An opossum under your deck or in your crawl space is usually a temporary resident, but it doesn’t always leave on its own, and how you remove it is regulated in both Florida and Georgia.
The short version: find the den, install a one-way exit so the animal leaves on its own, check for young first, then seal properly. Relocation is an option in Georgia and tightly restricted in Florida. Here’s the full process, including what the law actually requires.
Key Takeaways
- One-way exclusion doors are the fastest and most reliable method. The animal leaves to forage and can’t get back in.
- Check for young before sealing anything. Sealing out a nursing mother leaves dead young in the den.
- Both states restrict relocation heavily. Florida caps it at 24 hours with a 40-acre same-county release site. Georgia discourages it outright and generally requires a DNR permit to transport and release. Exclusion avoids all of it.
- Killing an opossum is inhumane and illegal in many circumstances. It’s also unnecessary, because exclusion works.
- Bury exclusion mesh 6 to 12 inches deep. Opossums dig.
Signs You Have an Opossum
Opossums are quieter than raccoons and easy to miss. These are the things to look for.
| Sign | What to look for |
| Tracks | Five spread fingers, like a small open hand. Raccoon tracks are longer and narrower. This is the most reliable way to tell them apart. |
| Droppings | 1 to 2 inches long with tapered ends, usually near feeding areas, garden beds, or the den. |
| Trash disturbance | Digging through bins and compost. Less likely than raccoons to tip cans over, more likely to work through what’s already accessible. |
| Nesting debris | Piles of leaves, torn insulation, or shredded cardboard tucked into a corner of a crawl space, shed, or deck underside. |
| Night sounds | Scratching and rustling roughly between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. from under floors, porches, or crawl spaces. |
| Odor | A foul, musky smell similar to skunk, strongest around enclosed or poorly ventilated nesting areas. |
| Sightings | Mostly nocturnal, but nursing mothers often appear at dusk and dawn. |
Before You Trap: What the Law Requires
Relocating an opossum is far more regulated than most homeowners expect, and the rules differ between Florida and Georgia.
Florida
Live-captured nuisance wildlife must be released legally or humanely euthanized within 24 hours of capture or trap inspection, under F.A.C. Rule 68A-9.010. The clock starts when you check the trap and find an animal, not when you set it. Traps have to be inspected at least once every 24 hours.
On-site release is the simplest option. Native nuisance wildlife may be released on the property where it was captured, as long as the release site and capture site sit on one contiguous piece of property. For most homeowners, this is the only practical legal release.
Off-site release is tightly restricted. The release site must be in the same county as the capture, at least 40 contiguous acres, and you must have written permission from that landowner in your possession. Nuisance wildlife cannot be released on federal, state, county, municipal, or other public land, which rules out the park most people think of first.
Rabies alerts override everything. Transport must not violate any rabies alert or quarantine issued by a County Health Department or Animal Services.
FWC discourages relocation generally, noting that relocated animals have a poor chance of survival.
Georgia
Georgia is not more permissive than Florida, despite what’s often assumed.
DNR discourages relocation and warns it may be illegal. The department’s guidance is to contact your local wildlife conservation officer and county health department before moving any wildlife off your property.
Transporting and releasing generally requires a permit. The Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator permit, issued by the DNR Law Enforcement Division’s Special Permit Unit, is what authorizes live-trapping, possessing, transporting, and releasing nuisance wildlife outside the legal trapping season. Permit holders may possess an animal for under 72 hours for transport and release into suitable habitat with the landowner’s permission, and never onto state property.
Trapping itself requires a license. Opossum is classified as a fur-bearing animal, with no closed season on private land, but a trapping license is required — either a commercial license or the no-cost landowner trapping license. Traps must be inspected at least every 24 hours.
Trapping on someone else’s land requires written consent carried on your person. Verbal permission isn’t sufficient.
Property owners may trap nuisance wildlife on their own property without an NWCO permit, but once anyone is paid to do it, NWCO licensure is required.
What this means in practice
In both states, exclusion is the better route, not just because it’s easier, but because trap-and-relocate is legally constrained enough that most homeowners can’t do it lawfully. A one-way exit door requires no permit, no license, no release site, and no 24-hour clock.
If you’ve already trapped an animal and aren’t sure what you’re allowed to do, contact FWC or your regional Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources office before moving it.
This is general information, not legal advice. Wildlife regulations change, and county-level rules and active rabies alerts can add restrictions. Confirm current requirements with your state agency or a licensed operator.
How to Get an Opossum Out: Step by Step
Step 1: Find the den and confirm how many
You may have one animal, a mother with young, or several using the property independently. Work out which before you do anything else.
Install a trail camera facing the suspected entry, or scatter a thin layer of flour across the opening and check for tracks in the morning. Tracks running both directions over several nights mean an active den. Tracks one way only may mean the animal has already moved on.
Step 2: Install a one-way exit
This is the method that works. A funnel-style exclusion door fits over the den opening and lets the animal push out but not back in. Over a night or two the den empties on its own, with no trapping and no handling.
Check for young first. This is the part people skip. If a mother is denning with dependent young, a one-way door separates them and the young die inside, which leaves you with carcasses in a crawl space and a far worse problem than you started with. Young opossums ride on their mother’s back once mobile, so she usually takes them with her, but the risk is real enough to verify before you install anything.
Step 3: Seal the opening properly
Once you’ve confirmed the den is empty, close it for good. Galvanized mesh or flashing works, but bury the mesh 6 to 12 inches below grade, because opossums will dig under a barrier that stops at the soil line.
Step 4: Remove what attracted them
- Trash cans with latching lids, not just lids
- Pet food brought in at night, never left out
- Fallen fruit picked up regularly from under trees
- Standing water addressed: plant saucers, birdbaths, leaky hoses, faulty sprinklers, pooling in low spots
- Debris piles, brush, and stored material cleared from under decks and along foundations
How to Remove an Opossum That’s Gotten Indoors
Opossums occasionally come inside through an open door, a pet door, or a hole in a wall. Get them out promptly.
- Open a door and leave the room. Often enough on its own. Close interior doors, open an exterior one, turn off the lights in that room, and give it time. Dusk is the best window.
- Broom nudge. If the animal is near a doorway, gentle pressure with a broom in the right direction usually works.
- Disrupt the nest. Opossums naturally move dens every two to three days. If one has settled in a garage or shed, dismantling the nest after it leaves to forage at dusk encourages it to move on rather than return.
- Live trap. check the legal requirements above before you move anything. In most cases, releasing on your own property is the only option available to you.
Important: playing dead is a genuine involuntary response, not a choice. Before assuming an opossum is dead, give it a few hours. Returning consciousness usually starts with twitching ears. Never bag or dispose of an apparently dead opossum without waiting.
Keeping Opossums Out Long Term
Exclusion keeps out raccoons, skunks, and rodents too if you address the smaller openings while you’re at it.
- Eliminate den sites. Opossums use existing cavities rather than digging their own. Lattice, galvanized mesh, and solid skirting around deck and porch undersides removes the option entirely.
- Fencing for gardens. At least 4 feet high, angled outward at the top to prevent climbing. Some people add a strand of electric fencing near the top.
- Commercial repellents. Granules or sprays, applied around the perimeter and near former den sites. Don’t use them where outdoor pets could contact them.
Area by Area
Crawl spaces and decks. The most common den site by a wide margin. Inspect for burrows, then exclude with lattice or buried galvanized mesh. Clear stored debris that provides shelter.
Garages and sheds. Keep doors closed after dark. An open garage at night is an open invitation. Motion-activated lighting helps.
Attics. Less common, but it happens where tree limbs touch the roof. Cut the branches back, then use one-way funnels at the access point.
Gardens. Angled fencing is the reliable answer. Capsaicin sprays help but need reapplying after rain.
When to Call a Professional
Call if young opossums are present, if the den is somewhere you can’t safely reach, if the animal is indoors and won’t leave, or if you’re in Florida and the relocation requirements make DIY impractical.
Don’t attempt to raise baby opossums yourself. Their needs are specific, and licensed wildlife control operators have access to state-licensed rehabbers who can do it properly.
A wildlife control company brings commercial traps and exclusion equipment you’d otherwise buy for one use, works under permits that cover handling and relocation, and typically handles nest cleanup and droppings as part of the job.
Choose one that live-traps and doesn’t euthanize. A reputable operator uses baited live traps, snare poles, or hand capture, then excludes so the problem doesn’t recur.
Nextgen Pest Solutions provides humane opossum removal across Georgia and Florida, with 24-hour service for animals trapped indoors. Contact us or call for immediate support.
Health Risks Worth Knowing
Opossums are among the least likely mammals to carry rabies, largely because their body temperature is too low for the virus to thrive. That’s the reassuring part.
Less reassuring: they’re known carriers of leptospirosis and tularemia, and they carry ticks and fleas that transfer to pets and into the yard. Droppings and nesting material in a crawl space are worth removing properly rather than leaving in place.
This is why the advice is exclusion rather than coexistence when the animal is denning under your house, even though opossums are harmless out in the yard.
About Opossums: Why They’re Not the Threat You’d Think
The Virginia opossum is North America’s only marsupial and the only opossum species in the US. They’re solitary, nocturnal, and omnivorous, eating fruit, insects, carrion, and small rodents, which makes them useful scavengers. They’re often credited with controlling ticks, though later field research suggests they eat far fewer than the popular figures claim.
“Playing possum” is an involuntary physiological response to threat, not a decision. It’s a large part of why they’re so rarely dangerous, they’d rather collapse than confront you.
An opossum crossing your yard is doing no harm and will move on within a few days. One denning under your deck or in your crawl space is a different matter, and that’s what the rest of this page covers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are possums and opossums the same thing?
No. Opossums are native to the Americas; possums are Australasian. In the US, “possum” almost always means the Virginia opossum. Opossums have hairless, scaly tails and coarse grayish fur. True possums have furry tails and softer fur, and don’t live in North America.
Can I relocate an opossum myself?
Probably not lawfully in either state. Florida requires release within 24 hours, either on the same contiguous property or on a 40+ acre site in the same county with written landowner permission. Georgia DNR discourages relocation, says it may be illegal, and generally requires a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator permit to transport and release. In both states a one-way exclusion door achieves the same outcome with none of the legal exposure.
How long does it take to get rid of an opossum?
With a one-way exit, usually one to two nights. Trapping can take several days and multiple attempts to get the placement and bait right. Removing attractants afterward is what determines whether another one moves in.
There’s an opossum in my yard. Do I need to do anything?
Usually not. A yard opossum is typically passing through in search of food and moves on within a few days. Act if it dens under a structure, gets into trash repeatedly, or comes indoors.
What if I find baby opossums?
Don’t attempt to handle or raise them. Call a licensed wildlife control operator or a state-licensed rehabber. If the mother is still present, the right move is usually to wait rather than separate them.
