Tuscaloosa Animal Control Tuscaloosa County(wildlife only)
Hunter Wildlife Pest Control 1-888-747-8004
 Employment Opp's Available CLICK HERE Full Or Part Time
Serving:
Northport, AL
Hueytown, AL
Bessemer, AL
Pleasant Grove, AL
Helena, AL
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Fairfield, AL
Alabaster, AL
Pelham, AL
Hoover, AL
Jasper, AL
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Homewood, AL
Vestavia Hills, AL
Birmingham, AL
Mountain Brook, AL
Columbus, MS
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East Circle, AL
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Pinehurst, AL
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Audubon Place, AL
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Dearing Place, AL
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East End, AL
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Guilds Woods, AL
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Rivermont, AL
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Sommerville, AL
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Reston Place, AL
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Riverside Circle, AL
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Ingleside Village, AL
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Country Club Hills, AL
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Sherwood, AL
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Bellwood, AL
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Country Club Gables, AL
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Parkview, AL
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Green Hills, AL
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West Circle, AL
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Many
folks who live in Alabama 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 Alabama, 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.
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