One summer, the grass in our front yard died - probably as the result of some kind of fungus. The wife insisted on a new front yard, so I laboriously installed a brand new St. Augustine grass front yard by myself, in the hot Texas summer. The next day, the yard was ripped up by armadillos. Thus began my nightly stakeout in an effort to kill the varmits that ripped up my new yard. That Sunday, at church, the story had evidently spread as a number of members stopped me to give me advice as to how to catch/kill/eliminate the varmits. What surprised me was when the Pastor told me to use .22 caliber shorts when shooting the armadillos (I actually couldn't shoot them with any firearm as there are 2 cops that live in the neighborhood). When I asked the Pastor if using the .22 Shorts was for quiet killing, he told me: "no, the .22 shorts have enough power to kill them, but they'll crawl out of your yard and die somewhere else, so you don't have to deal with the mess." Turns out the Pastor was an avid gardener, and had no love for armadillos. I was finally able to catch the grass killing pair of armadillos in the yard one night, and tuned them both up with a Louisville slugger. Who'd guess that armadillos could run so fast? No, I've never eaten either armadillos or possums, and I don't plan on starting.

Regards,

Dave