Southlake Animal Control  Tarrant County(wildlife only)

Armadillo population in Southlake

Many folks who live in North Texas at one time or another have come across the famous Texan Armadillo. Armadillos are quite interesting creatures themselves, but have the ability to wreak havoc on your lawn or garden, places you have spent time, energy, and money on increasing the value of your home. It’s quite annoying to then wake up in the morning to find that these nocturnal mammals have turned your lawn upside-down, literally.  You can find these mammals just about anywhere across the state of Texas, but they do tend to prefer much more wooded areas, than just open flatland areas, but that’s not to say you won’t come across one of them in that sort of area as well. But they do typically live close to treed areas of some sort and places that have some sort of water source nearby.

Why do Armadillos cause us such nuisance you may ask? Armadillos are quite the abnormal critter, in looks and habits. These nocturnal creatures are actually small mammals that originate from the Dasypodidae family. These creatures are quite unique and yet, also have the ability to cause any homeowner headaches, when it comes to the maintenance of their property, lawn, gardens, etc. These omnivorous little creatures actually comprise of 20 different breeds, each named by its specific identifying physical attributes. Some breeds have a certain number of bands surrounding their bodies, while others may completely covered in hair, while others are of the dwarf variety. The nine-banded Armadillo is the only one that is found in the United States and has become known as the state mammal of Texas. Despite that only one specific breed exists in the U.S., all of these creatures are still, in one word, critters that you do not want in or around your home on a regular basis, if you can possibly help avoid it. These mammals are closely related to the anteater and the sloth, and have resemblance to both of those creatures. Their typical life span can range anywhere from 13-15yrs approximately. Armadillos have short legs, hard shell (coming from its ancient counterpart) Armadillo is a Spanish word meaning “little armored one” because of the creatures shell looking very similar to an armor made of many small bones. The armadillos we typically find in this area of Texas tend to be on the smaller side of the many different breeds that exist, approximately 12-18inches in length and weighing anywhere from 10-30 pounds. And although they have short legs, and are relatively small creatures, Armadillos can actually run quite fast when the need to avoid danger arises.

Armadillos prefer to habitat near moist regions like streams, rivers, creeks, ponds and reservoirs, because places like this typically have sandy soil that is easy for them to dig into. An interesting ability these mammals have is their ability to hold their breathes and swim in water, which many people don't know. Armadillos can hold their breathe at times for up to  almost 6 minutes and have the ability to swim across ponds and rivers when needed, which many people don’t realize. They have the ability to float because they are able to fill their lungs and stomach up with air, which makes them literally swell up to double their size in order not to sink in the water. Armadillos are by far one of the hardiest and sneakiest little creatures. But you do not want them in your yard.

These nocturnal mammals sleep their day away and forage for their food in the late night evening hours, when all is quiet, and most humans are asleep. As previously mentioned, looking similar to anteaters, they have long protruding noses, aiding them in digging down into moist soil to find their next tasty meal. They use their very strong and long claws to dig burrows, which is how they find majority of their food. When foraging for food late at night, they will tend to dig anywhere from 10-20 burrows, that can be anywhere from 20 inches deep, all the way to 20 feet in depth. These creatures will ensure they have a minimum of at least 4 to 5 entrances/exits for emergency situations allowing them to hide and escape in the case that danger arises.
Because Armadillos have very poor vision, which would normally hinder many nocturnal animals foraging in the dark at night, these creatures intensely strong sense of smell makes up for that lack of sight. This asset of theirs enables them to sense predators and food from quite a long distance away.

Armadillos don’t have strong teeth like most other mammals, so it highly restricts the type of food they are able to eat. They do have long, very sticky tongues though, which help them in the eating of their nightly meals. Therefore, the reason they are tearing up your lawn or garden, is because they are aggressively searching for any type of small insects like grubs, eggs, earthworms, termites, mole crickets, spiders, beetles, larvae, ants, and even frogs. Surprisingly these creatures will also eat the flesh of dead animals (and even human) carcasses. Because of this particular habit, they have been labeled with the nickname “grave diggers”. Although Armadillos are considered omnivores, as previously mentioned, they not only chow down on many pests found in the soil of your yard, they may also sometimes choose to eat your plants at times (this behavior is typically found in the larger species of this mammal, the giant Armadillo). Their feeding activities can cause serious and costly damage to agricultural farms if these creatures are not captured and relocated if possible.

Despite human populations’ general dislike of this creature due to their innate and very destructive nature  to people’s lawns, gardens and even agricultural farms, these mammals have become an endangered species due to human population growth and subsequent city growth, that’s turning wildlife areas into suburban living areas for families.  Even though these mammals are on endangered species list, the one and only Armadillo that is actually still growing in population is the Texas Armadillo (also known specifically as the nine-banded armadillo breed as mentioned). 

I strongly recommend that if you have seen the presence of these mammals, or the mammals themselves, habitating around your property, that you do what you can to not only save your own homes landscape, soil and the natural habitat surrounding your home, but of those around you as well, before further quite costly damage is done by these critters. Please call U.S. Animal Control to have these mammals safely and humanely captured and properly relocated by a wildlife expert, so they no longer can continue to destroy the ground and habitat surrounding your home and/or cause continual nuisance to you or your neighbors, by you awaking to a front lawn filled with many mounds or your preciously planted garden tore up by one of these endangered, yet annoying and very destructive invaders.

 

U.S. Animal Control Fort Worth

Jason Searfoss

U.S. Animal Control

Experienced Wildlife Removal