So the good news is that an armadillo, which had taken up residence under our house, finally is gone after probably a 6- to 8-month stay.
I first noticed its presence in the form of cone-shaped holes that kept showing up along the fencelines. These were signs the armadillo was rooting in the lawn for grubs. Then Bosco discovered a burrow under the house, behind the concrete back steps, running way down under the back steps and no doubt ending 25 or 30 feet under the carport.
I refilled the burrow a few times, knowing an armadillo can dig around or under anything, but hoping the harassment would prompt the creature to find a more hospitable abode.
It did.
The armadillo dug a really nice burrow starting under the front of the house, continuing somewhere under the front porch. As an afterthought, the armadillo added a second entrance, hidden in the lagustrum bushes in front of the porch.
Bosco was incensed. For months he would try to dig into the burrow, yiping and growling under the house until sometimes I had to bring him inside and put him in his crate to get him to shut up.
Bosco is nothing if not persistent. Dogged, you could say. He hounded the armadillo without letting up, week after week. The armadillo finally had enough, and moved. I believe it now lives in a large burrow amongst some iron plants in the roots of one of our old pecan trees.
The bad news? The nice two-door burrow vacated by the armadillo was apparently such a nice one that a skunk has taken it over.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had to remove a skunk from under your house, but when I tell you it can be fun, I mean that the way people say something is “interesting in the Chinese sense.”
I’ll try and detail the procedure later, after I’ve determined whether it works.
