You’ve probably seen the meme: it features a cute picture of an opossum, with text that implores the reader to appreciate opossums because they eat ticks.
Among the many variations of this meme that I’ve encountered, the rate of tick-ingestion varies from thousands per week to thousands per season, but the intent of the message doesn’t change: if you hate ticks (and who doesn’t?), then you should love opossums.
There’s just one problem with this sentiment: it’s not true.
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