Best Bait to Trap an Opossum

Need opossum removal in your hometown? We service over 500 USA locations! Click here to hire us in your town and check prices - updated for year 2020.

Opossums are omnivores, which means that they feed on both plant and animal material. They are also opportunistic feeders because in most cases, they simply eat whatever is available. This makes the question of bait easy for anyone looking to trap an opossum.



That being said, they are known to favour sweet or strong-smelling foods and will be easily attracted to these foods. These include fish, meat, orange, pet foods, peanut butter, apple, and others. In order to increase the chances of an opossum entering your trap, it would be a good idea to use any of these winners as bait.

Another ploy to increase your chances of success at trapping your opossum with a good bait is to get the opossum accustomed to the bait of choice by pre-baiting. Drop the bait in the same location around an unset trap for a few days. Let this location be along the observed path of the critter. After some days of feeding it with no catch, it becomes trusting of the food bait, then you can set your trap and bait it with this food. The opossum is less suspicious of the trap at this point and will easily walk into it.

A few things to note while baiting your trap:

• The bait must also be placed well inside the trap, far enough from the door that the animal’s whole body must have entered the cage before the door is triggered shut.
• The bait should be well placed on the trigger such that the critter cannot eat it without pressing on the trigger plate, which in turn shuts the cage door. Without this happening, it would all be a useless exercise.
• Ensure that the bait cannot be reached from outside the cage, else it will be stolen and the critter would walk free.
• You may leave some crumbs of the bait just outside the cage to further lure hungry critters to eat the main dish inside the cage.

Whatever bait you decide to use, be observant as to the reactions you get and don’t hesitate to change it if it doesn’t work.

Go back to the Opossum Removal page.