Armadillos often carry leprosy because their unusually low body temperature makes them especially hospitable hosts to the leprosy bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae. Humans can acquire a leprosy infection from armadillos by handling them or consuming armadillo meat.

For hundreds of years, the soundbox or resonating chamber of the charango, a small stringed instrument of the lute family, was made from the shell of an armadillo. Today the charango, which is still widespread throughout the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina, is more commonly made of wood.

A group of armadillos is called a roll--probably based on the misconception that all armadillos can roll into a ball.

In 1995, hundreds of elementary school children voted for the Texas state mammal in a mock election. Because the results were a dead tie between the armadillo and the longhorn, legislators decided to create a small state mammal and a large state mammal, with the nine-banded armadillo being chosen as the small state mammal and praised by legislators for its "ability to change and adapt, and its fierce undying love for freedom."

The official mascot of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil was Fuleco, a Brazilian three-banded armadillo, which is native to Brazil and categorized as a vulnerable species. His name was a portmanteau of the words Futebol ("football") and Ecologia ("Ecology"). The mascot, with his message of environmental concerns, ecology and sport, turned out to be very popular with football fans around the world.