by Texas Homesteader~
Uh oh, something has burrowed beneath the rosemary by our back porch. We’re guessing it’s an armadillo. What a mess! So much dirt has been kicked up into the rock border of our porch and the burrow is obviously into the roots of my beloved rosemary plant.
A live trap will be set to capture and relocate whatever it is because it simply cannot stay! Not only is it tearing up our landscaping but we don’t want to chance our mini-schauzer coming into contact with something that could harm her.
Due to the size of the burrow, we’re trapping based on the premise that we’re dealing with an armadillo. Come see what worked for us.
Now before I go any further, know that I’m simply sharing what we did to remove a pest that was encroaching upon our space. Our property was being damaged, plus we don’t want to risk a tussle with Bailey & a potentially dangerous animal. But we don’t like to kill a critter just for being what it is unless it’s venomous.
No, we’re not animal-trapping experts and we certainly don’t know it all. But here’s what we did to successfully trap and remove the armadillo:
The mystery critter had previously dug lightly around our rain barrel. We’d raked the area smooth to repair the damage, but it came back the next day & dug the same area, this time more deeply. We repaired the damage again blocked it off with a large stone and thought that was the end of that.
But the next day we found a deep burrow beneath our huge rosemary plant next to our back porch. It was about 2 ft deep and 10″ wide. I wonder if it’s a female & she’s looking for a place to have babies?
Upon close inspection we found the burrow was closed-ended & empty. RancherMan’s research showed this was probably just one of several ‘escape burrows’ that is typical for an armadillo.
Armadillos Are Hard To Trap
But we’re reading that armadillos are notoriously hard to capture in a trap. Any bait you use will not attract them because they root for their food instead. So the bait in your trap will attract other pests such as raccoons, possums, etc. That certainly defeats your purpose!
So we set the trap right at the burrow entrance hoping she would come back to it. The trap was right on top of the hole, covering the burrow opening with the opening of the trap. Hopefully she’ll go into the trap in her effort to enter the burrow.
We also set up a motion-activated alarm so we’d be alerted if/when she arrived.
We got lucky.
When we heard the alarm go off around 10:30 that night we went out to inspect. The trap was empty but it was too dark to see well. So we came inside to get a flashlight & went back out to inspect more closely. In that short time apparently she went to hide in the burrow & went into the trap instead, just as we’d hoped!
Isn’t she cute?? I’ve always loved the look of armadillos. They almost look prehistoric with their body armor.
We relocated her to the farthest back section of the pasture so she can do her armadillo thaaaaang without destroying our landscaping.
Will The Armadillo Return?
It’s said to assure they don’t come back, you need to relocate an armadillo over 5 miles away. So even though this one was released in the farthest-away section of our 100-acre homestead pasture, she could technically navigate back to the house if she wanted.
But as long as there’s food, water and shelter there, I’m guessing that she’ll be happy right where she is.
So Far, So Good
So far she has not returned. If she does & we need to relocate her further away next time we will. My experience is that when we relocate critters as far away as we can, they find food & shelter abundant where we move them and they just continue on with their lives.
If she (or another like her) encroaches on our space again we’ll trap them again. But we realize how important all these critters are to the ecosystem. So our preference is always relocation.
So far the relocations we’ve had to do with armadillos, possums, snakes and raccoons have been few & far between. Sometimes we have to trap the whole family & remove them one by one, but typically that’s the end of it.
So for now we’ll chalk this armadillo relocation up as a SUCCESS!
~TxH~
Other Wildlife Posts
- Trapping Wild Hogs
- Wild Hogs: Making The Best Of A Bad Situation
- Wild Hog Damage
- Trapping & Relocating An Armadillo
- Adding Temporary Protection For Wild Rabbit’s Nest
- Itchy Chiggers – Separating Relief Fact From Fallacy
-
NE Texas Native Trees & Plants
31 years ago we moved onto this place. Early on we were on a swing watching the sun set and an armadillo ran by right in front of our feet. Daughter (maybe 6 or 7) asked if it was a dinosaur. LOL. Before that at the old place she had asked her Mom if a jackrabbit was a kangaroo! Innocence. Regards.
A dinosaur – Lol. I get it, Ken! They really *do* look like dinosaurs. 😀 ~TxH~
I don’t have an armadillo but I have an equally pesky woodchuck. Those critters can climb any fence (or tree) and slither and squirm their way through well secured netting. At least I thought it was well secured. A good perimeter of a granular critter repellant was added as an additional deterrent. I came out to the garden earlier this week only to see the d*** thing retrace his steps out of the garden bed after he had eaten 6 full for harvest broccoli plants and a start on the cabbage. He would have finished off the cabbage, too if I hadn’t showed up. Hope he had a horrible belly ache. Now to figure out something new to protect my garden. I live in a no-fence subdivision so my options other than as “invisible as possible” rabbit or chicken wire around the beds are somewhat limited. I thought I had the problem solved because he hadn’t bothered anything all summer. Deer are another story …..
Ugh, I’m so glad we don’t deal with many deer here Linda. (RancherMan feels oh-so-differently! LOL) Hope you get to salvage your garden. ~TxH~
I would echo ColleenB’s sentiments re: trapping and relocating. It always feels like we are the interlopers in this world and everything else is just doing it’s job of getting on w/ life. We had a cougar in our driveway a couple of weeks ago. They’re pretty scary, very BIG cats. It did just mosey on into the brush and went on its way.
Wowser – I’ve never seen a cougar here Candace (thank goodness!!) They’re beautiful… from a distance! LOL ~TxH~
Good for you in trapping and relocating the creature. Armadillos are good at digging some serious holes in ones yard and you are so right, they can also do a lot of damage.
Knock on wood, but that is one thing we never had a problem with. Now I have seen dead armadillos along side of the road here that have been hit by vehicles.
Now possums we have seen here but they aren’t meat eaters and have seen a skunk once but that’s about all we have had here; thank goodness.
A snake once in awhile but no dangerous snakes. My daughter and her husband did have and killed a copperhead snake that was in their fenced in dog area
We’re typically able to trap & relocate. And that’s always our preference, I love having the variety of wildlife that we do here. There are times when we’ve had to dispatch an animal or snake but it’s actually pretty rare. ~TxH~