Armadillo?

notjustair · Jun 14, 2013

I've been watching armadillo expand closer to me for the last several years. They used to be something I saw on a trip to the south, but I just saw one on the side of the road one town south. I guess they are here (NE KS).

School me on them. Are they like a coon or possum? Are they going to be trying to get into the chicken house or eat out of the hog feeders? Are they going to be burrowing under buildings or grain bins? When do I need the gun on me - are they nocturnal? Where are they going to be the biggest menace?

Makes me wonder why they are expanding their range and what vermin I can expect next.

Tx Jim · Jun 14, 2013

Your chicken pen should be safe. Armadillos like to tear up your yard looking for grubs & bugs. Bright side is Armadillo taste good coming off a smoker if you aren't worried about the chance of catching leprosy.

JMOR · Jun 14, 2013

Mostly dig up yard, under foundations, etc. Slow & not threat to humans. Seem to be nearly blind, let you approach easily, nocturnal for most part. I leave them alone.

Gambles · Jun 14, 2013

Are they alive or are they "road kill"?
Because I know of a trucker who thought it was funny to pick up armadillo road kill in Texas and put it along side the road in Kansas.

charlespretzer · Jun 14, 2013

I live west of Emporia .We have had them for several years. keep thinking a cold winter wood freeze them out. They really haven't bothered anything,

Texasmark1 · Jun 14, 2013

They eat worms. I have large white earth worms by the 10's of thousands. They make a little dirt pile about an inch high wherever they work and the dirt granules (for Houston Black Clay) are coarse; about twice the size of pepper granules from a manually operated pepper grinder. That's how you recognize them.

The Armadillos have an extremely keen sense of smell and long snout and can smell them. They also have a bodacious set of fore foot claws and they just dig them up.

Wherever they work they tear up the soil and anything planted down to the depth of the worm. At night they keep you awake banging around under your house.

You can run them off with a hammer on a big piece of sheet iron. At 2 am it works wonders.....on skunks too.

Their eyesight is horrible. If you are quiet and one is working the worms, you can walk right up to it. That's nice because at point blank range it's hard to miss.

Rumor has it that they carry Leprosy but that is rumor from one person and never heard it from anyone else nor verification from a legal authority.

One of their trademarks is getting on the roadway and getting run over. We refer to it as road kill and how fresh depends upon the kill date obviously. The buzzards survive around here on road kill till they find your young born calf.

One of the problems with road kill is that if you run over it, it might cost you a tire. That's because down here, the local beer, Texas brewed, in the brown long necks, is "Lone Star" and you usually find fresh road kill hugging an empty lying on it's back.

Some of this is fact and some folklore. You figure it out. Grin

Mark

ben there · Jun 14, 2013

they're easy to trap...just put a couple Lone Star Longnecks wherever you see activity...warning,the bigguns are known to attack beer trucks

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2013

MMM MMM MMM possum on the halfshell!

FLOLDFORD · Jun 14, 2013

Savage bolt action in 17HMR works pretty good on them them at over 150 yards on a calm day. We shoot them for sport here in Florida. Be more than glad to send you some we got more than we want. Stay up wind of one and you can walk right up on one if your quiet. They'll jump straight up when you startled one.

Dachshund · Jun 14, 2013

Way back when I worked for KDOT out of Wamego (1993) - we saw one get run over on I-70 by Paxico. KS. They have even been spotted in SE Nebraska.

The Red · Jun 14, 2013

Jim do they taste like chicken?

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2013

ya beat me to it!

Janicholson · Jun 14, 2013

Yupp! they do.
NY times article

WAYNE-N-TX · Jun 14, 2013

Cleaning one is APITA. Taste good but not worth the trouble. They just dig holes and eat what they find, they're about blind, don't eat chickens or live stock. Dogs love the kill them because they don't put up a fight.

uncle henry · Jun 14, 2013

i shot one with a monkey ward 30-06 guts went one way shell went another

Dan T in MO · Jun 14, 2013

The taste is somewhere between possum and turtle

da.bees · Jun 15, 2013

There was one mention of how the jump straight up when statled. One of those country kid games where you sneek up on one and see how high you can make him jump. Have to admit that occasional I spot one come my way and stand still and give him a scare just to see him flip and tear out of there. That's why so many are killed on the road. Driver sees the dillo in time to stradle him and prevent smashing him under the tires. Car scares him about the time he's under engine,stupid thing jumps and collides with undercarraige. Makes enough racket that you can't resist looking to see what it bent or broke. I will bet any man he can't pull one from a hole with one hand once he's 2/3 underground. Some say he swells up and others say he's anchored by those long claws. Which ever it is,the thing can continue digging(and making headway)while you are trying to pull him out by the tail. In the black clay around here he can tunnel himself completly out of sight in less than 5 minutes if you only poke at him or a small dog is pestering him. Sure would like a couple trained to tunnel when, where and direction I wanted them to.

john in la · Jun 15, 2013

Janicholson think about this.......

They say that people can catch leprosy from armadillo's. It is one of the few diseases that can jump from animals to humans such as HIV and the flu.

BUT armadillos are indigenous to the Americas.
And leprosy was not present in the Americas before Christopher Columbus came here.
So that means humans gave leprosy to armadillos not the other way around.

Texasmark1 · Jun 15, 2013

OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Texasmark1 · Jun 15, 2013

So you heard that rumor too. I never did till a couple of years ago and no proof was included.

Mark

Texasmark1 · Jun 15, 2013

Thank you sir for that. Great! Nothing like a little verification as to a rumor. I don't eat them and only handle with a gloved hand so I guess I have no worries.

Mark

john in la · Jun 15, 2013

That is not a rumor.
The LSU School of Veterinary Medicine along with the Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center in Baton Rouge La has done a lot of research on the subject.

Google Dr. Richard W. Truman if you want to read more.
His special research interest is Mycobacterium leprae infection in wild armadillos.

Nancy Howell · Jun 15, 2013

5% of the armadillo population carries leprosy. They are the only creature other than people that get leprosy. DON'T TOUCH!

They will dig burrows under buildings, your yard and everywhere else. They are harmless as long as you don't touch them, but also because of the digging, a pain.

dcarp · Jun 15, 2013

I had to repair one of our buildings on pier & beam because a 'dillo burrowed next to the pier & it gave way. I like to treat em with a 410.

Janicholson · Jun 15, 2013

The fact that people play with them (What is a mother to do!!!!) makes the transmission from Europeans possible. The genetics of the Bacteria is compatible with the European strain. The body temperature of an armadillo is about 90 degrees which is perfect for the Bacteria to thrive.
Jim

Red1 · Jun 15, 2013

I had one den under the deck for a couple years...completely tore my yard to shreds...

If you are really good at trapping or getting rid of them, the golf courses in florida would like to talk with you. They cause considerable damage...had several that escaped a live trap..they just excert so much force against the folding trap door it buckles..and away they go..

Finally caught the little b#$# outside and away from the deck, sun was almost set. Held the barrell of the .22 with the flashlight and shot the sucker..twice.

And then I cut off its head and stuck in on a stake which I placed over by the bushes in the hedge..on a used path...

not really..

David from Kansas · Jun 15, 2013

They are for real. Lots more of them being seen. Just a couple of weeks ago I found what looked like a mine field in my cow lot where I had fed cows in round bale feeders. There were mounds all around and lots of holes about 6-8" in diameter about a foot deep. Never have I seen anything like it around here. Son killed one on a country road this spring. Central Kansas.

Mark - IN. · Jun 15, 2013

They have been rumored to run in packs and attack brown bear, badgers, and wolves up in northern Canada. I've told story that they've even been known to wrap themselves around moose ankles and gnaw at them until they bring them down. Alone on Texas highways, harmless. In packs just south of the Yukon, tear igloos apart and eat eskimos, seals, and penguins if they can't find herds of caribou to go after.

Careful of them guys. Don't corner them if are two or more is the rumor I'm starting.

Mark

T in NE · Jun 17, 2013

I ran this by a guy from Alaska and this is what he told me:
"It’s true! I was just in Yukon two days ago. Saw a dump truck that had hit a herd of armadillos crossing the road.
They attacked the truck and even chewed off the tires.
The driver never had a chance.
I heard a rumor that they had started mating with porcupines.
If they have it could get really bad. (You have to be really tough to mate with porcupines. I know--)

Armadillo?

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