Lawn-marauding armadillo nabbed

Don Driskill of Valley Center is a happy man – after having his lush lawn torn up by armadillos this week, he finally nabbed one of the armored critters in a cage Wednesday night.

“Capture!” exclaimed the subject line of an e-mail bearing a picture of the armadillo in Driskill’s yard at the edge of a woodland.

Naturalist Jim Mason of the Great Plains Nature Center said that armadillos have become more common in our area over the past couple of decades. He said they like to eat grubs and other worms from underground, so they especially love sandy soil, which makes Valley Center a desirable spot. Low-nesting birds can be at risk from armadillos, Mason said.

Mason said that because armadillos are near-sighted, they can easily be relocated and not expected to return to a place. Driskill said his neighbor said the same thing, and offered to take the caged armadillo five miles outside of town to release it. Mason said about a mile would be enough.

Driskill said he usually receives one to four visits from armadillos a year, during which they leave 50 to 60 holes in the yard that take him hours to repair.

This story was originally published October 10, 2014 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Lawn-marauding armadillo nabbed."