Armadillo Removal in Alpharetta, GA

Armadillos digging up your Alpharetta yard

Armadillos dig for grubs, worms and insect larvae, and a well-kept Alpharetta lawn gives them exactly that. Irrigated turf and deep, regularly refreshed mulch beds keep the soil soft and moist, which brings food close to the surface and makes digging easy. Add the wooded creek land along the Big Creek Greenway and the shaded strips behind many lots, which give armadillos cover to travel and den, and it's not surprising they've become a regular call. The damage is unmistakable: shallow cone-shaped holes scattered across the lawn overnight, sometimes so many it looks like the yard was rooted up.

Most homeowners try a product first, and it doesn't work. Armadillos dig on instinct, not because a smell or sound invites them, so repellents, granules and stakes have no reliable effect — and mothballs should never be used for any animal problem. Bait doesn't work either; there's nothing that reliably lures an armadillo. What does work is trapping placed where the animal already travels, followed by closing off the burrow access it has been using.

Holes in the lawn, tunnels under the house

There are two kinds of armadillo damage, and only one is cosmetic. The feeding holes and torn-up beds are frustrating but shallow. The burrows are the bigger concern: armadillos dig dens beneath decks, patios, sheds, AC pads and slabs, and a tunnel that runs under a footing or slab can undermine it over time. On Alpharetta homes with large decks and patios, there's plenty of hidden ground for a burrow to start under.

Why watered lawns attract them

An armadillo's food lives in the top few inches of soil, and moisture keeps it there. Irrigation, thick mulch and shade all hold that moisture, so a carefully maintained yard can be more attractive than an unkept one. Treating the lawn for grubs is generally not recommended as a fix — as food gets scarce, an armadillo just digs harder and more widely to find what's left, which can make the damage worse.

Products that don't work

Castor-oil granules, predator urine, ultrasonic and solar stakes, and mothballs all get tried, and none has a reliable track record against armadillos. At best the animal shifts its digging a few feet; more often nothing changes. Mothballs in particular don't work and shouldn't be placed around a home for any animal problem. Every week spent on products is another week of new holes.

Getting the trap in the right place

Because armadillos can't be baited, success depends entirely on placement. The pro reads the yard — where the fresh digging is, where burrow openings are, and which paths the animal uses coming in from cover along a creek edge or wooded strip — and sets traps directly in that path, often using pre-set wooden box traps with guide boards that funnel the animal in. Good placement catches the specific animal causing the damage.

Closing the burrow afterward

Removing one armadillo doesn't remove what attracted it, and an empty burrow under a deck is an invitation to the next. After the animal is caught, the pro confirms no young remain and closes the burrow, then installs buried barrier screening around decks, sheds and other spots where a new armadillo could dig in. That combination — removal plus access correction — is what keeps the problem from returning.

If the burrow is under a slab or deck

The more urgent calls are when the tunnel is already beneath something solid. A burrow under a patio, slab or AC pad can extend several feet and quietly remove support from what's above it. The animal comes out first, the burrow is checked for young, and then the cavity is closed and screened so it can't be reused. Skipping that last step is why digging so often returns to the same spot.