Armadillos

[GregLaROCHE]

I never knew this much about armadillos. Are they now considered nuisibles? I think I remember that they are good eating.

https://youtu.be/80TQtxsfFpI

[Rapier]

Some critters you do not eat unless they are 100% safe because they can have diseases that do not "cook out." I treat them as pests and shoot on sight, then bury. We have more than a plenty around here.

[Thumbcocker]

They are present in Southern Illinois.

[Gator 45/70]

Choot em T-Baw!

[parson48]

They have been spotted in southern Indiana also.

[Texas by God]

I am glad that we don’t have those big South American ones here!
A shotgun at close range is my preferred Armadillo gun. Hit them with a .22 and they jump around squirting 5 gallons of Leprous blood all over the place!


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[anothernewb]

I think they (can) carry leprosy

[KenH]

Possum on a half shell

[45workhorse]

Tough critters to kill.
Q. Why did the chicken cross the road?
A. To prove to the Armadillo it can be done!!!

[deltaenterprizes]

I think they (can) carry leprosy

They can and do carry leprosy! They use them for testing purposes for leprosy research in Louisiana!

[HWooldridge]

I leave them alone. As varmints go, they are pretty harmless. People around here used to eat them during the Depression but I don't think the meat was considered a delicacy - and they are known to carry leprosy, so just another reason to live and let live.

[scattershot]

I grew up in Texas, and the only armadillos I ever saw were road pizza.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Say...you know all of us old guys have our favorite stories that we tell over and over. I told this one before, but there are always new members. Forgive me if you heard it before. True story. Back in 1961 I was going through Advanced Infantry Training at Ft. Hood, TX. That was back in the days of the draft, and although I was from a small cattle ranch, many of the guys in the training unit were right out of the cities, most from up and down the west coast.

We were camped for the night out in the brushy Texas countryside in a clearing. There was all of the usual laughing and conversation, but gradually it began to subside into the hot, sticky silence of the nighttime as the guys began to fall asleep in their sleeping bags. Lying there, I could hear what I thought must be a tank a long ways off, as I could hear "click, click, clank" but no engine.

The noise was periodic but seemed to be getting closer and I still couldn't discern the noise of an engine. Suddenly a large silver colored armadillo walked out of the bushes into the bright moonlight. I could see that he was heavily armored with scales, and that was the source of the clicking. I knew what it was, but most of the other trainees did not, and as they became aware of the armadillo's presence hurried warnings of its presence walking among the sleeping bags became shouts, even screams, and guys running for their lives.

I just lay in my bag and watched it all, as did a few others, having read about them and never having heard that they were in any way dangerous. But there were guys struggling to get out of the bags and running off into the brush, and even a couple of sack races going on with guys who couldn't find the bag's zipper and decided to hop away, bag and all. The NCOs were yelling to come back and that there was no danger, but the camp emptied out fast. The armadillo was only present for about five minutes and then disappeared back into the bushes.

Eventually the trainees began to return from all directions, but when a head count followed one was missing. There was a lot of yelling and calling, but it was a full three hours before the guy returned to camp saying that he had gotten lost in the bushes.

DG

[WRideout]

I used to be able to determine the latitude by the sight of road-killed possum changing over to road-kill armadillo.

Wayne

[Bmi48219]

My wife worked for a plastic surgeon. An MD came to the office for a large sore on his lower leg. The diagnosis came back leprosy. He had been doing yard work at home the previous month wearing shorts. They think he must have brushed up against one of the many prickly / thorny plants typically used in landscaping. His bad luck that the plant had abraded his skin AND had been previously peed upon or otherwise come into contact with a disease carrying armadillo. He was treated with antibiotics and recovered.
I tell visitors from the north most Florida vegetation has some kind of thorns, spikes, saw teeth or other feature to be wary of.
The department of health estimated fully half the armadillos in our state carry leprosy.

In the early 1970’s I heard a radio broadcast by the FWC about Florida having a big problem with too many armadillos. At the time they weren’t know to be carriers of disease or harmful to anything but local egg laying reptiles and vegetation. He suggested Floridians kill the when encountered AND also that they were edible and reportedly quite tasty.

[sixshot]

When I was in the Air Force, living in Sherman, Texas in the 60's I shot a lot of them with my recurve bow using my homemade wooden shafts. They sure were hard on the wooden arrows, they would break them off almost every time either going down a hole or running off through the brush. I also got Raccoons & a few Possums. The most fun was those big old Texas bullfrogs, I shot lots of them with my bow.

Dick

[Eddie Southgate]

I kill every one I see.

[1006]

They make excellent Shotgun targets…..

[Winger Ed.]

Years ago, a friend of a friend bought a weekend home out away from the city.
Nice place, and they just ohhed and ahhhed about all the cute critters and wildlife there.
They spent days doing all sorts of landscaping and had big beautiful flower beds.

One evening they pulled up and it looked like a kid with a tractor had gone through their yard.
It was a armadillo that had destroyed the yard.

The next time they came, they caught it digging in the flower bed.
In a second, the wife went from "Oh, we have all these cute animals out there', to "QUICK!!-----SHOOT THE DEVIL!!!!

[justindad]

How do you find an armadillo, for recreational purposes?