Armadillos and Opossums

  • Thread starter Thread starter ForwardProgress
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

ForwardProgress

Guest
Something different to mix it up a bit:

I have an opossum or armadillo that is digging up my back yard and flowerbeds, apparently looking for something to eat.

Can I trap it, and without sin dispatch it? It’s just trying to survive, but is ruining my backyard.

The chances of it carrying a disease is probably pretty high, but the chances of my family encountering it are quite low.

Most people would trap it and shoot it…but is this the Catholic way of things. Discuss.
 
If it is a pest, you can do whatever is necessary to prevent it from being a pest. Killing it would be no different than calling Terminix to kill termites.
 
If you don’t want to shoot the animal, have you considered getting a motion detector security light?,when those critters come around and trigger the light, it might scare them off. Or think about a large dog.

Here in my small town in Tennessee, we just shoot the thing if it starts damaging our property. Its even legal for us to shoot deer that are in our gardens in the off season.
 
What about those things that emit a sonic or ultrasonic sound? I’ve seen them in garden catalogs. It doesn’t hurt the animal and saves your garden (I can’t hurt them either). Just google for the sonic ultrasonic garden control. Good Luck. 🙂
 
POSSUM SOUP
1 possum
half a gallon of water
1 teaspoon of salt
Tin can full of corn
Various vegetables
celery
parsley
flour
Fried bread

1.Catch a possum and skin and clean it. Quarter the animal.

2.Put in big kettle with water and salt. Cover and cook for several hours. Add vegetables and cook another couple hours. Strain with big holed colander when meat comes off bones and remove bones. Put back in kettle and add parsley and celery.
3. Add flour to make thick. Cut fried bread and serve soup,boiling hot.
 
How about trapping it and letting it go a few miles away from your house?

BTW, the chance of it carrying an infectious disease is pretty low, actually. Nocturnal animals seen out routinely in the daytime are a different matter.
 
I have had some success with castor oil repellants. I use those only because I can’t discharge a gun in the city. Otherwise that would be my preferred method. This is not an area of moral theology unless you plan on torturing the critter.
 
my guess would be, esp. for the armadillo, you have to get rid of whatever it eats, ants, termites, slugs etc. and of course keep all garbage, plant waste etc. out of the yard and locked up.
 
I think that as long as you aren’t gleefully causing unnecessary suffering to the animal, you’re okay from a morality perspective. Do you know that armadillos are the only animal that can get and carry leprosy? They’re pretty disgusting. I wouldn’t eat one unless I was starving. I’d shoot it and bury it quickly. Or shoot it and place it in a nearby parking lot as a speed bump. They seem to have been created just for that purpose. 😃
 
puzzleannie said:
my guess would be, esp. for the armadillo, you have to get rid of whatever it eats, ants, termites, slugs etc. and of course keep all garbage, plant waste etc. out of the yard and locked up.
Click to expand...
That is the other method. Use a granuale insecticide in the yard to kill off the grubs.
 
NTOT said:
POSSUM SOUP
1 possum
half a gallon of water
1 teaspoon of salt
Tin can full of corn
Various vegetables
celery
parsley
flour
Fried bread

1.Catch a possum and skin and clean it. Quarter the animal.

2.Put in big kettle with water and salt. Cover and cook for several hours. Add vegetables and cook another couple hours. Strain with big holed colander when meat comes off bones and remove bones. Put back in kettle and add parsley and celery.
3. Add flour to make thick. Cut fried bread and serve soup,boiling hot.
Click to expand...
We order ours with extra rabies:D
 
Once an armadillo has tasted turf it wants to come back forever it seems. They will leave huge holes all over your yard and dig under the slap and live there and reproduce. What they are really after are grubs. If you can treat your turf and get rid of the grubs they will eventually figure out there is no food there and go eat your neighbors grass lol.

We tried to trap them but they are very stupid and blind as a bat. They often can’t find the entrance into the trap even though they smell the bait and run all around the cage trying to get in. You have to put up 2x4 boards and things that they will bump into to channel then toward the trap door (like a large V). The problem is once trapped they go berzerk and will jump around and bash their heads against the trap and harm themselves. Then when u go to get them out you have to be very careful since they do have nasty claws and can can really hurt you so it comes down to “how much risk do you want to take on”? Most animal control departments will come out and get them with a thick elbow length armored glove and get them if you trap them - this is an alternative.

We had to shoot a few though it got so bad though. And you can walk right up to them slowly in the morning since they are so into looking for food they don’t even care you are there half the time.

Also, its hard to stop these critters with one shot since their only vital organ is a pea size brain. I won’t tell you how large a caiiber gun I used nor the leathality of the ammunition nor now many times it took to stop one (what a gorey mess). They are hard to kill and even when mortally wounded will run off and die in the brush or a hole somewhere close to the house where u can’t find them and then the smell is bad.

Possums are similar - they live up in the palm trees or other trees and will come down at night scavenging for food and get in loud ungodly fights with other possums that will wake you up. These have nasty teeth so its the same problem with trapping them and risking getting hurt when you relocate them and extricate them.

Be careful and good luck.

James
 
James,

Your story sounds an exact parallel to mine. What I do is the combo insecticide and castor oil. But I have shot them and poisoned them (I think).

I mentioned torturing animals earlier. That, too, had crossed my mind. 😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top