Armadilloes

[PK.]

Does anybody know how to keep armadilloes out of a garden? I'm planting out about 2/3 of a acre behind my shop this year and have been warned about the armadilloes by a buddy who lives nearby. He told me that last year they had just about redug his entire garden. I have several that frequent my shop, they're almost completely unafraid of people and you can barely shoo them out of the way.

We haven't had them in this area but for the last ten or fifteen years. Now you pretty much have to step over them in some areas. I don't want to kill them as I think they're kinda neat, but I don't need my watermelon patch turned over all summer either.

[snickering]

We leave him in the yard to show his friends what will happen if they hang around to long. Works fairly well, except he got mounted one year by a particularly frisky armadillo friend.

Oh and yes he is giving everyone the finger.


http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj303/snickering1/adilloSmall.jpg

[bee_pipes]

I agree - they are kind of neat. The neighbor has had problems with them. He has a short electric fence around his garden beds, and dogs that love to tear armadilloes up, when they find them. We haven't had problems with them yet - don't know if it's the fence we put around the garden or they just haven't reached us yet. We put up 5 foot chicken wire, with the bottom foot laying flat on the ground, to the outside of the garden. We planted sunflowers over the part laying on the ground. Now it's part of the ground, 1 foot out from the fence.

You see tons of them on the roade every summer. They are meat eaters - looking for grubs and other bugs in the soil. They are also opportunistic feeders and just can't resist roadkill when they come across it. Their only defense behavior is to jump, as if startled, when touched. This seems to be pretty successful with most predators - they are the startled ones - but doesn't seem to work with automobiles.

Skunks are a nother funny one. They are used to every animal in creation stepping out of their way. But let a car come up on one in the middle of the night and they just can't understand why it doesn't back off, no matter what posture it takes.

Well, asides from the tangent and local trivia, I'd be interested to hear what folks have found effective in dealing with these critters. Anyone from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama?

Regards,
Pat

[elh]

I like to use a 22 have used 40 cal pistol and 45 pistol and bow.
The 22 is more fun. On our place it is open season any time one is in sight.
Eddie

[annabella1]

I was going to suggest a foot wide of chicken wire laid on the ground outside a regular fence but that sounds a lot like the previous suggestion. It's the only thing that seems to keep em out of the garden.(of course the moles and voles just dig underneath)

[txplowgirl]

Yes they are fun to watch, but they are good eatting too.
I Know, I Know, They will supposedly make you sick if you eat them, My family has been eating them as far back as I can recall an no one in close to 50 years has gotten sick once.
It tastes like chicken. LOL ;D

[EarthMother]

I have never tried this and it is similar to the suggestion of the 1 foot on top of the ground. Mother Earth News or some of my farm and garden books say to dig a ditch and put that one foot of wire down in the ground. That may even stop some of the burrowing pests.