Tag armadillo problem

Last night the main objective was to de-hurricane the property, putting everything back that was put away.  Ironically it was actually quite windy last night, possibly the most wind I have seen from Isaac.  My trash bins blew over a couple times.

I noticed the storm did a nice job of finishing off the sections of pool screen that had tears on the spline, they are now ripped to the point where I HAVE to replace them in the near future, yay.

The process was straight forward although certain items that were put away wound up staying in the shed, such as the three plant stands that have sat on the pool deck, plantless, for a couple years, only seeing use as a pool barrier when I have the Dirt Dog out there.  I also tossed some old footwear of Ali’s, after getting her permission to do so, that had been sitting on the table out there. The act of tossing them out pulled on some emotional strings briefly.

The emotion shifted however as I walked up towards the fence and saw the fcking armadillo has been busy putting more craters and tunnels in the yard.  They can be VERY destructive.  My neighbor across the street has had the same armadillo(s) wreaking havoc on his property.  He said he actually saw one of them early one morning and it was HUGE.  The size he illustrated with his hands looked big enough to be a small pig.

I need to get these bastards off my property.  My neighbor has a more violent plan than I do, hoping to spot one in his backyard where he can use his rifle to end the problem.  I am hoping to catch the pest in a live trap cage and then release it far, far away.

My neighbor actually has a live trap cage that I am going to try first, although he is skeptical if it is big enough to hold these monster armadillos.  Also, apparently it is difficult to tempt an armadillo to even go into a live cage.  I looked on the net for what to bait the trap with and came back with disgusting menu items like, meal worms, maggots, spoiled meat, sardines, overripe fruit and fish.  Evidently armadillos like nasty smelling items.

If the neighbor’s cage proves to be too small I will have to invest in a bigger one.

When I had the armadillo problem a few years back they just sort of went away eventually.  However back then they just made a shit load of small holes.  This time there is some major tunneling taking place.  I am not looking for my yard to become an armadillo apartment.

I really am starting to hate armadillos.  Several times a week I am out there with a shovel trying to fill in the dozens of holes the little bastard leaves in our yard under the cover of darkness.  I am now at the point where I am going to actively try to rid myself of the thing.  Last night I left the one rear spotlight hot so it could hopefully turn on when the armadillo is in the vicinity to scare it away.  I also was doing some reading on how to get rid of them.  One suggestion was to spread mothballs around the areas where they are digging.  Armadillos have a keen sense of smell and they hate the smell of mothballs.  There is also various repellents you can buy.  If all that fails you can try to trap the thing and relocate it.  And then of course there are those that just use a shotgun and a flashlight.  I want this thing gone.

So my plan of running at lunch and mowing in the evening was coming together.  I put in a quick 2 miles on the treadmill at lunch followed by a quick dip in the pool.  After my training was done I quickly made the dogs supper and then headed outside to get ready to mow.  Before I started I saw another nice set of f’ing armadillo holes so I grabbed the shovel and began my backfill routine.  Finally I was done and the dogs wanted to come out.  I figured I would be nice and let them hang outside while I mowed the front yard.

As I was mowing I kept tabs on them.  For the most part they were just sitting in the shade.  Towards the end I didn’t see them.  I finished up the front yard and walked through the gate to let them back into the house.  As I turned the corner to the lanai I stopped in my tracks as I ran into a huge ass hole.  Evidently Sadie thought it would be fun to imitate the armadillo. 

 The hole pissed me off, but what REALLY pissed me off was the direction she was facing when she dug it.  She was positioned with her rear end towards the house so all of the dirt that she sent flying hit the house and landed on the river rock border.  So now I had all of the stones buried in dirt.  I don’t want extra dirt in that area, it only will make for more weed growth.  I screamed “NAUGHTY!” at her and sent her inside.  As I was raking the stones out to try to separate them from the dirt I was mumbling to myself repeatedly “f*cking dog….”  Oh I was annoyed. 

My efforts were mostly pointless.  In the end I just came over with the hose and tried to blast the dirt out of the rock bed.  I don’t think I was very successful and most of the dirt just wound up sinking to the bottom in liquid form.  I finished my mowing and ignored Sadie for most of the night.

Nicki was being rude last night to Sadie as well.  Maybe she knew I was mad at her.  A few times Nicki showed her teeth while guarding a rawhide bone she deemed as hers.  Then later when nobody was looking she decided to go over and eat all of Sadie’s supper.  Nicki had already had a big plate of food earlier.  At times it seems like we have a mini-dog soap opera going on.

My training yesterday went fine.  There is a lot of repetition of the material I learned last week.  It’s not a big deal though, I’d rather be over exposed to the information than not know what I was doing.  It beats sitting in the office any day.