Armadillo control

[LazyJ_Arabians]

Seems I spend half my life out running around at night with a spotlight and shotgun controlling coon, beaver, possum, skunk, and now armadillos. Geez, why do all nuisance animals have to be creatures of the night?

Sunday, I had the bright idea of hauling a tank of water to a fresh burrow with the idea of driving the prehistoric critter out in the daylight where I awaited with my 12g. I kept a dozen holes filled to the brim most of the afternoon with nary critter ever showing.

There was no new rooting that I could find Monday or this morning.

Do they live in these holes during the day?

Could I have simply drowned the things?

[Pat]

Drown them???? Not likely, they evolved in climates that sometimes have decent rainfall. Their burrows may have a "trap" like under the sink to prevent rain from filling the burrow. If you use gopher chasers (burns lke a road flare but emits sulphur dioxide) and toss then down the hole and then cover the hole with a piece of ply or whatever and a few shovels of dirt to secure it and then look for where smoke may be coming out of the ground (back door/excape routes) Cover each hole that smoke/fumes comes out of. You will either drive them out in the open where you can shoot them or kill them underground by suffocation.

Armadillos aren't entirely stupid but they sure have poor sight. If you stand still they can't tell you from a tree or bush. We have had them come out of the brush beside the road and walk within a foot of us. Because of their poor sight they tend to act a bit like blind folks in that they will learn a route and reuse it for their convenience. They aren't too hard to trap. Lay a couple 2x6 boards one to each side of a trail set wider apart at one end and closer to gether at the other like a funnel. At the small end you put a trap. They tend to not climb the boards but follow anong into the trap. They may be baited with fruit. You need to get pretty aggressive to supress them as they typically give birth to quads.

I have a friend who time permitting shoots 2-6 every evening he goes out on his 4 wheeler to tend cattle in the time just before it gets too dark to easily sight a .22 rifle. I don't know how long he has been doing this but he hasn't erradicated them from his Bermuda pastures yet.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[LazyJ_Arabians]

I figured the water was a stupid idea

Every time I put out a live trap I catch a skunk, not a situation I care for

I'll stick with the night hunt, this years beaver crop will start migrating soon anyway and the skeeters are thinning out a little.

Dang armadillo(s) destroyed my turnip patch the other night

[Pat]

Lazy, Remember the old saying, "Like pouring water down a rat hole." It exemplifies futility, an activity with no beneficial results. Many animals have "trapped" entrances for protection against rain and runoff and back doors to get away when an unwelcome visitor "digs" your den.

Gopher chasers are an economical way of flushing underground critters. You can even make your own and wrtap it up in regular paper or discarded newspaper. My original formula was saltpeter (AKA potassium nitrate) about 3/4 by weight or volume (this isn't rocket science, if it were we would measure more accurately and change the ingredients just a bit and have rocket fuel or with another twist, black gun powder) and 1/4 flowers of sulphur (finly powdered sulphur, available at garden section of big box store.) Salt peter is available at the garden sectiion too. It is sold as a stump destroyer but read the ingredients, it is potassium nitrate, the oxidizer for gunpowder and or a class of rocket fuels. If you want more smoke add some confectioners sugar in place of some of the sulphur. Without sulphur and using all sugar with the oxidizer you get huge clouds of grey-white smoke that smells like roasting marshmallows but it isn't particulary toxic.

Mix the powders well but without using a mortar and pestle. Wrap road flare sized containers out of newspaper or whatever and fill with the mixture. You can tape it together. Carefully light one end. It may sputter a bit so consider wearing gloves. Put it in the hole and cover so the fumes have to stay in the hole. Watch for smoke coming up other places (back doors) and also watch for upset critters coming out of other exits. IF yoiu do this near the house, close the windows and turn off whole house ventilators as the sulphur dioxide really reeks and is poisonous and dangerous if breathed a lot.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[LazyJ_Arabians]

I vaguely remember my dad having success smoking out moles with a calcium carbide recipe of some sort. Googling around on the subject, the gassing idea is starting to tickle my fancy.

There is still good mud around all the burrows and checking them this morning there is still no tracks and no new rooting anywhere that I could find?

I'm off to stock up on chemicals, gotta go into town at lunch anyway to buy a basketball. Stupid me had the idea of stopping up the hole in my turnip patch with my son's pride and joy Spalding thinking it would lodge just perfectly in the entrance, ball rolled in plum outta sight.

[Pat]

LazyJ, Here is how to recover the lost ball... Get some calcium carbide likke dad used to ues and place it in the "back door" matching the hole the ball is in. Add water and cover the back door. The cover needs a hole to admit a BBQ lighter. The calcium carbide when wetted generates acetylene gas which when mixed with air is very explosive. Hopefully the ball isn't destroyed. Also, make sure the cover with the the hole in it is secure (park a truck on it) and avert your eyes, face and any anatomy that you have become interested in maintaining in working order before igniting it.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[LazyJ_Arabians]

FYI, my local wildlife enforcement officer came out the other day to give me another beaver-shooting permit and informed me these "gassing" tactics were illegal to use in Arkansaw with the exception of use against rats?!? He then commented my "rats" had sure torn up my turnip patch. Seems to have worked very well, I showed him my rat-infested beaver dens I'm going after next.

If I blow myself up, I'm blaming you Pat

[Pat]

...so this feller said something about aquatic rodentia (rodents) and I tried to look it up but the best I could come up with was swimming rats. So I says, you betcha, I got these big swimming rats making a mess out of things. I got some big rat traps, a rat gun, and later maybe some ratgas stuff.

For a dramatic and spectacular display:

1. you can put a small diameter iron pipe on the end of either a hose attached to an acetylene gas bottle or a propane bottle.

2. Next you need a sparkplug or equivalent attached a foot or so from the end of the pipe or on a separate probe. You need a spark coil from a Model T or even a new style one. With the new one you need a turn signal flasher.

3. you wire the flasher and primary (ignition switch side) of the coil in series with a SPST switch (old house type light switch will work) and the 12 volt battery. The secondary (distributor side) of the coil is wired to the pipe (to act as ground) and the spark plug. You need high voltage insulated wire to connect the spark plug.

4. you shove the small diameter long pipe into the "RATS" lodgings and turn on the gas.

5. From a SAFE distance (no, considerably farther that that) you turn on the electricity.

There is a range of fuel air ratios that support combustion in between too lean and too rich. As gas continues to be added to the air space, eventually you reach an explosive ratio.

Meanwhile the flasher is turning the power on and off to the coil where the secondary is sending sparks to the plug.

When the atmosphere in the enclosed space becomes an explosive mixture it is set off by the spark plug.

DON"T BE EXPOSED to the flying debri and consider hearing protection.

A scaled down portable version of this can be shoved into various animal burrows.

This entertaining procedure is much more likely to get you blown up than just making and using gopher chasers to generate sulphur dioxide gas. Sometimes you may discover a back door to an animal burrow prior to blasting it. Put the igniter wand in the back door and pack some dirt around it. Inject the fuel gas in the front door. Packing dirt around the fuel wand makes for a more spectacular display but you don't want to be up close and personal whehn setting it off no matter how you rig it

Pat.

[LazyJ_Arabians]

My wife threatened to leave me last year when my tater gun hobby spiralled out of control, I'd probably alter the course of the bayou.