We've got a nuisance Armadillo.

That's right, normally we would live and let live but this guy has decided to dig under our back steps and the hubby has decided it could burro under our house and destroy our foundation. The dillo is also digging what hubby calls ankle breakers all over the yard (small holes in the grass). Turns out their main source of food is grubs. Everyone who has been following this blog knows our grass is one part sand and the rest is all grub.   Also he heard they carry leprosy. Which, they do, thanks to experiments with leprosy on these animals. Of course that fact is covered up and they say they don't know how come armadillos started showing up testing positive for it after they started experimenting on them with it. Any way... We decided to get rid of the little bugger.

Under the stairs view from under the deck.

Close up of the armadillo's hole.

I called around. To find a trapper. I called what I thought was a state agency called Animal Control and they wanted $420 to catch them. They guaranteed we would be armadillo free for up to a month. I thought to myself my 22 cost less than that. I called a few other places and basically the cheapest was about $200 depending on how many they have to haul off.

 I called fish and game to find out if it was illegal to shoot armadillos. I pictured myself in the front yard with the shot gun and the armadillo charging at me. Turns out they aren't endangered and I could shoot them. After being transferred to the sheriffs station I also found out that I can shoot a gun in my yard as long as the bullet doesn't cross any roads and I'm not shooting over any livestock. And my bullets don't end up landing in a neighbors yard. We've only got a quarter of an acre here so I don't think I want to take a chance with that.

We found a guy that would rent us a trap for $40 per trap but we would have to destroy or remove the critter ourselves. So we decided to see how much it cost to buy a trap. Turns out they only cost about $45 so we bought one. Then we found out it is illegal to turn the armadillo loose any where that is not a sanctioned place. So we never got around to finding out if the national forest would be a legal place to let the dillo go. So the plan is this: We will trap it, drive it to the forest. Mean while we will have the 22 in the vehicle with us. If we get caught.... we will just say we were looking for a safe place to shoot it with out the bullets possibly go in the neighbors yard  and only let it out of the cage to get a clearer shot.

So, all ready to set up the cage and catch the creature, Chris gives me a demonstration on how the trap will work.

Chris placing the trap.

At first we thought we would just put some dog food in the trap and set it out near the hole. Then we found out that they mostly are blind and follow the same paths all the time and we needed to put the trap in the path of the armadillo. Figuring it would follow the wall we placed the trap across from the hole against the house.

Second trap location. Hole in the distance.

Then we got to talking and it only made since to prevent future armadillos from getting under there we were going to have  to cover the bottom of the deck up. And we could  make it impossible for the armadillo to go anywhere else except for in our trap. So we bought some trellis and propped it around the deck area.

Final location for the trap

Reese's wanted to help.

After we catch the dillo we will nail up the trellis boards. Stay tuned to see if we catch it and possible release of it into the forest.