PRINTArmored pests
Armadillos make a new home in Missouri
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The armadillo is Missouri’s new roadkill. Over the past three years, the armored creatures have been sighted as far north as Nebraska, Bill Heatherly says.
June 19, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
It’s 10 p.m. You’re in the car driving home, and you see a small animal in the road. Honking the horn and flashing the headlights startles the creature, and it jumps straight up into the air and into the path of the vehicle. Then it lies on the side of the road, contained by its armored back, with stiff legs in the air. The now lifeless creature, while living, was Missouri’s newest resident: an armadillo. A native of South America, it has been migrating north since the 1800s and in the past 30 years has become an official mammal of Missouri.
The funny-looking critters seem more like miniature tanks walking through the yard than actual animals. Besides just looking different, armadillos have some interesting characteristics that set them apart from other Missouri species. They give birth to four identical babies each year, do not hibernate and can roll up into a ball as a defense mechanism. When startled, armadillos jump three to four feet in the air, which is one reason they are frequently hit by cars.
If you’re a Missouri resident who has become annoyed by the ever present holes in your yard or slight damage to your garden, there’s an answer to deal with your pesky new neighbor.
First Steps
• Call the Department of Conservation: They will guide you through dealing with the situation. 884-6861.
• Call nuisance animal removal services: A All Animal Control at 441-MOLE.
• Build a fence: Make sure the fence extends at least 8 inches below the ground and 2 feet above.
• Remove habitats: These include wood and brush piles.
• Build a cage: Use the cage to trap the armadillo.
Last Resorts
• Killing its food source: This might harm other animals.
• Shooting the armadillo: If you have to shoot an armadillo, you must report the action to the Department of Conservation within 24 hours. Otherwise, you could be reported for poaching because the animals are protected under a Missouri wildlife provisions code.
--Danae’ Stout
“We think because our winters are warm or warmer, they’ve just continued to move north,” says Debby Fantz, resource scientist and heritage zoologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Wildlife Damage Biologist James Dixon says “there’s no shortage of armadillos” in Missouri. Dixon once got a call from a resident in Protem, Mo., who had shot 12 armadillos in one day on his 40-acre property. Although there are no actual numbers for Columbia, Rex Martensen, field program supervisor for the Department of Conservation, saw two dead armadillos on Highway 50 in Jefferson City during the first two weeks of June.
An armadillo’s diet, consisting primarily of earthworms but also of insects and grubs, is what gets it into trouble. Because its food is found in the soil, armadillos must dig to find it. The holes left behind have caused them to be considered a nuisance. “This is one of the biggest sources of complaints we get about them because they burrow for food,” says Bill Heatherly, wildlife programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Don’t think of armadillos as unwanted guests, though. They can actually be beneficial to the environment. The creatures help reduce the insect population by eating around 200 pounds of insects a year. And although about 5 percent of armadillos carry leprosy, these peaceful guys are not considered a threat to humans or other animals. In his 10-plus years with the Department of Conservation, Heatherly has never seen a case of leprosy from an armadillo in Missouri.
With few predators and many defense mechanisms, armadillos are here to stay. Kelly Stiefermann, certified wildlife professional of A All Animal Control says, “I think they are going to be the animal of the future around here to control because there’s no natural predator except for cars.”
