Stupid Alcohol argument: armadillos

[YoungPUP]

Got into an argument while drinking. I've been to the texas area a few times, as has my old co-driver from the hazmat adventures. Its my belief that there are no live armadillos, that someone just puts dead ones everywhere.  Anyone ever seen a live one???

[lucky_1_chris]

Seen tons of them. Even found one half dead. He was full of maggots, but still alive. Good eatin'!

[mrider]

every mornig i turn the dogs out on them so they can get exercise  

[John Schmidt]

They're all over the place here in Florida, used to catch them under our deck. I'd take them to work and turn them loose at the edge of our parking lot. Figured since they're about as smart as a piece of sod they'd never find their way back. But, usually about three more relatives would come to say goodbye.    They'll tear up a yard in one night looking for insects.

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

No armadillos in east Tennessee I do see them dead on the roads in Alabama just south of here....Skunks...We've got some skunks and lots of them 

[RP#62]

Their defensive response when startled is to jump straight up.  Not a good strategy when dealing with traffic.
-RP

[BigAl]

Armadillos carry the bacteria that causes Leprosy on their skin.

Don't think I would eat a varmint like that.

Maybe if I was real hungry I would shoot it and have a buddy clean it.

Cleaning it for eating is the danger zone for getting the virus.

Thank God there is a cure for Leprosy now.

But get to the Doctor fast or it's adios amigo

Leprosy now joins a host of other infectious diseases — including flu, H.I.V./AIDS and SARS — that are known to have jumped from animals to humans. Flu is thought to have first crossed to humans from migratory waterfowl several hundred years ago. H.I.V./AIDS first crossed from a chimpanzee about 90 years ago.

Dr. Fauci said that about 70 percent of new emerging infectious diseases were known to have animal origins.

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., and an author of the armadillo study, which was published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Some studies have shown that as many as 20 percent of armadillos in some areas are infected with leprosy.

Armadillos now range from Colorado to North Carolina and have a similar habitat to opossums. Few armadillos live long enough in the wild to be seriously affected by the infection, Dr. Truman said, but those in laboratories suffer many of the same problems as humans and eventually die of liver and kidney failure.

The microbe that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, is a fragile one. It does not grow in laboratory petri dishes, and survives only a week or two in moist soil. Indeed, the only animals in which it is known to flourish are humans and armadillos, and researchers have long used armadillos to grow the disease, although its presence in armadillos predates such research. Because of this, researchers have speculated that some share of human leprosy cases reported in the United States and other parts of the Americas resulted from contact with armadillos, but there has not been definitive proof until this

[donaldcc]

Got into an argument while drinking. I've been to the texas area a few times, as has my old co-driver from the hazmat adventures. Its my belief that there are no live armadillos, that someone just puts dead ones everywhere.  Anyone ever seen a live one???

    got to live to die

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Armadillos carry the bacteria that causes Leprosy on their skin.

Don't think I would eat a varmint like that.

Maybe if I was real hungry I would shoot it and have a buddy clean it.

Cleaning it for eating is the danger zone for getting the virus.

Thank God there is a cure for Leprosy now.

But get to the Doctor fast or it's adios amigo

Leprosy now joins a host of other infectious diseases — including flu, H.I.V./AIDS and SARS — that are known to have jumped from animals to humans. Flu is thought to have first crossed to humans from migratory waterfowl several hundred years ago. H.I.V./AIDS first crossed from a chimpanzee about 90 years ago.

Dr. Fauci said that about 70 percent of new emerging infectious diseases were known to have animal origins.

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., and an author of the armadillo study, which was published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Some studies have shown that as many as 20 percent of armadillos in some areas are infected with leprosy.

Armadillos now range from Colorado to North Carolina and have a similar habitat to opossums. Few armadillos live long enough in the wild to be seriously affected by the infection, Dr. Truman said, but those in laboratories suffer many of the same problems as humans and eventually die of liver and kidney failure.

The microbe that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, is a fragile one. It does not grow in laboratory petri dishes, and survives only a week or two in moist soil. Indeed, the only animals in which it is known to flourish are humans and armadillos, and researchers have long used armadillos to grow the disease, although its presence in armadillos predates such research. Because of this, researchers have speculated that some share of human leprosy cases reported in the United States and other parts of the Americas resulted from contact with armadillos, but there has not been definitive proof until this

I'm with you on this one Al ....I'd have to be awful hungry 

[Willow]

Anyone ever seen a live one??? 

lol!  I get the humor.  There do seem to be a lot of them sleeping on the road.

Come to InZane XII in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.   

[Jeff K]

Not for very long.

Water Moccasins, Rattlers, and hogs are on the same list of short term visitors.

[GreenLantern57]

ratio is heavy to dead, but I have seen live ones. Even chased one! Little suckers are fast.

[CajunRider]

Their defensive response when startled is to jump straight up.  Not a good strategy when dealing with traffic.
-RP

True... unless you have a large cattle guard on the front of your truck... then it's just fun to practice your timing!!!   

[Momz]

When I used to drink (years ago) my drinking buddy swore that the best Mexican Tequila was made from blue agave and armidillo meat.
 
He's dead now, but he did not die of leprosy, just a pickled liver.

[Hoser]

I saw a dead one just north of Yates Center  Kansas on US75 a couple years ago, ain't they supposed to stay in Dixie?  I did NOT eat him!    Hoser

[hotglue #43]

Ya don't want to eat an armadilio by yourself!!!!!!  it takes 2.... one to eat, and one to watch for cars....

[~ Timbrwolf]

Ya don't want to eat an armadilio by yourself!!!!!!  it takes 2.... one to eat, and one to watch for cars....

.....thats some good eattin too HG !  ....I hear tell some crazed bikers actually pull over to cut the tails from sleeping foxes too..  

[Chrisj CMA]

Its unfortunate that God shaped the armadillo about like a speed bump 

[Master Blaster]

Around East Texas back in the 20s depression era, they called them Hoover Hogs, and were table fare.

[YoungPUP]

I'm noticing that they look alot like a possum, only armored....

[Jeff K]

I couldn't get passed the smell. They smell nasty. Opossum on the half shell!

[R J]

I know if ya hit one dead center at any speed, say like 75 to 80, you will go airborne big time.

I was about 1/2 asleep, last daughter was my passenger then.   She hollered Dad in the intercom, I opened my eyes just in time to see him and get straight on.

Had to stop and almost had to change my shorts......   It woke me up for the rest of our days ride to the Motel in Austin.    After that, I quit making Motel/Hotel reservations on the bike.    When I got tired or it got almost dark, we found a place to stay after that.     Told the kid I'd blister her arse if she told mom I'd gone to sleep on the bike.     To this day, about 36 years later, mom still doesn't know about it.

[Bonzo]

Well said R P.  DXuring the depression of the '30s folk were calling them "Hoover Hogs"  mmmm good!

[Mr. Nuts]

Alcohol causes a lot of stupid arguments from A to Z. As a "youngpup" you're only at "armadillo". So many more stupid arguments to look forward to!

[The Anvil]

Well said R P.  DXuring the depression of the '30s folk were calling them "Hoover Hogs"  mmmm good!

People also ate their shoes back then.

[Lyn-Del]

Got into an argument while drinking. I've been to the texas area a few times, as has my old co-driver from the hazmat adventures. Its my belief that there are no live armadillos, that someone just puts dead ones everywhere.  Anyone ever seen a live one???

I had one as a pet for a while when I was a young girl.  Her name was George.  She was given to me about the time she was weaned, and I had her for several months.  Unfortunately she escaped from her cage in the garage shortly after the Orkin man came, and she ate the poisoned roaches in the garage and didn't recover.

So, yeah, I've seen live ones!!

[ricoman]

In the book "Texas", by James Michener, a whole chapter is devoted to the armadillo.
The research Michener did was amazing-to talk about them for so long.
It's been a long while since I read it but I remember the the female armadillo when pregnant can sense danger (predator of some sort, man or animal) and hold the babies from delivery for 6 months to a year past the due date. And, if I remember right all babies in a litter (4 max) are the same sex.
A herd (!) of armadilloes can do serious damage to lawns in a very short time, kinda like wild hogs do to a golf course or pond bank around here.
You don't see many stuffed and mounted on the den wall though.

[Tundra]

I've seen as many live ones as dead ones. They are plentiful in Florida.

[bigguy]

They're a real nuisance in southeast Arkansas. In addition to digging up lawns, they can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage by digging through a rice levee. They're usually shot on site. They're blinder than bats and dumber than rocks.
I was squirrel hunting years ago when one came rooting up on me. I was downwind so he didn't know I was there even as he got within 10 or 12 feet of me. I decided to have a little fun so I reached down and picked up a dead limb. It was pretty good sized, 3 or 4 inches in diameter. He must have head something because he stood up on his back legs with his nose pointed straight up. I watched it curl as he sniffed. Unable to catch a scent, he eventually went back to rooting. He was just a few feet from me. I tossed the rotten limb and hit him square in the back.
He exploded. His back legs shot out like hydraulic rams as he jumped straight up. He hit the ground running. I guess he didn't know where to run to, so he just made a circle around me. He was making a noise I'd never heard before. Sort of a low pitched "whoooo!" Sort of like air blowing over the opening of a large diameter pipe.
I laughed till I cried. I almost dropped my rifle. I'd intended to put a long rifle slug into him before he got away, but I never had the chance. He was gone before I could quit laughing enough to try and get off a shot.
I haven't been hunting in decades. But those are the things I miss more than bagging game.