Evil

I read that they are showing up in southern and south central Illinois. Great, just what I need on my farm along with the coyotes, poachers and meth heads. Hey, I can't believe the 9 didn't blow the lungs out. Brandon said it would.

Have never seen one.
Guess a couple spotted next county over.
Heard they had moved to southern IN, didn't know theyd gotten a ways north.
Protected unless doing damage LOL

got a neighbor that bugs you put one in the crawl space under their house they really don't get active until the sun goes down then they are good for the whole night.

I hate those darned things. Never saw them here in South Carolina until maybe 12 years ago and then all of a sudden they're the primary roadkill everywhere.

For whatever reason, armadillos seem impervious to pistol rounds, whether 9mm, 45, or 357. A 22lr just pisses them off; there's a .22 caliber hole in the side of my shop as proof. Don't shoot one with a bow, either. Trust me... bad idea. My preferred armadillo assassination armament, however, is an axe handle. However, a proper application of 1.25 ounces of #6 shot seems to do the trick as well, and they usually stay where they're shot. Oh, and just for the record, they contain about five gallons of blood, which they'll happily spray about when pierced with anything less than a 30-30!

Mac

Hillbilly Speed Bump. They're everywhere in Florida, can jump up to 4 feet straight up when threatened, so carefull when you're fixing to run one over.

PapaG said:

I read that they are showing up in southern and south central Illinois. Great, just what I need on my farm along with the coyotes, poachers and meth heads. Hey, I can't believe the 9 didn't blow the lungs out. Brandon said it would.

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A few years ago we were in town on Sunday morning. Mrs saw on Facebook that one was flattened on a side street. We drove there, and sure enough....it was a flat 'dillo.
I'm sure it rode in on a vehicle...but yep....I saw it with my own eyes.
We are fortunate that we do a fair amount of traveling. We saw so many dead armadillos on our last trip to and from Texas that we eventually just noted whether they were tips down. Or tips up. But we didn't say tips....(thanks autospell))....Anyway, we were joking because we both know that armadillos lay eggs. We have cooked them on our grill a few times.

We have heaps of them up-armored Opossums on our hunting property in middle TN. I have killed well over a dozen.



Got this one a few weeks ago. My 9-inch 300 BO with sub-sonics is a fun way to dispatch them. They are invasive and carry leprosy, they also are opportunistic turkey nest raiders though they are not as hard on turkey nest as opossums and raccoons can be. But other than that they seem pretty good, they dig up around downed trees eating bugs mostly. I have fun shooting them but at the same time don't mind having a few around.

Smoked Armadillo eggs!
Pretty tasty.

When my brother was alive we'd drive across MO to Joplin to visit. In the summer you could hardly go five miles without seeing a 'dillo dead beside the road. Almost never in the road. Bro said it was because they jumped straight up in front of appoaching cars or trucks and got launched off to the side on impact. Missouri wives tale, I don't know.

I smacked one in the head with an entrenching tool in Ft. Polk, LA once. It called me a rude name and ran off.

Terry G said:

I smacked one in the head with an entrenching tool in Ft. Polk, LA once. It called me a rude name and ran off.

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My dad has some funny stories from Polk lol.

I have always considered them as exclusive to the deep south and southwest. Have only seen a few in person in those areas and now I hear and read about them expanding their range. How far north could they expand? Just wondering if they can withstand winters? The climate around here mirrors that of southern Canada and I'm curious if that would that keep them away. Possum are common around here and I've heard armadillos being called "armored possum".

aaaaa said:

Looks like these things are a real nuisance and extremely difficult to control:
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/UW362

"Most of the methods used to reduce damage caused by wildlife are not effective against armadillos.There are currently no repellents, toxicants, or fumigants registered for use with armadillos. Exclusion with fences is challenging because armadillos are good at both burrowing beneath and climbing over them. There are also no effective methods for baiting armadillos into traps. Although armadillos occasionally enter live traps when fencing material is used to divert them from habitual travel paths into trap entrances, capture rates are extremely low. A recent study in Georgia reported one capture for every 132 nights a trap was set open."

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132 nights... we recently caught one per night for three nights... That probably means we have lots of possum on the half shell

If there was ever a harmless critter created by the Good Lord,,,
The armadillo is it.

I do understand they mess up lawns with their tunnels,,,
I mean as I type I have two of the tunnels in my front yard.

But why do people consider them to be "evil"?

I guess I'm becoming an old softie in my old age,,,
I just don't see the need to slaughter them just for existing.

Now having said that it wasn't too many years ago,,,
I killed over 20 of the critters in one summer,,,
They were ravaging a friends garden,,,
It was a major food source for her.

But unless they are causing actual damage,,,
Or eating your food producing garden,,,
Why not just live and let live.

JMHO

Aarond

.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To prove to the armadillos it could be done.

PapaG said:

When my brother was alive we'd drive across MO to Joplin to visit. In the summer you could hardly go five miles without seeing a 'dillo dead beside the road. Almost never in the road. Bro said it was because they jumped straight up in front of appoaching cars or trucks and got launched off to the side on impact. Missouri wives tale, I don't know.

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Not a tale. Armadillos sometimes will jump in response to a threat or being startled. If that is when a car is passing overhead, then they may jump into the underside of a car. Otherwise, a lot get killed just like other small critters, by getting hit by the tires.


Now, that video wasn't impressive. I used to have a poster of an armadillo high jumping. It was a cool photo. They can actually jump 4-6 feet, vertically when scared. https://www.forestwildlife.org/armadillo/

aarondhgraham said:

If there was ever a harmless critter created by the Good Lord,,,
The armadillo is it.

I do understand they mess up lawns with their tunnels,,,
I mean as I type I have two of the tunnels in my front yard.

But why do people consider them to be "evil"?

Click to expand...

I actually like armadillos. I think they are a very cool animal from an evolutionary perspective, but I also know that they are not a truly harmless animal (few are). Yes, they will mess up a lawn, but this isn't a decor issue. They will mess up pastures, cause issues for livestock. They will cause problems (weakening of) with small dams. They can literally cause structure problems for homes and small buildings by burrowing under (destabilizing) piers. They can ruin gardens. They are a carrier of lepsrosy, which we gave them. No, the threat is not from their teeth and they won't eat you or your pets (unless your pets are bugs), but that doesn't make them harmless. Their biggest problem for us is that they are simply tenacious diggers and if you want/need/expect the ground to remain solid and stable, then you don't want armadillos.

Personally, they get a free ride on the lands that I own at this point as do many other non-harmless animals that I enjoy having as nature.

As for the evil moniker, various animals get the tough or evil moniker because people shoot them and the animal survives the onslaught, usually because the shooter is doing a really poor job with the tool that the shooter has, along with failing to understand biology. People seem to believe that if they shoot an animal and it does not die immediately, that it has some sort of super power because the blast from their pistol will cause a full grown man to fly through the air on TV or some such nonsense. Then, they fail to understand that once the adrenaline dumps, the animal (including people) is apt to be able to absorb a lot of damage until it succumbs, even though it was likely mortally wounded by the first shot that simply didn't shut down the CNS. So you got guys putting random shots into it, sometimes through the same holes (not doing new damage) and thinking the critter is undaunted and virtually unharmed. If they would have put one shot into it and watched it for a minute or so, it would likely be dead (because, surely the shooter isn't incompetent with a firearm) without the need for all of the additional shooting a proclamations of evil.

I have seen the same claims for opossums, raccoons, and hogs. None of these animals are special.

This thread talks about tough ground hogs and opossums...
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...heap-with-rimfire.907102/page-2#post-12349052
More tough, zombie-like opossums.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/opossum-fearlessness.842685/
Bullet proof armadillo - NOT
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ff-armadillos-shell-breaking-mans-jaw.825049/
"Rodents, like opossums and armadillos, are tougher than you think" - which is really interesting given that neither opossums or armadillos are rodents.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...m-one-shot-kill-what-works.15802/#post-196648

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