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25th Armadillo killed 10 minutes ago

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  • purple

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    I am sure Daezee will let you have some.
    Seriously there can be more than one valid reason for killing things. Armadillos are destructive to gardens and some are killed for that reason.

    If they’re eating up you crops, There must be other ways of handling them. Killing a whole bunch of them doesn’t justify anything.
     

    fl57caveman

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    If they’re eating up you crops, There must be other ways of handling them. Killing a whole bunch of them doesn’t justify anything.

    they don't eat crops, they eat bugs, worms, grubs, but are very destructive to yards and other areas, they are good for nothing if they are dead, contrary to popular southern legends, no one eats them...they are dangerous to handle due to carrying disease..

    they are not endangered, by any ones standard..
     

    SAWMAN

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    Daezee/Bruce is a highly trained slayer of all animals big and small. There have been numerous animals that have died of lead/copper poisoning from his mighty 300BLK.
    I know for a fact that just a couple days ago several animals died as a result of being hit by the "lightening bolt's" from his gun. --- SAWMAN
     

    FrommerStop

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    they don't eat crops, they eat bugs, worms, grubs, but are very destructive to yards and other areas, they are good for nothing if they are dead, contrary to popular southern legends, no one eats them...they are dangerous to handle due to carrying disease..

    they are not endangered, by any ones standard..
    To add to them not being endangered, they formerly did not live in our region of NWFL. That have been invading the US and I consider them to be undocumented garden diggers.

    Armadillo Moves North Across a Warmer North America https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/armadillo-moves-north-across-warmer-north-america/

    The armadillo is moving north thanks to climate change, as are mice and other mammals
    Some of that migration can be attributed to opportunity: The armadillo in particular has been moving northward since it arrived in Texas in the 1880s and Florida in the 1920s, according to Colleen McDonough, a biology professor at Valdosta State University in Georgia.
     

    fl57caveman

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    yes, undocumented illegal immigrants from s. America, central America/ before 19th century, they were not up here, slowly moving north , east and west in the last century
     

    MarkS

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    Congratulations and thank you for doing your part to eliminate the disease carrying illegal invaders


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    fl57caveman

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    too bad a similar approach cannot be used against human invaders carrying disease and crime here...but no, we welcome those in
     

    Daezee

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    There are multiple "ways" of handling animals doing crop damage, but some are not cost effective. Take the example of deer and hogs:

    Some have advocated catching all the female deer and implanting contraceptives or catching all the male deer and castrating them and then turning the does and bucks loose. Catching wild deer is not easy and some die in the stress of the process. Same with wild hogs. You cannot catch them all. Some have advocated catching deer and hogs and letting them loose somewhere else...but most, if not all, states have laws against that as it spreads various diseases and causes damage elsewhere. Some have advocated deer and hog proof fences around the crop fields...such fences are expensive and growers cannot handle that additional cost, and I doubt consumers would be happy with the increased crop costs.

    Texas and Florida (may be other states I'm not aware of) are experimenting with poisons that will either be species specific or distributed in such a manner that most other targeted animals can't get at to eat. So far, to the best of my knowledge, from talking to a Florida State biologist a couple of months ago (met him when the owner of damaged (several thousands of dollars of long leaf pines rooted up) property had me and a couple of Florida State experts on hog damage inspecting the area), there's been no guarantee that other animals won't be affected, either from getting at the poison or from eating the dead, poisoned animals. He guessed in Florida the poison(s) are at least a year or more away.

    About 2 miles from where I live, a farmer installed propane cannons to scare the deer and hogs away. I do not know how effective it is (farmer has my card and said if the hogs get real bad I'll call you), but a neighbor living adjacent to one of the fields did move, telling me one of the factors was the booms...the house still hasn't sold.

    Sawman, Chaps, and I were asked by a local farmer (1400 acres) to go after hogs damaging his peanut crops. The hogs would either root up freshly planted peanuts, root up peanuts near harvest time, or eat the turned peanuts waiting to dry out before harvesting. Over the course of 2 years and 4 months, we killed 2537 pounds 1st year, 1054 pounds 2nd year and 418 pounds the last part of a year. 4009 pounds total. All killed hogs were removed from the fields. All meat was used by our families or donated to needy families or groups (church and military). Then no hog damage for 2 years. Farmer happy, people receiving donations happy, and we got to hunt more. All property owners surrounding the fields gave us permission to track and retrieve any wounded hogs from their properties (it only happened once and only about 25 yards into the property) and 3 of them also gave us permission to hunt hogs on their properties (one we can no longer hunt as of this year as it's being sold). A 4th property owner will be giving us permission to hunt hogs this year (he's making some cards for us to carry showing we have permission to be there). We carry a card from the 1400 acre farmer and were stopped once by an FWC officer at night making sure we weren't poachers.

    Anyway, hogs have now arrived this summer and rooted up a lot of planted peanuts. See damaged field pic DSCN3499.JPG
    , so we are out again. I'd say it might be a combination of killing and teaching surviving hogs that it's a bad place to be, just as I teach the coyotes to keep out of my goats' pasture. A coyote taught to not come near my goats. BB my farm dog looks at the yote. DSCN2686.JPG

    Pic of destroyed long leaf pine area. We are working in partnership with the ranch where they are trying to grow long leaf pines. Damage extends to the far tree line. DSCN3481.JPG

    The deer like to go after freshly sprouted cotton plants. 2 farmers that I know of have had to replant areas due to deer damage. When the cotton plant first comes up, 2 leaves come out first. Deer eat the 2 tender leaves and top of the plant, and the plant dies. We've been asked to do some deer depredation killing, but only if the farmer goes through the additional process of obtaining tags allowing us to remove the deer from the property so we can donate the meat. The farmer never got us the tags the year he asked, so we do not shoot the deer when out looking for hogs at night, but walk towards them or get upwind to scare them off (the deer come back into the field about 30 to 60 minutes later).
     

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    Daezee

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    DSCN3561.JPG

    Pic of hogs having mud/dirt rinsed off prior to cleaning, taken yesterday morning. Meat went to 7 families this time, with one family with 10 children getting 2 large coolers full (took 3 people to lift up each cooler into a truck). Believe me, the dad appreciated the donation and has the room to store it all!

    The hogs are put on the table visible to the right and two of us then take on cleaning each hog, one starting at each end of the hog. 2 hogs on the table at a time and 4 of us cleaning and cutting. I bring a limb cutter, and one of the strongest/youngest guys lops the feet off as each shoulder or ham is removed. 1-2 people wash off any hair or dirt left on the meat and sort and pack the cuts in plastic bags and put in iced water to rapidly cool. 1 person sharpens knives after each hog is cleaned. We all wear gloves, do not cut into the internal organs, take showers when we get home, and toss our clothes into the washer. 1 person is able to donate a large cooler of ice from where he works. All folks helping had no problem with approving the donation to the large family, and all people present took whatever cuts they wanted for their home. For example, I only wanted 2 shoulders for making a fresh batch of pulled pork; another family wanted 2 hams.

    Table and knives are washed with soap, water, and bleach to reduce any germs when we are done. Not visible to the right is a barn where some of the items are stowed, such as table and some of the coolers.

    Just to the left is the bucket of a tractor. We put the carcasses into the bucket and they are dumped at a far corner of the ranch away from any roads or people/homes. The carcasses are quickly taken care of by coyotes and vultures. Vultures have been known to follow the tractor.

    Note: This picture is not the result of "hunting" but of hog damage control and not wanting to waste useable meat. When Sawman, Chaps, and I are out at night, we are hunting and at the most kill one or two hogs at a time. For those reading, most of the nights we do not see hogs, but enjoy hunting and watching other critters.
     

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    FrommerStop

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    Hog and bears are my concern for my 8 acre gentleman's orchard endeavor and I hope gardens soon. So far no visits from those larger critters. They seem to be avoiding my dogs. My dogs would love to get at some coyotes too, but they are too slow to catch one.

    Hogs are difficult to wipe out. For poison a GMO designed disease might do it, but way too dangerous to play with something like and the government would never permit it for a lot of reasons.
    Best way are using all methods, dogs, traps, and night hunters sitting over the fields. After a bunch get killed likely the smarter hogs will go somewhere else.
    If hogs get free reign over an area they can be aggressive. There was story a while back of someone getting chased on the old Monsanto 350 yard range. The ascend property is said to have a lot of them about.
     

    FrommerStop

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    You likely want to wear gloves when handling wild hogs and the families that receive that meat should get a heads up also. I heard a few years ago that a native american has trapping rights on the ascend property and was selling dressed hogs that he was trapping.
     

    FrommerStop

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    Coyotes are also evolving and getting bigger. In parts of the south they have gotten nearly as big as eastern grey wolves that they been cross breeding with up in Canada.
    Somewhere in Georgia. They are getting up into the 60 lbs range.
    38702077_10212514461925141_5735678246826016768_n.jpg
     

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    Daezee

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    You likely want to wear gloves when handling wild hogs and the families that receive that meat should get a heads up also. I heard a few years ago that a native american has trapping rights on the ascend property and was selling dressed hogs that he was trapping.

    Good point about the gloves. All families/entities donated to are versed in hog meat handling, washing hands, don't handle with bare cuts in your skin, and cooking to at least 165 degrees. FDA now lets commercial hog meat be cooked to a lower temp, but I stick with 165 for wild (of course my pulled pork gets to 195-200) (ham is done to 165). Sawman and I also have pocket size laminated cards listing a bunch of possible diseases that one could get from wild hogs in case we get any bizarre fever or infection or symptom and need to go to the ER/doctor so the doctors will know to check for them.

    On top of all that, my wild hog meat is soaked in salted ice water for 3-4 days before being processed further. That also kills germs. Sawman taught me that and most everything I know about wild hogs.
     

    FrommerStop

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    Good point about the gloves. All families/entities donated to are versed in hog meat handling, washing hands, don't handle with bare cuts in your skin, and cooking to at least 165 degrees. FDA now lets commercial hog meat be cooked to a lower temp, but I stick with 165 for wild (of course my pulled pork gets to 195-200) (ham is done to 165). Sawman and I also have pocket size laminated cards listing a bunch of possible diseases that one could get from wild hogs in case we get any bizarre fever or infection or symptom and need to go to the ER/doctor so the doctors will know to check for them.

    On top of all that, my wild hog meat is soaked in salted ice water for 3-4 days before being processed further. That also kills germs. Sawman taught me that and most everything I know about wild hogs.
    Very low freezer temps IIRC will kill some parasitic helminth infections in the meat, but require lower than most home freezers will go to.
    It is good that the meat is used for something useful. How does it compare to store bought pork? Should be leaner. I wonder how peanut fed hog tastes like. Some of the dog hunters that do not and will not use a gun take a tied pig back to pen and feed it corn for a while prior to slaughter. These guys use knives to kill the hogs their dogs catch. Their well being depends on that dog not losing its grip on the hog. Hog dog hunters have been known to knife a dog if it let go. Breed a lot of pitbull into the catch dog and it will likely not let go. Some traditional southern farm dogs like my white english, especially those that have livestock guarding instincts derived from shepherd mastiffs will let go once the hog has quit fighting which is not what the hunter wants for sure. If a wild hog intrudes on the property they have been known not to catch it, but to treat it as a predator and kill it.
     
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    SAWMAN

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    The initial prolonged soaking in a saltwater brine solution (about a cup of salt to every gallon of water used) kills most if not of the bacteria. Most any salt can be used. I use the salt that is in rock form. I just stir it up extremely well. I buy it at Sam's Club.
    Just make sure to rinse and scrub thoroughly. --- SAWMAN
     

    Daezee

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    Other than a cured honey ham around Thanksgiving or Christmas or packaged sliced ham for sandwiches, we rarely eat store bought ham. Wild tastes great to my family. The pulled pork tastes same as pulled pork from a bbq place and just as good, with the externally applied various bbq sauces making more of a difference. Have not tried cooking the backstraps, but have a couple in the freezer to try. Sausage is definitely leaner, so I put a little pancake syrup on it and cook in a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil with a dash of water to keep it moist in the skillet. We have Never had one that tasted bad from the Florida Panhandle area or one that stunk. Even my largest 272 pound boar tasted good (one neighbor didn't care for it...he used to raise hogs and can taste the difference between male and female and doesn't like the taste of the males even when made into pulled pork like this one was that I brought over...his wife and grown daughter thought it was delicious). Never had one that looked diseased/sick. Certainly had some bigger boars with scars from fighting, a couple with their tails mostly missing and tears in their ears from fighting, and some with broken cutters. Oakes told me they've turned away a few that were brought in...felt the person didn't clean and cool the meat in a timely fashion and the meat looked and smelled spoiled.

    Had some hams cured by Oakes. They were a bit salty (like eating country ham at Cracker Barrel), but a few days from cooking at home went by, the saltiness diminished.
     

    Daezee

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    32nd armadillo taken 30 minutes ago. Been after this one a few nights. Saw it last night, but when I chambered a round in the suppressed AR it heard the "clack" and took off. I didn't make that mistake this evening and chambered the round out of hearing range. The recent rain made the stalking towards it quieter too. 300 Blackout, suppressed subsonic frangible bullet.

    DSCN3742.JPG
     

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