Looking like heavily armored possums and having about as much luck successfully crossing highways, armadillos—dead or alive—are a frequent sight in North Alabama.

While they mostly come out at night to forage for grubs and earthworms in well-manicured lawns, July and August is mating season and they might also be casting come-hither glances toward armadillos of like mind.

With a face only another armadillo could love, these scavengers are a little scary to look at but, according to wildlife experts, a person has nothing to fear from them unless, of course, he or she steps into a hole they’ve dug and turns an ankle.

There are stories of impetuous dogs coming out on the worst end of confrontations with armadillos because of their large, sharp claws. But for the most part, armadillos shuffle about digging for grubs with no known predators, according to Dr. Jim Armstrong, Extension wildlife specialist and associate professor of zoology and wildlife science at Auburn University.

“I’ve never actually seen a standoff between a dog and an armadillo but it’s possible,” Armstrong said. “They’re out there at night, they’re wild animals and they have those sharp claws.”

News Courier Editor Sonny Turner heard his English bulldog, Bu Bu, barking in the garage a couple of months ago. When he went to investigate, he saw an armadillo exiting the garage. Turner lives on the other side of the Tennessee River in Priceville.

Lifestyle writer Jennifer Hill said she sees numerous armadillo carcasses on roadsides when she crosses the river on the way to Lacey’s Spring to visit her mother.

News Courier night editor Phil Willis said he has seen plentiful evidence of car-versus-armadillo on the roadsides of Alabama 127 on his way to work from Pulaski.

First seen in South Texas in the mid 1800s, armadillos migrated north and east as far as the Mississippi River, according to Gene Carver, wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Armadillos in Alabama probably came from Florida, Carver said, where populations were started from accidental releases from zoos and from animals unintentionally transported from Texas by truck and rail car.

Armstrong said armadillos were first spotted in the state in Mobile in the mid-1940s, coincidentally, about the time fire ants also arrived in the state. However, he said armadillos are not known as “big fire ant controllers.”

Until recent years, armadillos had not been seen north of the Tennessee River.

“They’ve been gradually extending their range north since then,” Armstrong said. “About 15 years ago, I sent out an informal survey to county agents in North Alabama. The only place they did not have them was in Jackson County. But it was just a matter of time before it was borne out. They have established themselves in all of North Alabama. They are more adaptable than we had thought.”

Chris Keenum, owner of Keenum Problem Wildlife Control in Hartselle, said he has been called to Limestone County twice to trap armadillos. Keenum said the number of armadillo sightings is dependent on the amount of rainfall.

In years of drought, forests and brushy cover areas dry up and armadillos come out to forage for grubs and worms in irrigated yards, he said.

“They’re really down this year,” Keenum said. “It’s still a little dry but we’ve had significant rain. What I’ve noticed is when it gets bone dry they really come out. When the topsoil is dry 3 or 4 inches down, it gets real hard for an armadillo to make a living. When the woods dry out, they head for areas with a sprinkler system. Where the food is near the surface, that’s where they’ll be.”

One of Keenum’s Limestone County customers is Tom Strain, who called Keenum on Tuesday to come back to his Elk River home for the second-consecutive summer because of armadillos.

“We caught eight at our house on the Elk River in the late summer and early fall of last year,” Strain said. “Yesterday, in fact, I saw where another one had been digging under my front porch. My front yard last year looked like someone had gone out there with a post-hole digger. They are very destructive animals. We have an irrigation system and that’s why they congregate in my yard and not my neighbor’s. They’re an unwanted house guest—sort of like in-laws—they just keep showing back up.”