AgResearch Invermay scientist Bernie McLeod said a week after a report seeking live possums appeared in the Otago Daily Times, he had been overwhelmed with offers of 80 places to trap possums.
Offers came from Taieri Mouth to Purakaunui, with many from people living in urban Dunedin.
When contemplating a public appeal, he thought he may have had 20 to 30 trapping places.
The battle to rid the country of the disease bovine tuberculosis, of which possums are a primary carrier, has severely reduced the availability of healthy, live possums for research to find a new toxin and other ways to reduce the pest numbers.
Possums are also being used for prostate research.
Dr McLeod said technicians would work through the list of people who had contacted them, then visit to set box traps and return to remove it and any possum caught.
