Armadillo Removal in Duluth, GA

Armadillos digging up your Duluth yard

Armadillos have spread north through Georgia and are now common in Gwinnett County. Duluth's yards suit them well. Shaded lawns and planting beds under tall trees stay soft and damp, which keeps grubs and earthworms close to the surface. Armadillos find that food by smell and dig for it at night. On older Duluth lots, they tend to dig where the lawn meets the woods. On newer lots, they go for the freshly installed sod and deep mulch beds. In the morning you'll see cone-shaped holes, plants pushed out of the ground, and mulch scattered everywhere. Some homeowners say it looks like hogs rooted up the yard.

Many people try to solve it themselves first, and those efforts usually fail. Armadillos don't respond to sprays, granules or ultrasonic stakes, and they can't be lured with bait. What works is a trap placed directly on the path the animal already uses every night. Here's how our wildlife crew handles it.

Lawn damage and burrow damage

Armadillos cause two kinds of damage. The first is the feeding holes: shallow, cone-shaped holes across the lawn and in the beds, with new ones every night. That damage looks bad but can be repaired. The second is burrows, which armadillos dig under decks, sheds, AC pads, stoops and slabs. A burrow can be several feet long, and over time it can undermine whatever is above it. On an older Duluth home with a crawlspace, an armadillo may even dig along the foundation wall. The lawn can be reseeded. The burrow needs to be dealt with before it causes structural damage.

Why Duluth yards attract them

Armadillos eat insects and worms in the soil, and shaded yards in Duluth keep that soil moist, loose and full of food. Irrigated lawns in newer subdivisions add even more moisture. The edge of the woods or a shrub line gives them cover during the day, so they can sleep nearby and walk right into the lawn at night. With mild winters and few predators, they stay active most of the year. Once one finds a good yard, it keeps coming back until it's removed.

Skip the grub treatment and repellents

Treating the lawn for grubs seems logical, but pros don't recommend it. As grubs get harder to find, the armadillo just digs more holes looking for them, and the damage gets worse. Repellents don't help either. Castor-oil granules, predator urine, ultrasonic stakes and especially mothballs (which should never be used for any animal problem) have no reliable effect on an animal that digs by smell. Every week spent trying these is another week of new holes.

Trapping depends on placement

There's nothing you can use as bait to lure an armadillo. Trapping works only if the trap is placed exactly where the armadillo already walks. The pro finds its regular paths, often along a fence, the foundation, or the line where lawn meets woods, and checks which burrow entrances are active. Then they set pre-set wooden box traps right in that path, sometimes with boards or fencing to guide the animal in. Box traps are the most effective method, and Georgia has no legal restrictions on trapping armadillos.

Closing the burrow

Once the armadillo is caught, the burrow is still there, and another armadillo will happily move into it. The pro checks that nothing is still inside, fills or collapses the tunnel, and installs buried metal screening along the bottom of decks, sheds and stoops so a new animal can't dig back in. If a burrow runs under a slab or AC pad, the pro will tell you whether you need a contractor to check for settling.

When more than one armadillo shows up

Sometimes you trap one armadillo and the digging continues a few weeks later. That doesn't mean the trapping didn't work. It usually means another armadillo found the same good yard. In Duluth, the wooded edges between lots make it easy for them to travel from yard to yard. A good job includes checking back for new digging and resetting traps if needed. That's why it's important to close off burrows along with trapping.