The roadkill numbers are likely to go up because for some unknown reason — choose global warming if you want to pick a fight — armadillos are continuing their march to the north. A migration that began decades earlier has now put the animals on the north side of the Missouri River.

Do we want them? No, conservationists say. They’re grubbers; they destroy yards, root through gardens and build tunnels.

“They are worse than anything short of feral hogs,” said Meese, who works at Burr Oak Woods Nature Center in Blue Springs. “But they’re coming. Our hope is that the cold stops them.”

More: Armadillos Have Arrived — Despite Their Roadkill Ways