The Possum: Trashy or Classy? Facts About These Trash Monsters | The Garbage Blog

Steve Gerben returned this week - and our official diagnosis is that he walks in both the worlds of class and trash.

One interesting Gerby tidbits we learned is that he likes possums - thinks they’re cute?

The subject of much folklore, possums with their creepy long noses, oversized rat bodies, and proclivity to fainting… Is the Possum trashy?

We decided to dig deeper… Here’s

The Possum - Classy or Trashy? Facts About these Trash Monsters

1. The Virginia Opossum

The Virginia Opossum is likely the possum you know about.

He’s a marsupial and the only one native to North America.

He has 50 Teeth: more than any other North American land mammal.

They also have Prehensile Tail (which means it can grasp or hold objects) and they have opposable thumbs.

To us, this means he could be classy, he could be trashy. It's basically a monkey, and like a monkey, maybe possums should be holding a job and paying taxes.

2. They've Got Crazy Immunity

First off, they can't really get rabies... They're body temperatures are so low, that it's nearly impossible to both contract and then develop into full-blown rabies.

Unlike the raccoons, foxes, bats, skunks, and coyotes, etc, these lil guys are pretty immune, because they are too cool.

They also have high levels of venom immunity. They have a peptide in their blood that neutralizes toxic venoms from rattlesnakes, copperheads, and scorpions.

That my friends, is classy.

3. They Control Ticks and Likely Lyme's Disease

A single opossum can consume up to 5,000 ticks in a single season, naturally reducing tick-borne illnesses.

Eating ticks? Not so classy. But helping prevent Lyme's Disease? That’s damn CLASSY if you ask me.

Just like spiders... I don't LIKE 'EM but if they're gonna stop bugs from biting me, I'll let you live in my bathroom for a few weeks.

4. They're Formal Name is “Opossum”

Mostly known just by "possum" their real name is the "oppossum".

A shortened name is classy - like when rich people call their third both "Tripp" instead of Richard Conrad Prescott the Third.

Also, maybe they’re Irish.

5. They Play Possum

Per the internet, when possums get scared, they often faint to play dead and then fart to seal the deal...

"An opossum, when confronted with a threat, will often hiss or bare its teeth. Or more likely, run. But if it is surprised by a predator, it will enter a catatonic state. It basically faints and is in a state of unconsciousness. The opossum has no control over this; it’s involuntary. Its teeth are visible, as if in a death grimace. It emits a foul substance from its anus, the smell described as corpse-like." Source

I've maybe farted when I fainted, couldn't tell ya.

But that is the classiest way to pull off a trashy death... once again, walking in both worlds.

6. They Eat Outta the Trash

Okay, this is undisputedly trashy.

That eat just about anything outta the trash - but so does Foley. They also eat things like insects and earth worms, so only when it's convenient do they eat outta the trash.

But opossums that live near cities on average weigh 34% more than the country livin' possums.

Just like George Costanza...

7. Dinner for Some? / A Helpful Non-Native Species

If youse didn't know, people used to eat possum.

Yes, like humans ate them for food. They're typically found as native to the Appalachian area, and they were hunted by locals (and Native populations) in the Fall and Winter, when times got tough.

They're (obviously) pretty easy to hunt, so when Appalachians started going West to places like California, it's rumored they brought possums with them to "feel at home".

While technically a non-native species to these areas, they just kinda eat garbage, eat ticks, and chill out. Largely unthreatening.

If you ask us, that's making the best of a trashy situation.