A few days later an article in the same paper was written by a lady who said research shows that otter will only consume carp. They won't eat trout.

Had a cousin of mine tell me he thought possum were good for controlling ticks just this morning. I told him he would believe anything tree hugger put out. Gave him some education he needed and he was receptive to it.

grandma at the farm had been trapping racoons under her bird feeders and dispatching them

she had been setting the possum loose having heard this nonsense with a stripe painted on them at the farthest edge of the farm

I am surprised grandpa allowed this , but I think he knows don't argue with grandma

he told me no mercy on raccoons or possum , they both can spoil hay with their urine and kill stock

Only takes a moment to see a possum’s mouth is completely unfit to prey on ticks. And then another moment to see that bird beaks are perfect. If the experts still don’t believe, ask if they pick ticks off with their fingertips or the whole hand. We never had many ticks until deer showed up in the 80’s.