Second and Third Thoughts...

Armadillos had just started moving into Missouri when we arrived here (almost at the Arkansas border) in 1981 but were not very common. Now they are expanding their range even into the northern part of the state. How they manage this is a wonder because their habit of jumping straight up when they are frightened gets them into trouble, with deadly results, when they try to cross the road. The vehicles on the highways take a terrible toll, with dead armadillos along the road a common site. How their range can expand when so many of them are killed is a wonder.

Now we do have armadillos on our land. Several years ago, a mother raised her 4 babies in an old culvert near the house. We had no idea she was even there until one morning Richard went to get in the truck and baby armadillos were running around sniffing the tires. He had to scare them away so he could leave.

They are usually nocturnal, but in the winter especially they are out and about in the daytime looking for food – they eat grubs, worms and other insects that live in the ground, which is why they can be such nuisances.

They have never bothered us. Not really. They weren’t around when we had our garden, and the only flower bed we have now has bulbs in it, the soil is rather terrible, and we never do anything with it. They have never bothered it. If I want annual flowers in the summer I plant them in big pots.

We find the occasional hole in the ground. So what?

We don’t really have a lawn either.

Well now I am having second thoughts about armadillos. Third thoughts even.

Richard replaced the clay and hard scrabble he dug out to bury the dog with good compost, top soil, and potting soil and made a frame for a raised bed so we can plant some flowers on her grave. That night some “thing” rooted around in there.

The soil is too new for worms or grubs, so it hasn’t been back, but will I come out some morning to find the bulbs I have just planted for Spring uprooted? I’m putting a wire cage around it. We’ll see.