A warning for 'dillo hunters

[doofus47]

The hardest part of eatin' an armadillo is

Getting the other side to stick to the bottom of your car engine after you've flipped them....

I had heard about the connection, but never had a desire to hunt them.

 

[Evan Thomas]

IOW, the wheel has once again been re-invented.

Why am I not surprised... I had a feeling that folks who live in 'dillo-land probably knew all about this.

I did find this, from the NYT article, interesting, though:

But one of the interesting aspects of leprosy is that transmission seems to have gone in both directions. Leprosy was not present in the New World before Christopher Columbus, and armadillos are indigenous only to the New World.

“So armadillos had to have acquired it from humans sometime in the last 400 to 500 years,” said Dr. Richard W. Truman, a researcher at the National Hansen’s Disease Program in Baton Rouge, La.​

So it's our fault the poor little guys have it in the first place...

 

[hogcowboy]

I shoot the destructive little varmints and let the buzzards have them. Wouldn't even think about eating one!!!!

 

[Doyle]

I keep an un-baited live catch trap next to my house just for amadillos. I've managed to catch 11 in the past year (along with a couple of 'possums, one cat, and one skunk).

They like to dig up the yard and try to burrow under my foundation. That is enough to declare war. Some have been relocated further out in the country. Most, however, just get the death penalty. A .22 short cb cap to the back of the head does the trick very quietly.

 

[shootniron]

The risk is there for HANDLING and eating.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I shoot the destructive little varmints and let the buzzards have them. Wouldn't even think about eating one!!!!

Ah, but many destructive varmints are tasty such as rabbits, squirrels, pigs, etc.

Keep in mind that the threat from 'dillos is very small and leprosy can be treated just fine. There are a lot of other zoonotic wildlife issues that cause problems for humans ever year, be they from rabitts, squirrels, pigs, deer, fish, fowl, or turtle. The safest assumption is that all live critters in their raw state represent a biohazard to humans. They all don't, but so many do it is likely best to err on the safer side. Such threats may be direct (the animal itself is harmful to you) or indirect (zoonotic pathogens).

 

[603Country]

Per my wife, I'm in charge of shooting dillos. They've been in her flower beds, and "mama ain't happy". I've been blasting them with the 223 and dragging them off by the tail, but now PawPaw brings up the concept of "self burying". I like that and am ashamed that I never figured it out. As for the leprosy, who knows....just because doctors say so doesn't make it the truth. It just means that's what they think today, and that could change. After enduring every test known to man to find out what was wrong with me in my early 30's, they floated about 25 theories of what they thought the problem was before some doctor finally found the real answer (brain tumor, nonmalignant). Took them a year. So what doctors think can be wildly different from the actual truth. I'm not trashing doctors, since the last one I saw saved my life.

 

[JohnKSa]

I used to live near a fellow who had eaten armadillos. He said that preparation was fairly unpleasant as was the odor while cooking but that the meat tasted like pork.

I don't know how long it has been known that armadillos carry leprosy. As nearly as I can recall I was told about it some 35-40 years ago.

 

[publius]

I've been shooting them all my life but haven't touched one in probably 20 yrs. Guess I'll keep blasting and maintain the "hands off" buzzards gotta eat too philosophy.

 

[Eghad]

Back in the mid 70s when I was a young man the old timers around here called them Hoover Hogs because they were a food source during the depression when I enquired about the name. It was also used for rabbits or even "shudder" stewed rat. I have seen some wood rats around here that kept the cat up on the bed at night at my wife's grandmothers house...lol.

I guess heat kills the leprosy???

http://www.ghosttraveller.com/hoover hog.htm

 

[JohnKSa]

The issuing is handling and preparation. After being well and truly cooked it should be safe.

 

[egor20]

Double Naught Spy

I am afraid your wife's vet books are incorrect. It can also be carried in mice pads and insects.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...904224,00.html


My wife thanks you very much for the article, she's never seen it before.

THX

 

[Eghad]

Yup I would def don a pair of latex or non latex gloves for any prep on a wild critter and even use them on the stuff that comes from the store as they can carry bacteria and bad things. Keep a box of those things around the house all the time. Plus I try to use tongs to handle food instead of hands.

After having a civilian food sanitation course and the Army's course for the same. Food has never been the same again. I look at it as a potential threat now...

 

[Art Eatman]

Eghad, absent open sores on your hands and some reasonable amount of sanitation, I wouldn't worry about it all that much. Here I am, coming 77 years old, and I don't believe it's solely blind luck which has kept me from food-related problems.

 

[Eghad]

The problem is probably not folks like you and me. Its the nasty folks who don't follow sanitation protocols at the food mfg. The folks who do not practice good time-temp protocols.

At the refresher course I just went to as part of our studies examples were given. A bunch of Soldiers got sick and a veteran of Grenada, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan was killed by food. The Commander had the cooks prepare breakfast that evening and it was stored improperly so they could attend a party. Can you imagine having to go to this Soldier's wife and telling her that her husband was killed by food at a training excercise?

In another example al lot of Soldiers got sick because some Food Svc Sgt decided to cook eggs that had been stored in a Conex for three days!

 

[Uncle Buck]

Eghad: Off topic, but I have to reply.

We had a kitchen shut down because a pilot blamed the food poisoning on the Food SVS Sergeant. Turns out he later admitted to eating a sandwich downtown that had "clear colored" mayo on it.


We have eaten a lot of animals most would consider unappetizing. Skunks, coons, whistle pigs (ground hogs), porcupines, possum....

It is very important the animal be prepared correctly. How many deer hunters have let meat spoil because they did not clean it correctly? Food sanitation can have dire consequences, from a bad stomach ache, to a case of the trots, to death.

 

[Art Eatman]

We started out within the broader context of handling food of our own acquisition, without intervening parties.

Anyhow, to continue the drift: If it doesn't smell right, shun it. If the color is off, shun it. If you take a bite and the texture or taste is wrong, spit and rinse your mouth. Nothing's 100%, but I can live with the high 90s...

 

[rickyrick]

I'll Play the troll.......Yuck.....

 

[aarondhgraham]

That's generating bad karma,,,

I find it best to shoot them with a .22LR. No, it doesn't anchor them and that's a feature, not a bug. If you put a .22 slug in their lungs, they'll jump straight up in the air and run like hell for the burrow, where they expire from the lung shot. Armadillos are self-burying.

Last summer I shot close to 40 armadillos that were devastating a friend's food garden,,,
I switched from a .22 rifle to a .357 rifle so it would anchor them,,,
I don't care how repulsive or reviled a particular animal is,,,
If you are gonna shoot it you should kill it clean.

As for possum/dillo stomping,,,
I can't even comment.

JMHO,,,

Aarond

 

[ronto]

I shoot them on sight with one round of 12ga #4 shot and never touch them, I just pick them up with a shovel and toss them in the woods adjacent to my property. The next day the carcass is gone...probably coyotes.