Armadillo Removal in East Cobb, GA
You wake up to the bottom of the yard looking like hogs rooted it overnight, with cone-shaped holes along the edge of the woods and pine straw thrown out of the beds. That's an armadillo, and nothing you buy at the garden center will stop it. Call us and tell us about the job — we will confirm the local crew for your county before any work starts.
Armadillos digging up your East Cobb yard
Armadillos are showing up more every year across metro Atlanta, and East Cobb's sloped lots suit them well. They eat grubs, earthworms and beetle larvae, and those live close to the surface in damp, shaded soil, the kind you find at the bottom of a yard where the lawn meets a wooded creek draw. During the day the armadillo sleeps in the ravine. At night it comes up the slope to feed. In the morning you find cone-shaped holes, pine straw kicked out of the beds and a strip along the woods that looks like hogs rooted it up.
Most people try the store remedies first: mothballs, castor-oil granules, predator urine, ultrasonic stakes. They don't work. An armadillo digs by instinct and follows its nose, and none of those products changes that. You can't lure it with bait either. What works is a trap set right on the path the animal already walks, and then closing up any burrow it has dug near the house.
Holes in the lawn vs. a burrow under the house
There are two kinds of armadillo damage. The feeding holes in the lawn and beds look bad but are only in the top layer of soil. The burrow is the serious one. On a sloped East Cobb lot, armadillos like to dig into the loose fill dirt under a deck, a basement stoop, an AC pad or a retaining wall on the downhill side. A tunnel there can undermine whatever is sitting on top, which is the real reason not to let an armadillo settle in.
Why the bottom of the yard gets hit
Water runs downhill, so the low part of an East Cobb yard is the dampest, and it's usually shaded by the trees along the ravine. That moist soil keeps grubs and worms near the surface, which is exactly what armadillos are digging for. The woods right next to it give the armadillo cover during the day and a short trip to its feeding spot at night. After a stretch of rain, the digging often gets worse.
Skip the grub treatment
It seems logical to kill the grubs so the armadillo has nothing to eat. In practice, a grub treatment usually makes the digging worse, at least for a while. As the food gets harder to find, the armadillo digs more holes looking for what's left. Your pro won't recommend it. Remove the armadillo instead.
Trapping is all about where the trap goes
You can't bait an armadillo, so the pro doesn't try. They read the yard: fresh holes, burrow openings, and the trails coming up out of the ravine and along fences or the house. Then they set box traps right on those paths, often with boards angled to guide the armadillo inside. Georgia doesn't have legal restrictions on trapping armadillos. The skill is in where the traps go.
Closing the burrow afterward
Once the armadillo is caught, its empty burrow under the deck or stoop is ready for the next one coming up from the woods. The pro makes sure nothing is left inside, fills or blocks the tunnel, and buries wire or screening along the base of the deck or stoop so a new armadillo can't dig back in. Without that step, you'll probably be calling again.
When it's already under something
Call quickly if the burrow is under a deck, stoop, AC pad, walkway or slab. Loose soil on a slope can let a tunnel run several feet back. The pro removes the armadillo first, checks that no young are still in the burrow, and then closes it. That keeps the damage from spreading under the structure.
Common armadillo questions in East Cobb
Something is digging cone-shaped holes in my lawn in East Cobb — what is it?+
Do armadillo repellents, mothballs or ultrasonic stakes work?+
There's a burrow under my deck or shed — is that an armadillo?+
How do you actually get rid of an armadillo?+
Will an armadillo damage my foundation?+
How much does armadillo removal cost in East Cobb?+
Other East Cobb problems that come with armadillos
Our wildlife crew handles these closely related problems — the ones that most often turn up with a armadillo issue.
Got more than armadillos in East Cobb?
Armadillos are rarely the only animal using an East Cobb yard after dark. See everything we handle locally on the East Cobb wildlife removal hub, or jump to Georgia wildlife removal.
Want the background before you call? Read our statewide guide: Armadillos tearing up your Georgia lawn.
One call to your East Cobb armadillo crew
An armadillo digs every night, and one that has dug a burrow under your deck or stoop isn't leaving on its own. Call us and tell us about the job — we will confirm the local crew for your county before any work starts.
- Local to Cobb County. Georgia DNR-compliant handling — call to ask about licensing and insurance.
- Box traps placed on its path. Traps set on the trails the armadillo already uses, then the burrow sealed off. Repellents and grub treatments don't solve it.
- Done right. Removal, exclusion and cleanup.