There I was, dreaming of a vacation with the kids, when the phone rang.  I picked it up and looked at the screen.  It was about 2:25 am and the lady on the other end of the line was very anxious.  She lived in Kingsport between Bloomingdale and Colonial Heights.   Vici C. and her sister had been awakened by sounds from the intake register to the HVAC system in the hallway.    After a few moments, she got up the courage to open it.  She said that an opossum was staring back at her.    I jumped into my work clothes and texted back an arrival time once on the way.  It would take me about 25 minutes to drive there from Bristol.  A good opossum trapper never sleeps well in busy season.  

I thought about the call on the way over.   I remembered a call a couple of years ago when a customer had mistaken a rat in the kitchen for an opossum.   The opposite also happens.  Both species have a scaley tail and adult rats can be about the same size as a smaller opossum.   At a fast glance, the biggest difference is the fur color and stride.  They can be hard to distinguish in bad light.   I often explore this possibility on the phone before I meet customers.  I was going into this one not exactly sure what I was going to encounter.    

Previous ‘Possum Problems

I interviewed Vici C. and her mother who lived with her.   She said that there had been issues with an opossum a few months ago.  It had gotten in somewhere around the AC unit and destroyed part of her ductwork.  It cost her a pretty penny to fix it…somewhere around $500.  The AC repair guys had fixed the hole, so she didn’t think that was the problem.   I was a little concerned.   Most AC guys aren’t familiar enough with the capabilities of wildlife to effectively seal an entrance.   I put it on my mental list of areas to check out.

Opossum Grab from Inside AC Return

I decided to go for the obvious first, so I opened the register to peep inside the AC return.  I took a trap with me so that I would have something to put the opossum into once it was in hand.  I couldn’t use a capture net or noose pole because the opening was too small and it would be too awkward to get inside quickly. 

 I made as little noise as possible and had bite-proof gloves on just in case.  If it was a rat, there was no way that I would be able to grab it.  They are just too quick and wiry.  Opossums are not quite as quick and I might have a chance.  I really wanted to get this thing out tonight so that she could sleep, but I knew that the odds were low.  A fast grab would be hampered by the grate on the AC return.  It would be between me and the animal.    A sudden lunge would bend the grate and leave her with nothing between her and the animal if it escaped back into the system….not a good option.

I opened it slowly and shone a flashlight inside through a crack…nothing!   There was a small ledge inside the register that the animal had been sitting on.  It was a good jump from the floor of the duct.  I was not sure if an opossum could make that distance.    A rat could probably jump it.  I still wasn’t sure which species we were dealing with.

Check Outside of the House

It was still dark, when I inspected the outside of the house.  If I could find the entrance that the critter was using, I could install a one-way door or trap and this problem might resolve itself.    If there were multiple entrances, the one-way door wouldn’t work without sealing the other entrances.    I had morning appointments, so sealing lots of other entrances wouldn’t be possible.   I had to do what I could in the time that I had.

Overall the house was in good shape, and the foundations weren’t too bad.  Though weak, the vents hadn’t been pushed out or torn open.  One stood out from the wall a little bit.    The gap was small, but I thought that it might possibly be associated with her problem.     There was also a small gap where the HVAC ductwork passed through the exterior wall of the house.  It looked small and my thoughts turned more towards rats than opossums.  There was no way that I would be able to permanently seal this particular entrance before I left.   I decided to temporarily block these entrances and install a one way door.  Hopefully, the problem would resolve itself.

Looking for Sign in the Crawlspace

I decided to inspect the crawlspace next.  I thought that it was possible that I could find the animal in the crawlspace and extract it by hand.  I don’t normally do that.   A good professional trapper knows how to use his hardware and is effective with it.  Hand snatching opossums is good for YouTube, but isn’t generally the way to do business.

There were definitely signs of mice in the crawlspace and an opossum dropping or two, but there was no opossum in sight.    Opossums like to hang out on top of the masonry sill just below the flooring.  No opossums were there, but I did find a cable that ran through one of the foundation vents that had been chewed nearly in two where it passed through a foundation vent.   It was the vent that was pushed partly open.  The chewed part of the cable wasn’t visible from outside.  Rats love to chew.  This pushed my thoughts even more towards rats.  I was confused though.  There were tunnels in the insulation overhead and they weren’t big enough for rats and all I could find were mouse droppings. 

Checking the Ductwork

Often rats will chew a hole in the flexible ductwork to get inside.  Larger more powerful animals like raccoons will shred the ductwork into spaghetti.  I couldn’t find anything wrong with the ductwork and there was no hole in sight. It was October and the weather was getting colder, so I didn’t want to start taking the system apart and leave them without heat.   The animal, whatever it was, had to be climbing in and out somewhere, and the most likely spot was the vent that was partially pushed out.  I decided to block that up and add a trap on it for the night.  I also added some rat traps around the inside of the home. 

 Situation Still Unresolved

The next day was Vici C’s birthday and she had already made plans, so I didn’t get a chance to come by.  We swapped some texts and she said that she was still hearing noises downstairs.   She was concerned that the animal might die in her crawlspace.  I was worn out from the night before, combined with a full work day afterwards.   A little extra sleep was OK with me.  

I was worried though.  I was due to take the kids out of town on fall break and I didn’t want to leave this lady with problems while I was gone.  I had counted on the one-way doors or traps to solve things for her and give her some peace, but this didn’t seem to be working.  We were swapping texts while I was out of town trying to troubleshoot her problem, but things weren’t going well and that bothered me.

Ninety percent of the time I can spot the entrance right away.   This was a little tricky, but I knew that if I kept after it, I would figure it out.  Mrs. “C.” mentioned an opening between the crawlspace and a storage room that I had found.  The door to the storage room opened to the outdoors.  I thought that maybe this was part of the problem, but she thought that it had not been left open.  If she had then, maybe she had accidentally trapped an opossum inside.

A couple of days later Vici C. texted that she had something run across her in the middle of the night.   Immediately, I thought of rats again, but that sort of thing doesn’t usually happen at low population densities.   I really didn’t think she had high populations if she did have rats.  There would have been lots of signs.   When I inspected, I hadn’t seen any holes between the crawlspace and the upstairs that an opossum could come through.  Then she said that it had left small pointed droppings, and I was back to being confused again.  Neither opossums nor rats leave pointed droppings.  Opossum droppings are about the size of a medium-sized dog dropping…..not small at all.  Only mice leave small pointed droppings.   Either way she was stressed out, and I had to do something.  I decided to make another pass through the crawlspace.  I needed to check the rat traps again anyway.  Sometimes it takes a few days for rats to start to feed on new bait.   I hoped that “good news” would be waiting for me.

The Next Visit

Things were going about as well on vacation as they were on this job, so I decided to come back early and work this problem out.   I crawled to the hole that led to the storage room and made a circle by the front of the house looking for things I had missed.  I was double checking for holes in the flexible ductwork or something I had missed in the foundations and then I saw it!  A pair of red glowing eyes peered back at me from the brick sill at the other end of the house.   The outline of the body was indistinct, but it held its ground and didn’t run!  A rat would have scampered to safety.  It was definitely too big for a mouse.  It had to be an opossum!  I crawled closer.  Sure enough, it was!

I was excited to finally solve the problem, but worried about how I would do it.   Obviously something wasn’t working right with my one-way door or the animal wouldn’t be here.  I needed to snatch this animal by hand.  I went to the truck for my bite proof gloves and a cage trap to carry the opossum out.   My bite-proof gloves protect me from the fingertips to the biceps, but that isn’t all I had to worry about.   In a crawlspace, things can get out of hand.  The animal is small and has the advantage of mobility.   I was concerned that it could get past my grip and get to my face or other body parts. 

Approaching the Opossum

My heart was pumping as I crawled closer.  At times like this, you hope that your head lamp doesn’t go out.   I clunked closer thumping the cage in front of me.   Crawling with a cage in hand is an awkward affair.    I hoped that the opossum didn’t run and make things harder.    The ground under the house sloped and one end of the house only had enough clearance to belly crawl.   This is where the opossum decided to make its stand.  I was definitely not happy about this.

I approached the opossum and it gave me a gator mouth display.  I had hoped that I could force the opossum to “play ‘possum” by harassing it a little.  I had no luck though and only received a bite on the glove.   When I grabbed the opossum, I didn’t want it to try and escape and lunge forward towards me.  If it did, there would be a melee and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.  I decided to try a different tactic.   I reached over towards the opossum’s head with a bit of insulation to distract it and it bit through to my glove.   I quickly reached with my left hand for the tail of the opossum and pulled.   It lunged!  But, it pushed to my right, biting me two or three times along the forearm! (Thank you bite proof gloves).

This opossum was a good sized animal, and I was a little surprised at its strength and unwillingness to “play ‘possum”.   I pulled it free of the brick sill and pinned it to the ground.  I got it under control with two hands.   The tail instinctively wrapped around my arm as I did.    Now I had to get the cage open and not lose control of the opossum…..not an easy task. 

Customer is Shocked

It is always surprises me to see the reaction on customer’s faces.  I think most have a range of emotions all at the same time in situations like this.  Fear, disgust, relief….it all comes rushing in.   Mrs. C. wanted to show her mom the opossum, but was glad to see it gone.  I loaded it on the truck.

I was a little surprised at finding the opossum and I still wasn’t sure how it got in.  Now I had to figure that out.   I talked to Vici C again.  She mentioned that she had seen insulation in the AC floor registers.  That pointed me back to the HVAC system as the source of the problem, but where?  There still weren’t any holes that I could find in the lines.   Then Mrs. C. mentioned that the AC guys had found insulation inside the cabinet of the outside unit, so I decided to open it up.   When I did, I found it!  There was a hole tucked up underneath the joint between the ductwork and the brickwork of the house.  Most units have a three sided shroud that joins the unit to the house which is usually how wildlife enters.   Mrs. C. had a four-sided shroud which is several degrees better.  Unfortunately they had done a bad job of joining it to the house and there was a much bigger gap hidden underneath than what I had seen on the first inspection.   It was about impossible to see this gap, even with a flashlight.  But, to a “low to the ground” animal like an opossum, it was quite obvious. 

Problem Repaired

Fixing the problem was about as hard as finding it.   I had to use a mirror to see to work plugging it off. The entrance was tucked far back up under the shroud that joined the unit to the house.  I had to lay on the ground and reach in.  I used a combination of stainless steel wool, masonry screws, and a metal plate.  It took a while.   I also reinforced the foundation vents with retrofit vent covers to keep mice out. (It was a mouse that had run across Mrs. C’s back in the night).   Mrs. C’s house was finally secure and she was a much happier lady.  When I left, she said the same thing that many of my customer say when I finish.  “I hope that I don’t see you again under these circumstances”.   I agreed.