[ClubMike]

Are there any armadillos in Michigan? I hate this invasive creatures. I am hoping it is too cold and snowy for the armadillo in Michigan. I am thinking around the Baldwin, Reed City area.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by ClubMike

Are there any armadillos in Michigan? I hate this invasive creatures. I am hoping it is too cold and snowy for the armadillo in Michigan. I am thinking around the Baldwin, Reed City area.

Generally none in that area, mostly southern areas up to Kansas and Missouri do have them. The coldest climate area in the LP is Grayling and Pellston areas, as those locations see low temperatures colder than -30F every winter.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by ClubMike

Are there any armadillos in Michigan? I hate this invasive creatures. I am hoping it is too cold and snowy for the armadillo in Michigan. I am thinking around the Baldwin, Reed City area.

I'm not sure what you think invasive means but Armadillos are new world mammals. I would not call them invasive and I doubt they appear on any invasive species list for North America.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by craig11152

I'm not sure what you think invasive means but Armadillos are new world mammals. I would not call them invasive and I doubt they appear on any invasive species list for North America.

Invasive species has two parts:
1 - a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause harm to an environment, and
2 - not native to a specific location

Armadillo would meet the definition of #2, they aren't native to northern US or Canada. The invasive species lists are nationwide, not state or region specific.
I doubt they would meet #1, as most wouldn't last a winter - they have very low body temperatures (so hypothermia is a bigger risk) and most of what they eat (grubs and insects) don't winter well.

[Coldjensens]

There might be some at the zoo.

[ClubMike]

Thanks for the updates, I live in Missouri now and the armadillos dig up my yard all the time. They do destroy things, and they are hard to catch in a wire trap. The ground hogs are easy to catch and dispatch. The armadillos actually fight there way out of the wire cage. They burrow under sheds and houses and come out at night to tear up the yard. Oh yeah lets not forget about the leprosy you may or may not contract from contact with one.


So before I consider Michigan as a destination I just want to make sure the armadillo has not beat me to Michigan. Michigan is looking better all the time. I bet you do not have as many snakes as Missouri.

[Coldjensens]

We have snakes,but virtually none are poisonous. There is one rattle snake, but it is extremely rare. There is another kind of snake that imitates the rattle snake and looks sort of like it. It rattles its tail in dry leaves to scare predators away. As a result, there are a lot of people who swear they have encountered a massasaugua rattler in Michigan, but only a few of them actually have.

Our pests are primarily mosquitoes. You either need to be douses in DEET between 7 and 9 pm in the warm times, or you need to stay inside. They can be bad for a while in the mornings too.

Animal pests are mice, moles,voles, and deer and sometimes rabbits. There are others, but they are rarely encountered. Geese can be a pest if you live on the water. Lots and lots of things will be pests if you have chickens for them to eat (or kill for fun. Raccoons do not eat chickens but they love to torture and kill them for fun).

In the north in some areas black flies are intolerable. They are not effected by DEET, so you have to keep all of your skin covered and wear a mesh screen that hangs from a hat if you are outside for long periods. Fortunately they are limited to specific areas.

One thing that is nice about Michigan, is we have few natural threats. No hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, flooding is rare, tornado are rare, lightning strikes are very rare. There is virtually no wildlife that is likely to try to kill and eat you (except for bugs). Ticks are a problem in places and some do carry Lymes disease. I forgot about ticks. However I also have never been bitten by one, or maybe once and I do not remember it.

Your biggest health threat is depression. In the winter we had months where we rarely see the sun. Some people get SAD (forget what that stands for but it is severe depression from lack of sunlight). You can combat that by getting outside every time it is sunny no matter what. You can also get an expensive light that actually does nothing, but if it convinces your brain that it is working, you might actually feel better.

Stupid can be a health threat too. This is not a place for people with no common sense. We still have them, and some of them survive, but if you got out driving around int he winter with no coat, hat or gloves wearing a miniskirt and heels and assuming your car will never break down or get stuck, well you are really to dumb to live here, but that does not mean you cannot, it just means you are likely to get into a trouble or possibly even die.

[walker46]

I can think of a lot of things that would annoy me if I lived in Baldwin but armadillos is not one of them.