Any of y'all that have kept up with your numbers over the last couple of years and dont mind sharing, post them up......I'm interested in seeing if there is much variation between us with coon:possum ratio......I have a theory about sumpin.....

I started running traps a couple weeks ago and right now I'm at

6 coons
3 possums

......or a 2:1 ratio

So here’s the theory……..

Possums don’t really eat corn like coons do……So therefore their populations arent going to be directly impacted by the additional food source like the coon populations will be. That alone should increase our ratio…..But if we take into consideration that coons and possums also compete over some food sources and coons seem to be the dominant competitor…..then artificially inflating coon populations would have a negative impact on these overlapping food sources and therefore driving the possum population down even more…..with most of their population basically being supported by the other food sources like carrion (dead stuff) that don’t overlap……In a nutshell it would mean that the higher the ratio the worse your coon/corn problem likely is………In theory.

When I first started killing them at the house it was about 50/50 6 years latter we are about 80/20 possums to coons. I have no idea where the possums keep coming from.

A few years ago I trapped here behind the house for over 2 months straight along the same little creek drainage......When I stopped I was still picking up another coon or possum at the rate of about one every 3-4 days.......I ended up catching around 30 that spring.......Came back in the following winter and caught another twenty for a total of something like 52 coons and possums from the same spot. There was a big hatch of young turkeys that year too.

I thought there was something like 3x the number of possum/sq mile over coons. I may be off on the numbers but remember it was weighted towards possums.

Interesting.......I've always caught more coons than possums on any run I've done around here. I wonder what a "normal" ratio is supposed to be??

Been using DP traps. Started about 3 weeks ago on 5 corn feeders. 46 coons 1 possum.

I catch more opossums than coons. Especially in the last few weeks. Mostly females with babies lots of babies

Make great pets, scary as heck to

I don't take any prisoners. Everything dies

This year from February 10th - March 20th I caught 68 coons, 6 possums and The only bait that’s on over 4000 acres is in 2 hog traps.

I don’t remember the start and finish dates but I caught 73 coons, 5 possums last year.

I’ve always caught more coons than possums even when I only had cage traps.

I haven’t caught a possum in 4 years

Well……..there definitely seems to be a good deal of variation. There’s probably a number of things that would effect this like possibly the way we’ve manipulated the habitat in some form or fashion that gives the coons a more distinct advantage. The exact spot where the trapping is being done could also have an impact…….But I’d say the main overriding factor should be food though.

Generally speaking I think it should be kinda similar to the wolf and the coyote. The wolf is the dominate competitor for an overlapping food source so the more of them you see, the less coyotes are present. Take away the wolf and the coyote will expand…..Similar things should be happening between the coons and possums I’d think. The more coons you produce the more they’re gonna dominate and the less possums they’ll be……The more you supplement the coons diet the more this will occur.....Again though, in theory.

It could be other factors at play here but there's the potential for you to not be baiting at all but still be impacted by this idea if you have a lot of neighbors who are baiting.......If they are feeding coons and the female coons on their properties are having lots of babies....then all of those babies around you are going to be looking for a place to disperse to when they become an adolescent.....

I'm at an 11:6 ratio now.......

I havent seen a possum in about a year. Ive killed 11 raccoons in the last 3 weeks.

Killed an armadillo this past weekend, havent seen one in a while on the place and don't see as many in the road as 'normal' in the last couple years but do still see probably one road kill a day.

You know I was just thinking about armadillos myself......I see them run over every once in awhile around here but their populations seem to have decreased.......I havent had one messing around in my test field for quite some time.......A lot of this stuff is tied to the food chain.....If we artificially inflate the coon population with corn to the point that they over use some of the other natural food sources then the "co-users" of those resources will diminish.....Not that anyone likely cares about armadillos but just that these things are signs that help us to see what is happening.

I think it would be difficult to build a ratio based on trapping alone. I think coons will travel /smell / hunt a little more than possums. Don’t get me wrong, a opossum is just as likely to be in your trash at night, but I think the coons are a little more mobile and will search out your scents in your trap.

Yeah, I suppose a lot of that would likely depend on how "off site" you were with your trapping......I'm trapping right along a swamp drainage that seems to be prime habitat for both coons and possums. My possum count is actually catching up a little now at 11:8 after this morning's catch......There's so much dead smell flowing down this drainage at night that it makes me wonder if I'm not actually drawing in the possums more now because of it.