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Kentucky statewide

Dead Opossum Removal in Kentucky

Call for Dead Animal Removal 📞 (502) 527-2423 Tap to callPrice and availability settled on the call

Private-property removal · Phone quote before any visit · Independent operators where one covers your address.

Dead opossum removal in Kentucky for one under a deck, behind a crawl-space vent, by the foundation or in the garage. Neither the Kentucky Department for Public Health nor Kentucky Fish and Wildlife names the opossum among the state's rabies carriers, so the call is about where it lies and how low the space is.

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Quick answer

Who handles dead opossum removal in Kentucky?

On a state-maintained highway, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet; on a city street, the city; on private property, the owner. For the private-property case, Kentucky Dead Animal Removal connects you with an independent operator where one covers the address. Whether this situation is within that operator's scope, and the price, are confirmed on the call. Call (502) 527-2423.

What the job involves

What dead opossum removal involves

Opossum: the animal this page is about

Opossums get under older Kentucky houses through torn foundation-vent screens and die where they sheltered, in the crawl space or under the deck. Reaching one can mean crawling most of the length of the house on bare dirt or plastic sheeting.

Field work is performed by independent operators under their own permits, insurance and disposal compliance. Whether a particular operator takes on this situation is confirmed on the call.

Whose job is a dead opossum in Kentucky?

It follows the ground it is on. On the state-maintained road system the Transportation Cabinet's maintenance guidance says the Department of Highways provides for removal of dead animals from the road or right-of-way as soon as feasible after notice. On a city street it is the city's, under whatever that city publishes. On your own land it is yours, and no Kentucky statute says otherwise.

  • Interstates and state-maintained US and KY routes: the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, reported as a hazard through 1-877-367-5982. Inside Jefferson County, KYTC keeps only the interstates.
  • City streets: the city. Louisville uses Metro311, Lexington uses LexCall, Bowling Green's Public Works lists it under rights-of-way maintenance, Covington uses a work-order request.
  • County roads: the county road department; none of the counties we checked publishes a dead-animal policy, so call the county.
  • Your yard, driveway, deck, attic or crawl space: the owner's. That is the case this site exists for.

The agency-by-agency breakdown, with the quotes, is in the guide to who picks up dead animals in Kentucky.

Step by step

How a dead opossum removal call goes

  1. Keep dogs and children back while you check for flies, smell or a wound.
  2. Name the spot: under deck boards, just inside a foundation vent, or far back in the crawl space.
  3. Where an operator covers the address, they say on the call whether a crawl-space opossum is in scope, and at what price.
  4. Bagged recovery, plus the soil, vapor barrier or insulation the fluids soaked into, when the operator includes that.
  5. Mention any live young in the pouch or on her back; in Kentucky only a permitted rehabilitator may care for them.
Cost in Kentucky

What dead opossum removal costs

The operator sets the price on the phone once they know the animal, where it is, how it can be reached and how it has to be disposed of. No per-hour rate, and no figure printed here, because no Kentucky operator's rates have been verified and a guess would be a promise this site cannot keep.

Where an operator covers your ZIP, they quote on the call and invoice you directly when the job is done.

When to call

When it is worth calling

As soon as you find it or smell it. The longer a carcass sits, the more the fluids soak into soil, insulation or wood, and the more of that material has to be bagged or treated along with the animal. If a person or pet touched a raccoon, skunk, bat or fox, the first call is your local health department, not this number.

Questions

Dead Opossum Removal: questions

Do opossums carry rabies in Kentucky?
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife names five animals as the state's most common rabies carriers: bats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and skunks. The Department for Public Health gives the same five as its examples. The opossum is on neither list, and the CDC says opossums hardly ever have rabies. Any mammal can catch the virus, so a bite from one still goes to the local health department.
Could a limp opossum with its mouth open still be alive?
Yes. A stressed opossum can collapse, drool, bare its teeth and lie still with its mouth open, and it fools people. Flies, a smell or an obvious injury point to a real carcass. With none of those, keep the dog inside, leave the animal where it is and look again after dark, when a live one gets up and goes.
Who can legally take live young from a dead opossum?
Only a permitted wildlife rehabilitator may keep or raise them. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife says the lawful course for an orphan is prompt transfer to a rehabilitator. The department takes no orphans itself and warns that many rehabilitators lack the room to accept more, so phone one from its online list and ask how it wants the young brought in.
Will Kentucky Fish and Wildlife come and get it?
No. Its page for reporting sick or dead wildlife puts requests to remove dead animals under the heading Do Not Report. An opossum dead under a porch or in a crawl space is the property owner's to arrange.
What makes a crawl-space recovery harder to price?
How far the body lies from the hatch or vent, how much clearance there is, whether a vapor barrier or insulation sits under it, and whether pipes or ductwork are in the way. Measure the hatch if you can, and say whether the space is dirt, gravel or plastic-covered. The operator quotes from those answers before anyone crawls in.
Who deals with a live opossum that keeps using the space under the deck?
A live animal is outside this number. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife says landowners with property damage from furbearers, opossums included, can ask licensed fur trappers for help during trapping season, mid-November to the end of February. It also points homeowners to wildlife control operators and publishes a list of them.

Statewide questions on law, safety and process are on the Kentucky FAQ.

Dead Opossum Removal in Kentucky: talk it through

Describe it once. Where an operator covers the address, they price it on that call.

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