From the 2015 Jan./Feb. issue of Sporting Classics.
Researches have found that possums are more than just ugly; they’re tick-killing machines.
According to The News Times of Danbury, Connecticut, researchers with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies researched the roles various mammals and birds play in the spread of ticks and disease. Their methods included capturing white-footed mice, chipmunks, squirrels, possums, veerys, and catbirds, then caging them and subjecting each animal to 100 ticks. The possums killed a larger percentage of the parasites—more than 90 percent—than any of the other animals. This is especially good news for folks who live in areas where the ranges of possums overlap with black-legged and western black-legged ticks, which can transmit Lyme disease.
The possums make great tick killers for two reasons. One, they eat anything they can fit into their mouths, including mice and roaches and other insects. Two, despite their pitiful appearance, possums are very concerned with hygiene. They continually lick themselves clean. If a possum finds a tick while cleaning itself, it simply licks the insect free and then eats it.
“I had no suspicion they’d be such efficient tick-killers,” said Richard Ostfield of the Cary Institute.
Along the same lines, foxes kill a lot of white-footed mice, which are believed to carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
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