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Citizen complaint of the day: Possums don't always play dead

Angry oppossum in East Boston

A concerned citizen filed a 311 complaint this morning, asking the city to do something about the "angry opossum" on a stoop on Chelsea Street in East Boston.

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Comments

Everyone should email [email protected] and request to be removed from the mailing list and save some trees!

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Thanks for that email address. I just emailed them and they are taking me off the list. Recommend everyone do it too... it took seconds

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mad about globe delivery rates!

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No, he's mad about those free advertising circulars the Globe sends out.

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Is the name of my Rush cover band.

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Globe Direct Waste.

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It's those damn Globe Direct flyers that are the real menace. They are absolutely unstoppable.

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The residents of the property don't want the Globe Direct flyers.

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since nobody wants the Globe Direct flyers.

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Mine don't come from Globe Direct but I look forward to my fliers every week. Globe Direct has better coupons than mine, too.

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This is why nobody takes 311 complaints seriously

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Possums eat ticks!
They can rid your yard of ticks - eating 5000 ticks in a season - and are vital to the war against Lyme Disease.

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so an infestation is a double infestation. I watched an episode on Animal Planet about a girl that got typhus from the multiple possums in her apartment. Landlord wouldn't get a proper exterminator and they were putting out food like for rodents - possums don't trust change and they weren't buying it. They are active at night so she had to lock herself in the her room. Tried to deal with it but felt the flu coming on. A friend let her stay at their house, which saved her life as she would have died alone with the possums breaking into her room. Not cute, not safe. Thanks for not having rabies and eating ticks but stay the hell away.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/flea-poop-and-opossums-are-causing-a-typhu...

https://www.consultant360.com/exclusives/murine-typhus-result-opossum-ex...

http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/docs/Specialized/Vector_Manageme...

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I sense a bigger problem here.

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That's ridiculous and is a VERY rare event. Anytime you have a filthy home with ANY kind of animal (or human) overpop you're going to have issues.
Stop fear mongering.
Opossums rock.

Sincerely, a legally licensed state wildlife rehabilitator and vet tech

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I heard they are ticks. But has it been proven that they are an effective method to reduce Lyme disease risk?

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Since ticks are the only known vector for Lyme disease, I'd guess yes.

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Possums are "ecological traps" for ticks - attractive targets that eat them.

But eating ticks is only part of the equation: possums do not get lyme disease themselves.

Ticks jump on possums, can't give them Lyme, and the possums groom them off like snacks on the go.

Possums also eat rats and mice, which carry lyme, spread infections and support tick populations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825780/

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Headlights (to the tune of LimeLight)

Living on the Highways edge,
approaching 18 wheels
hear those tires squeal.
A possum's new reality
beyond this earthly plane.

(I'll stop now)

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Angry? It's *smiling*

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It's obviously sick. Wouldn't just be hanging out on stoop like that in broad daylight. Possums are actually quite docile. They just look angry and scary. If he was hissing it was probably because of stupid humans throwing shit at it while it is sick.

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The only marsupials north of Mexico and nocturnal in habits. I agree this one is sick but whose responsible for wild animals in the city?

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Animals out in the daytime are not necessarily sick just because they are "supposed to be nocturnal".

Animals don't read our high school biology books.

I swear that the local raccoons plan ahead for trash day in my neighborhood. Possums and raccoons are opportunists that adapt to human activity patterns.

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Exactly. The urban opossums and raccoons and turkeys and whatnot become unafraid of people, which also is a classic sign of rabies, but not exclusively a rabies behavior. It's normal in a city for un-rabid wildlife to come marching up to you when you take your trash out and be like, oh, you got pizza crusts? Because I hear you tend to put out pizza crusts. As you said, they adapt and realize that people in the city aren't hunters or panthers, but rather pizza sources that come out during daylight.

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Gets ISD visit about the condition of the front steps.

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Psspsspsspsspss heeeere kitty kitty! Nice kitty!

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I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Globe Direct is delivering possums now along with their useless flyers. It's the only thing that could possibly make them more annoying than they already are.

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