I live in Florida where there are lots of these funny looking medival animals running around. I noticed recently that there were holes being dug in my lawn as well as in several neighbors’ yards. One neighbor has a two foot deep hole next to his house. My kids said that the holes are the work of armadillos because they watched one digging at night a couple of days ago. Ok, I thought at the time, this is a good way for those bugs to get eaten…not thinking that armadillos will get more aggressive in their search for food.
Very early this morning, I went out to put some birdfeed and looked over the hump [not even a hill] towards the greenbelt behind our house. It looked like WWI trenches. The back yard didn’t look too bad, but the front yard was riddled with small little armadillo nose-sized holes.
That was enough for me. How do I get rid of these fuckers?
In my experience, a .22 to the head works pretty well. Just wander around the yard in the middle of the night with friend, child, or SO carrying a flashlight. Armadillos are especially stupid creatures, so they freeze when you shine the light on them. They won’t bolt until you get within 20 feet or less, at which range you can’t miss (or mistake the little sucker for a cat).
Of course, if you have neighbors, the rifle might not be such a viable option.
Short answer: Armadillo repellent will keep them out of a single flower bed, sort of. Insecticides that kill the grubs and bugs that they feed on will send them away. A buried fence will keep them out of the yard. If they’re already in the yard, shoot them, or live-trap them.
Set a trap? It quite obvious that there are several of these creatures living in the environmentally protected areas around our houses so catching one won’t solve the problem.
Fence? I don’t have a fence around the house because I like looking out at the trees and wild area behind my house.
I was hoping for some homemade type of fetish that would keep them away - sorta like sprinkling cayenne pepper on your front yard to keep a pesky dog away.
Looks like the solution lies with a] accept the boogers as they are or b] kill the bugs in the yard, or c] hi Opal! I’ll go with plan b.
In his novel Texas, James Michener describes an invasion of a homeowner’s yard by a pair of persistent armadillos. The account was related is such detail that one can only conclude that it was a personal experience, or was a factual account by someone he knew. In any case, IIRC, after a long battle employing a wide variety of counter-measures, the homeowner finally gave up and accepted the little beasties.
Actually, he did finally defeat them, after spending a ludicrous amount of time and money on the project - the character was a very wealthy, and the armadillos kept chewing up the fashionable bowling green his wife had had put in. They got divorced, and he promptly knocked a hole in the fence he’d paid a fortune for, and enjoyed watching the armadillos reclaim the bowling green.
Well, y’all leave me with such a feeling of, ah well, enjoy those critters while it lasts. I’ve seen them hanging out on the lawn/lake entrance to our community. And I’ve enjoyed watching them ramble around the grass as they jam their snouts for bugs. Funny looking things with their armor suits and bunny ears…
Another alternative is to make your garden an Armadillo friendly area.
They live around there so you may as well enjoy them.
Wish we had something so exotic in the UK, the closest we get is maybe the chance to feed a wild fox now and again(don’t want them to become too dependant) and it just isn’t the same