I have one or more armadillos wreaking havoc on a large and once prestine flower bed in my yard. I have no wish to stake out all night to shoot them, plus I don't think the neighbors would appreciate .223 rounds ringing out at 1:00 AM in the morning. So I want to do this as humanely and legally as possible. Anyone here with any knowledge on how to get these things to stop? Ammonia? Moth balls?
Maybe call someone out to take care of it or set traps for them and then they can take them to a rural area and let the go.
They are very, very hard to trap. I've tried a bowl of dirt and earthworms and they wouldn't touch it. I've heard marshmallows can work, but I'm dubious. Have tried the mothballs also with minimal results. Basically you have to shoot them or fence them out. I went through this with my garden a couple of months ago I have no idea if those sonic pest keeper-awayers work on them.
They can be eaten, fyi. Saw it on an episode of Bizarre Foods. Looked like a pretty tasty dish honestly.
Those guys' phone number is 1-800-WE-R-HARDSHELL-ARMADILLO-WHISPERERS. You must dial all letters(numbers) to receive proper service. Those guys work miracles.
Saw one this a.m. in River Oaks. Y'all are cooking up one mean King of the Hill live action script in here though. Gratz.
I take it back. Your OP said you wanted to get rid of them humanely. Im sure there are ways that dont involve killing them. My old teacher would spray hot pepper spray on her garden. It got rid of her squirrel problem because the spiciness was hell to them apparently. Id look into that and if it affects armadillos
If you can trap/move or hire someone it's ideal, but as mentioned they're not as easy as other pests. The only thing (and I know you said humanly OP, so this is not for you), BUT never use poison on anything, can't share this enough, witnessed plenty of friends dogs get sick/die from some idiot neighbor using poison and the pest dying in someone else's yard, only to be chewed on by the family dog
They don't eat leaves or fruits, they dig for worms & grubs. Cayanne pepper poured aournd on the dirt might work, but it would take a ton of it to cover a yard/garden and I doubt it would last long, especially if it rains.
Yeah, I've heard it works decent on squirrels, man those guys piss me off, I'm humane to them but damn it, they do enjoy chewing on my Hardie plank right by the roof line (if there's a perch to rest etc), I've tried some methods and ended up just repainting/replacing. I might try the the spice though.. Definitely okay with that one issue vs them living in the house/attic or something, and it's been generations of squirrels too I'm pretty much big into letting everything live unless I'm eating it, and squirrels/armadillos are not on the menu. Hell I even move spiders outside that sneak in, rather have them doing their work vs the damn mosquitoes.
It's really upsetting because this flower bed was my pet project last spring. It's at least 15 by 4, and i dug out over 2 feet of gumbo throughout the entire bed and back filled with garden soil and compost. There's probably all kinds of beneficial earthworms and insects living in there, and I bet that is what's attracting the armadillo.
I'm sure they are appreciative. Digging worms outta gumbo must suck. On the serious, just route some big rigs to drive over the flower bed until the armadillos have all jumped into the truck undersides.
A Google search + a trip to Home Depot, and you'll have yourself an answer in the form of land mines.
I think I have this issue too. Can you describe the kind of havoc they wreaked? I redid my flower bed (25 x 4 x 1) a few weeks back. Filled it up with nice compost and topped it off with mulch. The other day I noticed that there were small mounds of dirt dug up and displaced and mixed with the mulch all along the back border which is shared with my house. I though maybe it was toads burrowing down there but it looks to be a bigger animal.
