Sunday, July 26, 2015

An Unwelcome Visitor


It was completely destroyed, ravaged right under our noses.
For the second time.

Now anyone who reads this blog knows that I Love the
little woodland critters.  We have regular visits from raccoon,
opossum, birds and even skunks!  They all get their little treats,
of left over cat food, older eggs, dinner scraps and 
at times some nice conversation, although a bit one sided.

This; however, takes the cake.
Or the coleus, to be more exact.

The culprit?
Based on the late night vocalizations and recent roadside carcasses, 
the Armadillo!

I was sitting with the cats and a juvenile raccoon yesterday, 
everyone enjoying a bite or two on the covered porch,
when we heard a screetchy scream,
then another and one more.
The cats and raccoon stopped in their tracks, 
ears up and heads turned in the direction of the scream.

Oh oh, I thought, I'll bet that's one of them now.
Sure enough, this morning my planted pots were dug up again.
It got 5 of them last time.

What might an armadillo do?
Dig holes in your yard 1-3 inches deep
Uproot plants
Burrow 
Damage underground pipes and wires
Cracking sidewalks and building foundations
Their burrows attract other tunneling animals
and could lead to foundation cracking.

We cannot have this

How does one get rid of an armadillo?
According to one site:  good luck.

According to another: get rid of brush and woodpiles
(we have 5 acres full of brush piles)

Other methods are to trap them (and then what?),
fence the yard (5 acres?)
remove grubs and insects (laughing).

We'll see if it sticks around or if it follows the path of 
most of the armadillo we see around here.
It might be interesting to actually see a live one!

If you have any suggestions- send them my way.








8 comments:

HIBISCUS HOUSE said...

I wish I knew but never had that problem before here.

Gorges Smythe said...

I've read that they're delicious, but then I've read that they carry some nasty diseases, too.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I was reading about the leprosy you can get from them but the article said it is usually if you eat under cooked meat. One article said that during the depression people ate them like chicken.

Sunnybrook Farm said...

We don't have shell possums here, I guess a live trap and a long ride would do the trick. They are far down on my list of things to eat.

Stephen said...

A .22 rifle...sadly when one is destroyed two will take its place.

LindaG said...

I would say to find a way to attach the coleus pots higher up on the columns where the 'dillos can't reach them.
I never knew they made sounds, so now I have learned something new! Have a blessed Sunday, Kathy. ♥

Harry Flashman said...

I like armadillos. We don't have any here, it is too cold in winter. That flower pot looks like my ferrets got into it. We can't have any flowers or plants in the house they can reach, because if there is anything a ferret likes to do, it's dig like hell.

Yahoobuckaroo's Blog said...

Is this what you heard?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPuOQxJOqh0

It's going to be hard for you to trap them without getting your other animals caught in the traps too. You may need to just sit outside with a shotgun and a lawn chair and wait for them.