Here at Heartwood the armadillo invasion has reached affronting
conditions. Daily one is appalled at the plethora of tiny-to-
substantial craters where one walks or views. The better the soil,
the greater the depredation.
These conditions can no longer be countenanced; it is clearly time
for action. Contemplating potential plans, one wishes for another
Dax, perhaps two of his one-crunch abilities. Alas, that plan will
have to sit on the shelf for now.
A week or three ago Benny and I teamed up and blew away one of the
armored marauders. That action ill becomes a plan due to the need to
interrupt one's sleep to do the action. Next?
Having acquired a modicum of diller decimation details I have now
implemented a plan. I have set two live traps, facing east and west,
against the stone wall that creates the Christina garden. One against
the wall, with a big oak plank angled out and braced by a step ladder
lying against it. The other sits against the first but facing the
other direction, with a second step ladder encouraging shuffles into
the trap entrance.
Two nights, two catches.
Next issue, disposal. Holding to the permaculture perogative that any
item best serves multiple purposes, I have decided to conduct
scientific research. Well, okay, pseudo-scientific.
I have long read that armadillos, on encountering a body of water in
their travels simply hold their breath and walk across the bottom to
the other side. As it was in writing I of course held this to be the
truth.
So here's my report. Immersed in the stream, the first armadillo held
its breath for 3.5 minutes, the second for 4 minutes, for a pseudo-
average of 3.75 minutes.
So far, it seems to me that the person who first wrote the business
about dillers holding their breath and meandering across the river
bottom, and whose words have since been spread far and wide, either
had been drinking or had a fisherman's tendency or had observed the
activity at a very narrow stream.
Further research will be reported.
[Homestead] The 'Diller Diaries,
Gene GeRue, 10/15/2007