Armadillo digging over

[1lnbrdg]

Very funny story. Local town spring festival, they used to have armadillo race on Saturday morning. ~40 years ago, buddy of mine and I are driving around Friday evening before the festival and see a armadillo running down the bar-ditch. The race is on, took us about a 1/4 mile to catch him, looked around what to do with him now. Find a 55-gal. drum with the top cut out on the side of the road, may just work out. Drum goes in the back of the truck, Armadillo goes in the drum. Driving down the highway sipping an "Old Malarkey (going for quantity, not quality)" and i hear quite a racket. Armadillo looks like he levitated straight up out of the drum, drifted over the driver's side of the truck and landed in the on-coming lane of traffic just in time to get waxed by an 18-wheeler, looked like watermelon off a 10-story building thing.

Always wondered what was going thru that truck driver's mind when/if he saw the armadillo popping out of that truck.

 

[Oso]

I’ve heard an old wives tale maybe someone can say is true or not but I’ve heard somewhere that they carry leprosy

Yes they do. One of few known carriers in US. In some places, aka Louisiana, you could buy the meat in a can. During my wife's medical residency she did a rotation at LBJ Hospital, a regional hospital servicing low income area of Houston. One of her patients was so happy/grateful for her help that he offered to bring in some of his famous armadillo stew. She kindly passed on the offer.

When I was a boy we had a large yellow Labrador that loved nothing more then to be set loose on the ranch to spend the afternoon digging out armadillo burrows. You could tell when she reached her target by the sound of "crunch". We would have to use sticks to pry her mouth open to release them... she really liked them.

I never bothered shooting them. I got to much of a kick out of surprising them as I walked back through the fields after fishing in the evening. They're so blind that they would just about walk across your feet if you stood still. Give a good yell or hand clap and they would jump 3 feet straight up in the air. This self-defense reflex is why you commonly find them dead along the roadside. Most cars drive right over them without ever hitting them, but what kills armadillos is their jump reflex when startled smack into the underside of car ... suicide by fight/flight. Long term there is a Darwin lesson.

 

[LaMan]

It seems like I have been fighting armadillos my whole life. In Texas and La. we had them in droves, lost cattle to broken legs, broke axles on tractors and equipment, about bounce you through the windshield when you hit one of those hidden holes. Moved to Fl. what do we have in our suburban yard, armadillos! My farm in Ga. at times is so infested that the our food plots look like hog rooting, I have to caution guests about walking around blindly. I"ve shot them with 22's - 8mm Mauser. Favorite rounds were 000 buck and 17 HMR, none of that jumping around.

For years the US facility for leprosy research was in St. Gabriel La., using armadillos as the test animals. We tried to eat one at the camp back in my teenage eat what you kill days. After that experiment we took armadillo off of that requirment lol.

 

[338 dude]

It seems like I have been fighting armadillos my whole life. In Texas and La. we had them in droves, lost cattle to broken legs, broke axles on tractors and equipment, about bounce you through the windshield when you hit one of those hidden holes. Moved to Fl. what do we have in our suburban yard, armadillos! My farm in Ga. at times is so infested that the our food plots look like hog rooting, I have to caution guests about walking around blindly. I"ve shot them with 22's - 8mm Mauser. Favorite rounds were 000 buck and 17 HMR, none of that jumping around.

For years the US facility for leprosy research was in St. Gabriel La., using armadillos as the test animals. We tried to eat one at the camp back in my teenage eat what you kill days. After that experiment we took armadillo off of that requirment lol.

I have eaten them as well with enough barbecue sauce it taste good if you like
The taste of barbecue sauce

 

[Oso]

I have eaten them as well with enough barbecue sauce it taste good if you like
The taste of barbecue sauce

Sounds like my Cajun neighbors make a good call replacing Armadillo with Nutria as the favorite roadside/drainage canal meat.

 

[338 dude]

Sounds like my Cajun neighbors make a good call replacing Armadillo with Nutria as the favorite roadside/drainage canal meat.

I haven’t tried nutria yet but I haven’t been to Louisiana either maybe something to look forward to

 

[okie]

I'd rather eat a slough rat anyday over an nasty old diller!!!

 

[yotehater]

The Imported Fire Ant has about wiped them out around here in my part of East Texas. The quail are all gone.

 

[Knotwild]

I caught two under my shed at work. Beat them to death with a square point shovel.
Hardest work I ever did with a shovel. I'd get one knocked out and the other one would come to and try to escape. If someone had videoed me I would have 3 bazillion views on utube.

 

[46and2]

The Imported Fire Ant has about wiped them out around here in my part of East Texas. The quail are all gone.

Which one is affecting the quail?
My farm in TN has both and don't have nearly as many quail as we did when I was a kid. I blames the damn yotes.

 

[yotehater]

Which one is affecting the quail?
My farm in TN has both and don't have nearly as many quail as we did when I was a kid. I blames the damn yotes.

They both were abundant during the 60's and 70's. Almost all of the reintroduced turkeys are gone too. I guess between the feral hogs, yotes, and fire ants, anything trying to live at ground zero has a slim chance. I kill every one I see.