I recently purchased a Flipping Timmy. I caught a possum the first night after installing it. Sadly, it wasn’t the possum I wanted (there’s one that keeps coming into my crawlspace). The desired possum has since triggered the trap 3 times. So, the bait clearly isn’t the issue, especially since two of those triggerings were with the same chunk of apple coated in cinnamon and there were bite marks left in the apple. The most recent time, I was finally able to get video recording of it triggering the trap. It looks like the trap caught its neck, but also a paw. So, the possum was able to pull itself loose. I’m wondering if this is what it’s done the other times as well, since I’ve found tufts of fur on and around the trap. I’m worried that it’s going to wisen up and stop trying. Any recommendations for preventing it from sticking its paw in along with its head, or anything else that might increase my odds of catching this thing?
I was hoping to avoid the cost of hiring professionals, but I’m starting to think that or creative non-lethal tactics might be my only options.
@snake14, you could try reducing the size of the apple piece - I’ve heard that possums are more likely to try and pull a large piece of apple out of the trap, whereas small pieces are just bitten. The other thing to check is whether the orientation of your apple has a nice pointy corner or edge oriented horizontally towards the trap opening, which makes it easy to bite, or whether the possum is putting its paw in to try and reorient the apple piece for a better bite angle.
Good luck!
Hi similar to the comment above below is a copy and paste from what I wrote in tips and tricks section possum control traps
cheers
If you are using traps like Timms where you force the bait onto a bar then size and
orientation of the bait is important. Bait like a piece of apple must be horizontal, if
vertical the possum will turn it’s head sideways to grasp the bait so the kill bar will
strike on the side of neck resulting in an escapee or a slow inhumane death.
The size of those baits is also important pen trial research showed 12-15 mm high
was ideal, if the vertical size of bait was 40 mm then possums just licked the bait.
