Wake up to a lawn dotted with small, cone-shaped holes and a flower bed that looks like it was rototilled, and you have had a visit from a nine-banded armadillo. They are everywhere in Jefferson County, they work at night, and the damage they do to a lawn in a single week can look like a serious pest outbreak. It is worth knowing what they want and what you can actually do about it.
Recognizing armadillo damage
- Cone-shaped holes, one to three inches across and a few inches deep, scattered across the lawn. The armadillo pushes its nose in and digs with its front claws, so the hole is a rough cone with loose soil around the rim.
- Turf peeled back in strips or flaps at the edge of beds, along foundations and under shrubs, where it has been rooting for insects.
- Beds churned up and mulch scattered. Armadillos love fresh mulch because it holds moisture and insects.
- A burrow entrance, seven or eight inches wide, under a shed, a slab, a woodpile or a dense shrub.
- No damage in the middle of the day. They are mostly nocturnal, especially in summer.
Raccoons and skunks also dig for grubs, but they tend to roll turf back in larger sheets rather than leaving neat cones. Wild hogs tear up whole areas. Our post on wild hog damage covers that.
Why they are in your yard
Armadillos eat insects, grubs, earthworms and other invertebrates, and they find them by smell. They dig where the soil is soft, moist and full of food. That means:
- Lawns that are irrigated regularly in a dry spell, because the soil is soft and the earthworms are near the surface, while the neighbor's dry lawn is hard and empty.
- Freshly mulched beds.
- Lawns with a grub or mole cricket population, which is often the case in late summer.
A lawn with heavy armadillo digging in August is worth checking for white grubs or mole crickets. If the food goes away, the armadillo usually does too.
What does not work
Repellents, mothballs, castor oil products, ultrasonic devices and predator urine have little or no consistent effect on armadillos. A motion-activated sprinkler startles one a few times and then gets ignored. Poisoning is illegal and dangerous to pets. Filling the burrow makes it dig another one, usually within a few feet of the first. Floodlighting the yard does not help either, because an armadillo that has found reliable food will simply shift its rounds an hour later. Anything that relies on annoying the animal rather than removing its food or the animal itself tends to buy you a week at most.
What does work
Reduce the food
If grubs or mole crickets are present, treat for them at the right time with a product labeled for lawn use and follow the label. Cut back irrigation to the deep, infrequent pattern in our irrigation guide; a lawn that is not soft every night is less interesting.
Fence what matters
Armadillos are poor climbers but fair diggers. A low fence, eighteen inches or so, buried six inches deep and angled outward at the bottom, keeps them out of a vegetable garden or a prized bed. It is not practical for a whole lawn.
Trap and remove
Live trapping is the most reliable answer for a persistent animal. A large cage trap set along a fence line, a foundation or the path it uses, with boards funneling toward the opening, catches them without bait; they are following a route, not a smell. Florida allows homeowners to trap nuisance armadillos on their own property, but there are rules about relocation, and a licensed wildlife trapper is the simplest way to handle it. Check current state regulations before you start.
Close the burrow entrances
Once the animal is gone, block access under sheds and slabs with hardware cloth buried a few inches so the next one does not move in.
Repairing the lawn
The holes look worse than they are. Rake the loose soil back into the cones, press the torn turf flaps back down and water them, and the lawn recovers in a couple of weeks during the growing season. Bare spots that do not fill can be plugged. Rake scattered mulch back into the beds and top it up. Time the repair to the season: torn centipede knits back together quickly in June and July, while the same damage in November will sit open until spring green-up, so it is worth pressing the flaps down and keeping them watered rather than waiting.
FAQ
Are armadillos dangerous?
They are not aggressive, but they can carry leprosy and should not be handled bare-handed. Keep dogs from catching them.
Will they leave on their own?
Sometimes, when the food runs out or the ground dries. A resident with a burrow on the property usually stays.
Does treating for grubs stop the digging?
Often, if grubs were the attraction. If it is earthworms in irrigated soil, it will not.
Do you repair digging damage?
Yes, and we can look at the lawn for the pest that drew the animal in. See our services.
If something is tearing up the yard every night, get in touch. We work the rural properties around Waukeenah and Capps where armadillos are part of the landscape.