What do armadillo eat? Maybe you could lure him into view with a snack. ;)

They are primarily nocturnal, at certain times of the year they may be more active during the day. My neighbor sees mine in the evenings when he takes his dog out for his constitutional.

I haven't seen signs of his or her presence, but they might be finding critters that come out at night, like worms, crickets, and the like, or things that are found just under the mulch in my gardens. He's more than welcome to anything that he finds, but I would never feed them. They can be destructive.

I hope they eat slugs; I can only hope. ;-)

Sightings are rare in my area but they are more common in the less populated countryside. This National Geographic article has some very interesting information if anyone is interested.

(Edited to correct National Geographic url)

Tulsa, I couldn't view your article. Here's another one from Nat.Geo. Can you open it? It has the picture of a jumping dillo!

Ever since I moved to the south, I've been asked about these animals.....what to do, how to trap, how to repel? I've been called in to witness the aftermath of their feeding frenzy, I've been interviewed about them on the local news; I've written articles about them. I've even been asked to join in a meal that included them on the menu! (That was a story!)

I had a big poster of a leaping armadillo on my college classroom wall ( in my teaching days)......but have never seen a living individual.

Did you know that they typically have identical quadruplets?

Charlee....thanks for pointing out the auto correct error. I edited it; never noticed it, lol.

only have seen one once in the wild, and that was on my way to pay my water bill...the office was somewhat isolated, from reg business...(burb of san diego, and more arid)

I have never seen a live one, only road kill as you mentioned.

We see them nearby at a nature center in the daytime, but typically in the shady, river-bottom area. They tear up the garden at night looking for my earthworks and they do eat slugs.

We went to the Aransas Wildlife Preserve and as soon as we got out of the car, this fellow greeted us.

My DD visited her in-laws in Louisiana and arrived before her DH joined them from a business trip. She told us of being asleep and waking frightened upon hearing loud growling that went on and on. The next day, her FIL showed her the mess the armadillo had made in the yard. When her DH arrived, they headed out in the truck with a shotgun looking for the critter that ruined their rural yard. She couldn't believe it.

rhizo, thanks for catching that bad url. It has now been edited. Too bad you passed up the "meal" ... supposedly they taste like pork. ☺ The link you provided also has some interesting information about these critters.

I frequently have armadillo foraging around in the woodie area below me.

Well growing up on a farm in deep South Louisiana I have seen more armadillos than I ever wanted to. They are a horrible pest especially on the farm. They can destroy crops and are not easy to kill. Shooting them is dangerous because bullets and pieces of the armadillos hard shell can ricochet back and hit you. My dad was trying to kill one especially nasty critter under the house. Our house was slightly elevated so you could get under there. Our dog Poopie (I didn't name him!) ran after the armadillo right as daddy shot the armadillo a piece of the hard shell ripped off the critter and flew into Poopie's eye and put it out. The vet cleaned it up and he was fine. You would never know he was missing an eye.

I have never eaten it but they do say it's a very pretty white meat similar to pork loin.

I've raised several orphan baby armadillos. They eat snails, slugs, earthworms, all kinds of worms and bugs. I raised mine on giant earthworms....night crawlers. Like the rest of the wild creatures here, I like them. The babies look like they are made out of rubber.

Armadillos

Armadillos are 'cute' in a weird way, and useful because they eat snails. But I personally steer clear of personal interaction.

I danced with one in FL, he ran right at me and we both jumped around when he ran right into me. They have lousy eyesight. Identical quads are normal and they can postpone conception until the time is right for them. They jump when startled and that's why you see them with cracked shells. A car passes over and they jump and it kills them. Don't bend over one! I like them. I used to collect armadillo items.

Gasp! Marilyn.....you've raised some babies? My hero! What were the babies like?