Having three friends that are suffering the long term effect of Lyme disease, and being in a profession that puts me in the woods all summer long, I am always interested in any information concerning ticks. Tick expert Richard Ostfeld, from the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, explained that opossums are actually the "unsung heroes in the Lyme Disease epidemic, "Because many ticks try to feed on opossums and few of them survive the experience. Opossums are extraordinarily good groomers, it turns out – we never would have thought that ahead of time – but they kill the vast majority – more than 95% percent of the ticks that try to feed on them.”