Pest that needs to die!

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FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Pest that needs to die!

Post by FredC »

Thought about it after the last post, if they come get all the high caliber and weapons of war, I will be using a slingshot to try and control the pets. Even my model 67 Winchester was obtained by what today would be illegal means. My mother gave it to me when I was 8! Probably was given to her when she was a child also. Good grief, the evil things parents used to do!

Attached photo is an armadiller in the cantaloupe patch. Dillers eat grubs and bugs which could be beneficial except they turn plants over in the process. The other thing is their burrows. They have been here so long that many people that should know better think they are native. They crossed the Rio Grande in 1836 then spread across the state.

The last one I killed ran over the silly cat in his death throes. Kind of like an unguided bowling ball. Cat was not a happy camper, first the gun shot he hates then being run over by the unguided missile.

I was talking to ranch hand on the neighbor's place this morning. We closed call with him needing to kill a water moccasin on the cattle water tank (man made pond for watering cattle). He was going to use his evil AR rifle. Personally, I have no use for them. The last time I saw one used was by the hand on the neighbor's place to the south. He got out of the tractor shot a pig turned around and got back in the tractor and closed the door and started plowing again. Did not even watch to see if the pig was going to die. Confident in his shot! He just needs to get a less evil long gun. Whoops, there is no such thing.
Attachments
ArmadillerRS.jpg
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Last edited by FredC on Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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butlersrangers
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Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: Peculiar alien animals

Post by butlersrangers »

Armadillos have spread across the South to Florida and even swum out to Cumberland Island, Ga.

I didn't know they were an invasive species in Texas!

I thought them pretty neat, until I learned they can be carriers of Leprosy.

(I am glad we don't have Water Moccasins or Copperheads in Michigan, ugh, nasty snakes)!

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Re: Peculiar alien animals

Post by FredC »

My dad told me about his first encounter with a water moccasin. It got too late in the evening because the fishing was good, and a water moccasin was on the path back to the car. He picked up a big mud clod and threw it down on the snake. One second later he figured out that was a mistake. The snake reared up and chased him. By then they were coming down to the water's edge in mass. Arizona native fishing on the Calcasieu river in Louisiana what could go wrong?
Here we just see an occasional one.

With all the digging armadillos do they cause a lot of damage. Weird critters also, I ran over one near the cattle pens and for several days there were other armadillos climbing on the carcass trying to mate with it, I guess.

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Peculiar alien animals

Post by FredC »

Do not want poop in unrelated threads, armadillos sure are peculiar. Besides the already mentioned ability to carry and spread leprosy and their attempting or maybe mating with 3 day old carcasses they have a some other funny characteristics. I was told their dark meat tastes like pork and the white meat tastes like chicken. I ate a couple many years ago before I knew they can possibly carry leprosy. I call this one generally true. They are incredibly dense, thus my calling them unguided bowling balls. They cross small streams not by swimming but walking across the bottom. They are so heavy I doubt that swimming is even possible. If you are very hungry and do not mind risking infection you have to be careful cleaning them because they eat many poisonous insects, accidentally leaking stomach contents could cause poisoning. When startled or wounded they run and breathe very noisily, sounds like growling. Cat that was run over was very upset by all that. As destructive as the pests are it makes you wonder if it was Santa Anna's revenge bringing them across the Rio Grande. No proof just a sneaky suspicion. They dig up insects up to 8 inches deep so their sense of smell must very good. They make a lot of rustling noise when moving around. Their sense of hearing and sight are not good so getting close to them is not hard. Occasionally see them in the daytime but mostly they seem nocturnal. Used to have to kill them while care taking flower gardens on a ranch. I used to set an alarm clock in one hour increments and check the employers gardens to get rid of them. Trapping them is difficult. I caught one that wandered into a trap, another on purpose by setting the live trap over a mudhole that he regularly wallowed in. They bounce around the inside of the trap like a cannon ball and can tear it to pieces when you shoot them.

Feel free to add anything I forgot.
Deal with any other strange alien critters, tell us about them.
Last edited by FredC on Wed Jun 01, 2022 2:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

Whig
Posts: 1992
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:53 am

Re: Peculiar alien animals

Post by Whig »

I'm not real fond of some of the creature challenges you have in your neck of the woods, Fred. But, sounds like you know how to survive there and deal with these strange God creations! I never knew anything about Armadillos until now. Thanks. They might play a part in some of my nightmares from now on!

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Re: Peculiar alien animals

Post by FredC »

Whig wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 12:33 am I'm not real fond of some of the creature challenges you have in your neck of the woods, Fred. But, sounds like you know how to survive there and deal with these strange God creations! I never knew anything about Armadillos until now. Thanks. They might play a part in some of my nightmares from now on!
Not sure they cause many nightmares for the locals. They are a nuisance. They would be a lot more interesting as one of God's creation if I only read about them. Now that you mention nightmare, I am not even sure they have teeth as we know them. Never heard of anyone bitten by them. I remember one of the old timer weathermen described the first time he saw them. At first he thought they were cute, that notion passed after awhile I am sure.

Another thing is they have a tendency to jump when a car passes over at speed, you can feel the thump as they it the underside of the vehicle and if you look quick in the rear view mirror you will see the pieces scattered out over the high way. Yep, they is peculiar.

I see the different posts have been consolidated so other threads are not sidetracked. Thanks.

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Anther weird fact

Post by FredC »

I have read that the armadillo litters are all identical quadruplicates. Evidentally the female produces one egg that when fertilized divides in to 4 separate individual alien critters. Makes them useful for doing research and studies.

Might as well dispense with one myth. Armadillos do not lie on their backs and drink Lone Star beer. They will drink and wallow in puddles and wet spots when you water the garden or wet spots generated by leaking pipes and hoses. If one wanted to pour a beer in one of these puddles on a hot night when there was no other water available, I am sure an armadillo would drink it.

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butlersrangers
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Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: Peculiar alien animals

Post by butlersrangers »

Now there's a plot for a Horror Movie:

Drunk quadruplet Armadillos wander onto the highway, exploding, as they jump into the bottoms of passing cars, driven by 'Coyotes'.
The roadkill flesh is eaten by desperate 'illegal' immigrants, who have been snuck into Texas, hidden in the cars.

These aliens are apprehended by the Border Patrol, only to be systematically spread all over the country, through the nocturnal shenanigans of the Biden administration.

Public Health Officials declare a national quarantine in the weeks leading up to the November elections, due to a major outbreak of Leprosy.

Regular Election laws and procedures are suspended due the Leprosy Epidemic. Massive 'no ID absentee' voting is allowed because of the National Emergency.

When the absentee ballots are counted, it is found that (ironically) Grateful American Voters have given Democrat candidates commanding majorities across the country.

Justin Trudeau is declared interim Hemisphere President because he is cute, an anti-gun liberal Canadian snake, and can speak two languages.

Thanks Fred, you have given Whig and me ample material for our nightmares!

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Re: Peculiar alien animals

Post by FredC »

Welll, when you look at it that way.....

I just thought they were funny critters that messed up gardens. :-)

FredC
Posts: 1991
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Dewees Texas

Alien species #2

Post by FredC »

There probably are a few more weird factoids about armadillos that I forgot or never knew. And since Br did not incorporate all of them in his horror it is time to move on to #2. (By the way Br that was masterful, you sure have the gift!)
It's funny that in the horror movies that the aliens always eat people. Why not pigs or cattle, they have a lot more meat on the bones. And better yet why don't they eat pests like coons and coyotes?
Well alien #2 came over from Africa in the 1950s took up residence in South America since then they have colonized every continent in the world except Antartica.
I saw about 50 of them this morning.

More factoids to come later.

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