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Possum on the half-shell

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A trait of armadillos is that when startled, they jump straight up. Not very high, but enough to intersect the undercarriage of a car or truck.
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When I was a teenager we lived out in the country and armadillos were plentiful. We would straddle them on purpose so they would do that.

Looking back, that was cruel, but we viewed it as entertainment at the time. I wouldn't do it now.
 
I had never seen one in my life here in eastern Kansas until recently.

Then I have seen two dead ones east of Lawrence on K-10 in the last year or so.

Some speculate they are moving north by hitching rides on the wheat harvesters equipment as the harvest moves south to north each year.

Seems more likely to me they are just expanding their range further north.

rc
 
rcmodel said:
I had never seen one in my life here in eastern Kansas until recently.

Then I have seen two dead ones east of Lawrence on K-10 in the last year or so.

Some speculate they are moving north by hitching rides on the wheat harvesters equipment as the harvest moves south to north each year.

Seems more likely to me they are just expanding their range further north.

rc
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Bein' from Wisconsin, I always thought Armadillos were a Texas/Arizona/New Mexico thing. Few years back, ridin' motorcycle in Missouri, we saw hundreds of them hit on the road. Ran into a wildlife Biologist on the Peels Ferry crossing Bull Shoal and asked him about them. He claimed they can only go so far north because they eat grubs and do not hibernate. If the ground freezes, they cannot dig grubs, thus they cannot eat and die. If there is a period of mild winters, they will naturally move north in marginal territory, only to die of starvation during a normal or below average winter. If they continue to survive in areas north where they didn't before, it is proof of Global warming.
 
being the resident varmit assassin can't be as bad as being the resident HORSE assassin....which I have reluctantly acquired as my title.
...Hopefully all the old ones are gone now. Jeez, It's grim duty for sure.
I had to put my nephews old pleasure horse down while he was in Iraq with the USMC.
Not a good day.
 
buck460XVR
Thanks for the insight!

That makes a lot more sense then hitching a ride up here from Texas or Oklahoma on a combine hauler and jumping off before they stopped here.
We are not real big on out of state wheat harvesters as our main crops are corn & beans.
Especially in that part of the county.

On the other hand, we have had some long cold winters here the last few years down to Zero.
And lots of deep snows that stayed on the ground for weeks on end.

And the two Armadillos I saw were on the road north of the north slope of a very steep hillside.
What we like to call a mountain in Kansas!

You would think they would hang on the south side of the hill, were sun would warm up the ground more often???

rc
 
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buck460XVR said:
Bein' from Wisconsin, I always thought Armadillos were a Texas/Arizona/New Mexico thing. Few years back, ridin' motorcycle in Missouri, we saw hundreds of them hit on the road. Ran into a wildlife Biologist on the Peels Ferry crossing Bull Shoal and asked him about them. He claimed they can only go so far north because they eat grubs and do not hibernate. If the ground freezes, they cannot dig grubs, thus they cannot eat and die. If there is a period of mild winters, they will naturally move north in marginal territory, only to die of starvation during a normal or below average winter. If they continue to survive in areas north where they didn't before, it is proof of Global warming.
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Yup, they have been here in MO for years, shoot, decades...

Russellc
 
I've yet to see a 'diller in east Kansas. As a matter of fact, I have never seen one in the flesh.

I hear they are awful though, and that they carry leprosy. I will have to say, if I ever see one headed towards me it will probably be shot.
 
Every Spring I travel from the east coast to the mid-west on I-70. Once I cross the river at St. Louis I begin to see lots of armadillo road kill. Guess they haven't yet learned to cross bridges or swim the mighty Mississippi and hope they never do.
 
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: To show the armadillos it could be done.
 
We used to go hunt them at night with a 4 wheel drive Nissan truck, spotlight, and an old lever action .30-30 rifle or a single shot 20 gauge shotgun. My friend's neighbor had a plot of land out in the middle of the county and we would go camping there every so often. During the summer we would get in the truck and go try to kill as many as possible. Let me say that those suckers are QUICK and bulletproof if you don't get a good square hit. We did not eat them as we were afraid of the various diseases that they can carry. We did chase a few with golf clubs one day, they don't fly very far when hit though.
 
Living in Florida,I have eaten them. Not bad at all,especially grilled with cold beer."Grilla Dilla!". I met a guy hunting who taught me a naughty trick.He would sneak up on them with a machete and lop off their tails. They use the tail with their rear legs to run. No tail,it's all backflips! We used to sneak up on them from downwind and pin them to the ground. Then we would put them in a box and release them in annoying neighbors' fenced in yards.Or in the backseat of cars belonging to visitors from northern states. We tried to walk them on a dog leash,but they don't domesticate well.We also found them very useful in load development-we called them mobile ballistic gelatin.Good times.
 
Bein' from Wisconsin, I always thought Armadillos were a Texas/Arizona/New Mexico thing. Few years back, ridin' motorcycle in Missouri, we saw hundreds of them hit on the road. Ran into a wildlife Biologist on the Peels Ferry crossing Bull Shoal and asked him about them. He claimed they can only go so far north because they eat grubs and do not hibernate. If the ground freezes, they cannot dig grubs, thus they cannot eat and die. If there is a period of mild winters, they will naturally move north in marginal territory, only to die of starvation during a normal or below average winter. If they continue to survive in areas north where they didn't before, it is proof of Global warming.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't listen too hard at that biologist. He's probably just trying to tie it to global warming so that he can get a multi million dollar federal grant to study it. :rolleyes: After this winter, I'm surprised they ain't died off north of the Rio Grande.
 
Patocazador,I grew up around Orlando,and spent plenty of time hunting(and armadillo foraging) at Green Swamp WMA. Moved out west a few years back,now I get to shoot prairie dogs instead of armadillos.Don't eat them though.
 
I'd never seen one before in person until a few years ago. Last year my brother-in-law shot one with an arrow. DRT- dead right there.
 
dillers are a huge pest here now in sw mo. in the early 80s they were very rare.
now i kill several a year. in dry years when the ground gets hard they will come into your garden if you water it and dig up all your plants because they like the soft ground to hunt worms and grubs in.

they once during a drouth killed all my green beans by digging them up because i watered them.


by far the most satisfying way to hunt these pests is spot and stalk. when you spot one, sneak quietly up behind him with a 12 ga shotgun. then belly crawl within 5 yards. then give him a 1oz lead enema.very effective.


the best time to hunt them is jan and feb. after a long cold snap if you get a few warm days they will be out in force. during this time the weapon of choice is a baseball bat or large tree limb.
 
"I've yet to see a 'diller in east Kansas. As a matter of fact, I have never seen one in the flesh."

Killed one at Fall River last year.
 
When they first showed up in central AL some decades ago, they messed up my mom's pride and joy - her lawn, her flowers and her veggie garden. My dad complained in phone conversations that he couldn't kill 'em. Shotgun or .22, nothing worked for him. He allowed that it must be the armor on 'em was the problem.

So I figured I could fix that - next trip home from NC I brought a .223 bolt gun and some 55 gr.soft point loads.

News flash - it wasn't the armor, it was my dad's marksmanship that was the problem. I was scraping up widely scattered 'dillo bits off my mom's lawn with a shovel for an hour after the first shot. Didn't make that mistake again...
 
We seem to have plenty here in sc Kansas, I'll see 6 to 10 live ones a year and twice that many dead ones.
 
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