After a couple of weeks of reading every thing I can find about how to get rid of these shelled Bastards, I think I have made some headway. Two down, (trapped and put down), traps are re-set and let’s see what happens. They have destroyed our entire area under and around our front stoop at the front door! 6” diameter deep holes, 50-60 holes!!!!!!!!! In one night we counted 23 new holes!! Bastards!!
Fat Bastards, around 13-15 lbs. You cannot bait these traps you have to actually find their route of travel and they just walk into the damn trap!! Almost blind and deaf, but tenacious. Bastards! I got a little something for them............. I hope I got em all

https://imgur.com/a/uegIFcD


One of them and my eradication tool

Bastards

Big boy!

What do you have living in your yard that they are eating? Eliminate their food supply And they would move on.

Yup, Those critters are all over the place.

Don't think I'd use a 22 or a 9 on one. Those rounds have been known to ricochet off and go who knows where. 50AE gets it done with one round, although it may be a bit much.

Hogs and armadillos are what thermal scopes are all about.

Damn. Around here they seem to mostly be used as road poppers.

There’s a running joke in Florida:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To prove to the armadillo that it could be done.

 
There are tons of armadillo recipes available via a Google search. Never have had one myself.
 

They're actually not that hard to catch by hand. Run a bit faster, stand in front of them. They run into your leg, bounce off, curl up in a ball. pick them up (avoid the claws), stick them in a box or sack, take them somewhere else. Done.

If they're burrowing along the edges of cement, sink boards along there or pour a retaining wall or fence below ground. They don't tend to go far; they're not moles. They burrow straight in, stay there, then back out.

The secret to dealing with them is getting to know them, and how they live. If you have a problem with termites or ants, that may be the primary thing that's attracting them; it's a main meal for armadillos. Both ants and termites live under protective covers such ass cement slabs; treat the food source and the armadillos go elsewhere. They find the ants by sense of smell.

Plug the holes they leave. Drop a mothball in each one. Fencing around your property should extend at least 12" or more beneath ground.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Don't think I'd use a 22 or a 9 on one. Those rounds have been known to ricochet off and go who knows where. 50AE gets it done with one round, although it may be a bit much.

Probably a .45 ACP would do the trick with lesser risk of ricochet?

They run in our yard all the time as we back up to the woods. Pit bull goes out back and go crazy trying to catch one. I'll let her try to catch one as I don't think either one can really hurt the other. Dog won't chase into the woods. If it's a raccoon, nope, not going to let her chase those.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Damn. Around here they seem to mostly be used as road poppers.

They've made it here. We see them on the roads, the casualties. Amazed they made it this far north without being able to cross a road and all.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Yup, Those critters are all over the place.

Don't think I'd use a 22 or a 9 on one. Those rounds have been known to ricochet off and go who knows where. 50AE gets it done with one round, although it may be a bit much.

Hogs and armadillos are what thermal scopes are all about.

Have you personally seen a 9mm or .22 bounce off an armadillo? I killed several with a .22 when we lived outside of Kerrville and never once had that happen to me. Our Rottweiler was capable of biting through their shell, too.

They can really screw up a yard.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
If you have a problem with termites or ants, that may be the primary thing that's attracting them; it's a main meal for armadillos. Both ants and termites live under protective covers such ass cement slabs; treat the food source and the armadillos go elsewhere. They find the ants by sense of smell.

Your post made me think...10-12 years ago I saw a few dead armadillos dead on I-75 on my daily commute between Chattanooga and Cleveland...my first thought was that they fell from under a vehicle/tractor trailer that smashed them down the road in GA and they just hung up until they fell out...then a few years ago I started seeing a few live ones locally around southeast and middle TN...at about the same time frame I saw an increase in fire ant mounds in various and sundry places that seemed to coincide with the 'dillos arival in the same areas....hummmmmm, could there be a connection?

The reason armadillos are killed on the road has to do with an instinctive response. When they sense danger from an incoming vehicle they jump into the air which causes them to be struck by the undercarriage of the vehicle. If they did not jump they would be ok if not hit by a tire.

quote:

Originally posted by Bisleyblackhawk:
then a few years ago I started seeing a few live ones locally around southeast and middle TN...at about the same time frame I saw an increase in fire ant mounds in various and sundry places that seemed to coincide with the 'dillos arival in the same areas....hummmmmm, could there be a connection?

Yes. Yes there could.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
The reason armadillos are killed on the road has to do with an instinctive response. When they sense danger from an incoming vehicle they jump into the air which causes them to be struck by the undercarriage of the vehicle. If they did not jump they would be ok if not hit by a tire.

Interesting.

I've never seen an Armadillo do that. When I lived outside Tulsa, I used to have fun on occasion, catching Armadillos. I'd do as described above, chase them, jump over them, and let them run into my leg. They'd bounce off, curl up, and I could pick them up. Fascinating critters, and a lot of fun. The dog loved getting in on the chase.

I've never seen one jump, though. I've seen them burrow quickly, and have waited alongside the burrow until they back out. Surprised, they went back in or took off another direction, and often as not if I sat there and did nothing, they did nothing, either.

The Yooper version of an Armadillo is called a Porcupine.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
The Yooper version of an Armadillo is called a Porcupine.

Probably a poor choice to chase and pick up, based on past experience.

Must be related to the damn woodchuck that put in an addition under my brick pavers.
He has been eliminated, even the wife didn't mind after she saw he ate all her bean plants and lettuce from her deck.
And yes, they do dot the highways and byways around here. Hope you got em all Sybo.

I thought I read somewhere armadillos carry some kind of disease, anthrax, salmonella or rabies forget which.

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
I thought I read somewhere armadillos carry some kind of disease, anthrax, salmonella or rabies forget which.

Armadillos carry leprosy.

As stated the best defense is to get rid of the food source, they have zoned in on that area because it's rich with food for them..

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
The reason armadillos are killed on the road has to do with an instinctive response.

I most often saw them as roadkill (when I lived in TX). Reminds me of a humorous definition of a possum: "Small furry animal often born dead on roadsides".