There are a few things about armadillos I learned doing a two month stint in texas some years back, and most of them are nasty.
Frinstance, you can tell by looking at them, that the dillo is just an armored possum, and it’s every bit as filthy a creature. Mind you, there are those people that eat them, but I’d rather eat raw pork- if a dillo isn’t sufficiently cooked you can get leprosy from just eating it. Nice, huh? They are fairly odd creatures in many ways, but they have this defence mechanisim unlike nearly any other critter alive. When startled, they jump anywhere from two to three feet into the air.
This is a great mechanisim under completely “natural” conditions, because it’s purpose is to allow the dillo to curl into a compact ball in midair, coming back to rest as an impenetrable ball of armor.

On a highway, on the other hand, this mechainism is a decided disadvantage. When the animal is startled by, say, being on the road when a truck runs over it, a squirrel or groundhog will stay put, and often survive. Not the lowly dillo. Warning, graphic images below the staple.

The dillo waits to notice the truck until the truck is directly overhead, then evolution kicks in and it does it’s little dance with fate. Usually getting hopelessly tangled with the machinery of the truck. Apparently, in Texas, they have de-armadilloing stations, where you can have the armadillo detritus forcibley removed from the nether regions of your semi.

Today I had my own such dillo run-in, and here is the sad result:
dillo.jpeg

ick. Poor bastard. While they’re filthy creatures rife with disease, I don’t wish harm on them, and certainly don’t expect them to come to their demise at the hands of my crappy rental truck.