Armadillo Removal in Norcross, GA

Armadillos digging up your Norcross yard

Armadillos have spread steadily into metro Atlanta, and they are now showing up in close-in places like Norcross. You don't need a big lot to get one. The small, well-watered front yards of the older neighborhoods, the mulch beds around apartment buildings, and the grass strips along office and shopping-center lots all hold grubs and earthworms close to the surface. An armadillo finds them by smell and digs. In the morning you see the result: shallow, cone-shaped holes across the lawn, as if something rooted through it overnight, and mulch thrown onto the sidewalk.

What people try first almost never works. Armadillos are nearly blind and dig by smell and habit, so repellent granules, sprays, ultrasonic stakes and mothballs don't bother them. They also can't be lured with bait. What works is trapping, with the trap placed exactly where the animal walks, and then closing off any burrow so another one doesn't move in. Here's how our wildlife crew handles it.

Holes in the lawn, burrows under the house

There are two kinds of damage. The holes in the lawn are ugly but shallow, just feeding spots. The bigger concern is the burrow. Armadillos like to dig their dens under something solid: a porch, a set of steps, an AC pad, a shed, or right along a foundation. On Norcross's older crawlspace ranches and porches, a burrow next to a footing or under a stoop can undermine it over time. If you see a round hole about the width of a softball with dirt piled outside, take it seriously.

Why Norcross yards attract them

Armadillos eat grubs, earthworms and insect larvae, and they go wherever the soil is soft and full of them. Watered lawns and thick mulch beds in older neighborhoods have both. Leftover wooded strips, creek banks and the overgrown edges behind commercial buildings give them a place to sleep during the day close to all that food. After a rain, when worms and grubs come close to the surface, digging usually gets worse.

Don't treat for grubs

It sounds logical: kill the grubs and the armadillo will leave. In practice it usually makes things worse. With fewer grubs to find, the armadillo digs more holes looking for what's left. Grub treatments are generally not recommended as an armadillo fix. The same goes for repellents and home remedies. Each week spent trying them is another week of new holes.

Trapping is about placement

Since there is nothing you can bait an armadillo with, the trap has to be set where it already walks. A pro studies the yard to find the burrow and the paths it uses each night, often along a fence, wall or foundation, and sets a trap (often a wooden box trap) right in that path, with guides that steer the animal into it. A trap in the wrong spot can sit empty for weeks. In the right spot it often works within a few nights. Armadillos have no special legal restrictions on trapping in Georgia.

Closing the burrow

After the armadillo is removed, the burrow needs to be dealt with, or another one will move right in. The pro checks for young, fills or closes the burrow, and can bury wire barrier along the bottom of porches, decks and sheds so a new armadillo can't dig under. On a house with a crawlspace, they'll also check that the burrow hasn't opened a path into it.

Why more keep showing up

Georgia's mild winters don't stop armadillos, and few predators keep them in check, so they're more common every year. A yard that one armadillo liked will appeal to the next one. That's why removing the animal and closing the burrow go together. If new holes appear later, it's usually a new arrival, not the same one, and the pro can set up again in the same spots.