Posted: 4/12/2010 3:12:02 PM EDT
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I live in a community in un-incorporated Brevarrd County just south of Suntree. Lately, armadillos have been digging up everybodys' yards at night. Guy several houses down the street from me has been sitting up at night trying to kill the little beasties.
Anyway, over the weekend he mentioned that he had shot one with a .22 rilfe. I've oftern thought about doing the same thing, but have refrained from doing so. I suggested that he refrain from shooting them as a richochette trough a neighbors window or screen porch would probably bring the wrath of God down upon him. My question is, what is the legality of shooting pests in the neighboorhood (four legged pests only)? Could you get into trouble for "reckless endangerment" or such? Keep iin mind that this a fairly densly populated neighborhood. What about someone reporting you for "cruelty" to the little SOBs? Also to consider is a miss/richochette.... As side note, the Dept of Wildlife says that if you elect to trap them, then you are supposed to dispose of them and not try to relocate tham. |
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Most municipalities have ondinances against discharging firearms within city limits. Sometimes counties have similar ondinances... In these locations, I wouldn't shoot anything without a serious, compelling reason to do so and even then, I would probably use something like the Black Hills 36 grain Varmint grenade (Barnes) offering (~3,700 fps) - the bullet disintegrates upon impact with anything bigger than a grape (YouTube video)... less worry about unintended badness (overpenetration, ricochets, etc.)
In terms of 'dillos, there are some folks who eat them... last I heard, the offer on the street was about $9 per 'dillo!  If you are going to sell the carcasses, don't use varmint grenades tho... they won't leave much to sell...
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I agree - too easy to ricochett, too many people around. I would also be concerned animal cruelty charges could be brought if someone filed a complaint.
I think I have convinced the guy to stop before he gets into trouble. He and the armadillos remind me a bit of Caddy Shack and the gophers..... |
Had a case over in Pinellas county a couple of months ago where 2 kids with BB guns were charged with animal cruelty after trying to recover plinked squirrels from a neighbors yard... Hell, we had problems at a construction site I worked at, racoon's tearing up AC ducts in unfinished houses...We were trapping them, then dispatching them and giving to some of the guys to eat... Tree hugger in the front office filed a complaint, they had to hire a trapper to relocate the precious little guys...First house, (duplex) required about $15K to remove drywall, and replace AC ducts
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Years ago we use to hunt them daily . A dillo's eye sight range is only like 4 feet so if you get down wind from them and sneak up from behind you can grab them by the tail and pick them right up . Just watch out for the claws .
There was so many that we would shoot them with everything from .22lr to deer rifles . |
Mobile ballistic gelatin! My buddy used to call them MBG's; Taste like chicken...I've survived on dillo and barbaque sauce for a week here and there back in the day. Hard to come up with a solution, traps are ineffective unless they have a known entry point into your yard, blasting in the nieghbohood is a bad choice unless you live in the 5 acre variety....puttin' on the sneak and grabbing 'em by the tail gets my vote. It's exciting even though they're harmless. Trick is to get them UP off the ground. You'll be suprised how strong the little boogers are if they can dig in and pull on the ground. Get them up and it's just a lot of jerking around. Have a garbage can (and lid) handy, snatch toss and transport. Mayors yard make a nice drop off point if its close by, or the county commissioners house. Always encourages them to find solutions to the problem if it's theirs...Unlocked cars at the local McDonalds were a good recepticle when I was a teenager, alway's fun to see the tourists abandon their vehicle in terror when they discovered the "CREATURE". Hard to find one unlocked now days in the era of electronic locks, and dangerous with concealed carry ahh the 70's
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| A friend of mine trapped one in his yard. The neighboor's dog was barking like crazy (it was 3 in the morning) so my buddy took the trap and put it in his car - a Honda CRX convertible - BIG mistake! He didn't put plastic down first....Dillo crapped all over. It stunk so bad that he had to drive with the top down and smoke a cigar. Fortunately the car was old and he got rid of it a few months later. |
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That explains those damn holes in my yard. I was wondering about those. I have them bad, it looks like someone called in an airstrike on my lawn. I was thinking of getting a pellet gun and shooting those bastards but they usually come late late at night. |
Just a FYI on Dillo killing from your resident expert, I prefer 9mm 115gr Cor-Bon, next to that a 12ga & buckshot. For those of you who can't shoot them, if you can locate their burrow you simply take a pump up sprayer with 10% pool chlorine and spray a couple of cups using a fine mist nozzle setting into the burrow, stick the wand as deep as possible into the burrow. The chlorine gas is much heavier than air, you'll have dead dillos in the morning.  |
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Quoted: Just a FYI on Dillo killing from your resident expert, I prefer 9mm 115gr Cor-Bon, next to that a 12ga & buckshot. For those of you who can't shoot them, if you can locate their burrow you simply take a pump up sprayer with 10% pool chlorine and spray a couple of cups using a fine mist nozzle setting into the burrow, stick the wand as deep as possible into the burrow. The chlorine gas is much heavier than air, you'll have dead dillos in the morning. So my suppressed 10/22 is not recommended? I was already plumbing an ACOG on it...  |
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Quoted: Sure, it will work mind you it won't be an instant stop. They generally bounce around like a basketball after getting hit making a followup shot difficult. I've killed a number of them with a suppressed .22. They're so plentiful on my place I use them for ballistic testing. Funniest kill was when I shot one and he rolled down the incline in the back yard and got hung up in the electric fence at 3AM. I had to get dressed and go get him unhooked. When I got to him, he was on his back and his back leg was hooked under the hot wire and he was doing sit-ups Quoted: Just a FYI on Dillo killing from your resident expert, I prefer 9mm 115gr Cor-Bon, next to that a 12ga & buckshot. For those of you who can't shoot them, if you can locate their burrow you simply take a pump up sprayer with 10% pool chlorine and spray a couple of cups using a fine mist nozzle setting into the burrow, stick the wand as deep as possible into the burrow. The chlorine gas is much heavier than air, you'll have dead dillos in the morning. So my suppressed 10/22 is not recommended? I was already plumbing an ACOG on it...  . An odd behavior I've noted more than once is if you kill one and leave it lay over night, sometimes another dillo will come along and I guess try to wake the dead one up or bury it. Anyway, they will dig and root all around the dead one so if you have a pretty lawn or flower bed, you're well advised to recover the dead one and put is somewhere for the buzzards to feast on. They clean them up in a day or two. My front pasture is mulched with their bones.  |
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As I was leaving for work yesterday morning, I saw my neighbor in his yard doing a victory dance - he had trapped another dillo.
He is a bit odd at times - he sits in his truck in the driveway at night and watches for armadillos. Tries to run over them if he sees them in the street. He need to get a life!
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Quoted: Quoted: I've heard that dillos are carriers of Hensen's Disease... a.k.a. Leprocy. Holly mutha of pearl...did not know that! It's true, but there is a published report that it's never been detected in the dillo population. I'd worry more about getting rabies from unvaccinated cats. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Sure, it will work mind you it won't be an instant stop. They generally bounce around like a basketball after getting hit making a followup shot difficult. I've killed a number of them with a suppressed .22. They're so plentiful on my place I use them for ballistic testing. Funniest kill was when I shot one and he rolled down the incline in the back yard and got hung up in the electric fence at 3AM. I had to get dressed and go get him unhooked. When I got to him, he was on his back and his back leg was hooked under the hot wire and he was doing sit-ups Quoted: Just a FYI on Dillo killing from your resident expert, I prefer 9mm 115gr Cor-Bon, next to that a 12ga & buckshot. For those of you who can't shoot them, if you can locate their burrow you simply take a pump up sprayer with 10% pool chlorine and spray a couple of cups using a fine mist nozzle setting into the burrow, stick the wand as deep as possible into the burrow. The chlorine gas is much heavier than air, you'll have dead dillos in the morning. So my suppressed 10/22 is not recommended? I was already plumbing an ACOG on it... . An odd behavior I've noted more than once is if you kill one and leave it lay over night, sometimes another dillo will come along and I guess try to wake the dead one up or bury it. Anyway, they will dig and root all around the dead one so if you have a pretty lawn or flower bed, you're well advised to recover the dead one and put is somewhere for the buzzards to feast on. They clean them up in a day or two. My front pasture is mulched with their bones. |
| In an effort to stamp out misinformation >>> Leprosy FAQ at the CDC |
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That explains those damn holes in my yard. I was wondering about those. I have them bad, it looks like someone called in an airstrike on my lawn. I was thinking of getting a pellet gun and shooting those bastards but they usually come late late at night. use the armor piercing pellets or the gold pellets they fly unlike the normal led pellet they are much more accurate also, the only drawback would be the supersonic crack. noise. they are much louder than the standard shot. 
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A few other dillo hunting notes. They are creatures of habit, they use trails and I can track them to some extent. The will often follow the side of a house or raised bed. If you determine their trail, you can stick an ordinary box trap on the trail and they will wander into it. No bait that I'm aware of that will work. I've sprayed the lawn to kill the grubs and the dillos didn't care. I've also tried cayenne pepper and moth flakes, might as well have sprinkled Skittles on the lawn. Some are smarter than others, I've had a few that would bolt when the lights went on, they will run into cover like shrubs and go motionless & quiet until they're certain you've given up. Usually, all you have to do is locate them in the shrubs and cap em'. They can run pretty damn fast so once you spook them, they're gone till the next time. Also, if they sense you, they will sometimes stand up on their hind legs like they're gonna draw down on you. This is the opportune time to shoot them Wyatt Erp style  I've killed one with a BSA .22 Supersport air rifle, not the the ideal method. I've killed one on the run with a machete. I get most with 9mm and my number of kills are well over 100. I've got some 95g frangible Win ammo that I'm waiting to test, there's at least one tearing up the place right now and since it's dry and the irrigation has been running on the grass, it's like an armadillo welcome mat, I'll get the opportunity real soon. |
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Also, if they sense you, they will sometimes stand up on their hind legs like they're gonna draw down on you. This is the opportune time to shoot them Wyatt Erp style
. First one I ever shot did that. Darn thing raised up on it's back legs and sniffed the air. I then took him out with a 3" slug out of my .410. 
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