Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Armadillos in Missouri?

I also know when you scare one they will jump straight up about 3 or 4 feet. I found this out one night putting some trash in a can after dark.

kwg

Very interesting migration. They've only been in North America a couple of hundred years. That's what was once a Texas "symbol" is everywhere now.

I remember they were quite common around Ft. Polk, LA in the late '60s.

No way of knowing for sure though if some of the Armadillos being reported had help extending their range further north than they would have naturally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-banded_armadillo

I don't get much farther south in Missouri than Kaufman Stadium or the Rheinland German restaurant in Independence these days, but I have seen them on the road between Ozark and Branson on several occasions. I've never seen one north of I-70.

12 years ago I was walking with a buddy of mine on his property in north central Missouri, about 60 miles south of the border. Dang if one didn't jump out in front of us and bolt across the field and we had no firearm with us at the time. I kept say "they aren't suppose to be this far north" and my buddy looked at me and said "tell that to him"

They are in Tennessee. I know when I lived here 20 something years ago, I never saw one. Now they are pretty plentiful.

If you ever get one by the tail as it's headed down it's burrow. Don't pull, just hold it steady, lift up its tail and give it a good poke square in the pooper with a stick. They'll slide right out for you!!!!

We had 'em in central OK back in the sixties and as Roger stated they do not swim but run across the bottom of the stream. Saw that the first time as I tried to chase one down and it jumped in the creek ran across the bottom then out the other side. ...

They originated in South American and have been slowing migrating north. I read somewhere that the first ones were seen in the US shortly before the Civil War. It remains to be seen how much cold they can stand and how far north they will go over time.

I've seen them up around Kansas City in Kansas. They're all over southeast Kansas. I kilt two in my yard last year and one is laying in front of my house dead along with the possum that tried to eat his carcass, as I type this. I saw my first armadillo in Texas nigh onto fifty years ago and never saw them in Kansas until the last twenty years or so.

Kaywoodie has some very interesting knowledge on the subject it seems.....

Last year I saw more dead dillos on hwy 94 callaway county than grinners.Guy i work with shot 8 in his bean field in one evening cole county.

Yep here for sure I am 4 counties north of Arkansas, by the KS border,and that is a critter that is never allowed to escape when spotted ,by whatever means possible, firearms, hammer, tractor and brushog, one of the most damaging, worthless thing ever on earth!!!!!!!! When working for M D C couldn't carry while clearing brush, but got a lot of them with a brush axe right in the back!!!!

When I was 12 we saw our first one in SW Missouri just 2 miles across the Arkansas line. I recall my dad saying he was about the same age when he first saw one inArkamsas and he grew up about 30 miles SW of Arkadelphia. That would have been in 1939 if he was 12 also.

Armadillos in MO is no great surprise. They're also in western KY now.

They're here in southwestern Kentucky. I've seen a couple that were run over, never seen one alive. My son and I have a bet to see who will kill the first one here on the farm.

I saw a roadkill 'dillo down around LBL in western KY last fall.

Every spring the last 3 years we load up our rangers and drive the farms in our area....last year between 4 of us we shot 39 with our mini 14's in one day...you won't see many North of I-70 but they're around...and they can swim, contrary to what people think...another fun fact is that they (9-banded) give birth to identical quadruplets each time and reach sexual maturity after 3-4 months...they're a growing problem...

I quite killin' em when I discovered they developed an appetite for fire ant larvae.