Armadillo Removal in Smyrna, GA
Woke up to a lawn that looks like it's been rooted by hogs, with cone-shaped holes and mulch thrown everywhere? That's an armadillo, and they're showing up in Smyrna more each year. 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 Smyrna yard
A few years ago, few Smyrna homeowners would have guessed armadillos were the problem. Now the calls come more often every year. They reach the neighborhoods along the creek corridors and park edges that run between developments, then move into the closest soft, watered lawn. The damage is easy to recognize: cone-shaped holes scattered across the grass and mulch flung out of the beds, all done overnight, as if hogs had rooted the yard.
What frustrates people is that the usual fixes do nothing. You can't bait an armadillo, and sprays, granules and stakes don't keep one away. Treating the lawn for grubs can actually make it worse, because the armadillo digs harder to find what's left. What works is a box trap set in exactly the right place by someone who can read the armadillo's path. Here's how that works on a Smyrna lot.
Holes in the lawn, tunnels under the slab
There are two kinds of armadillo damage. The first is cosmetic: shallow, cone-shaped feeding holes and flower beds torn up overnight. A lawn grows back from that. The second is structural. Armadillos dig burrows several feet long under decks, sheds, stoops, AC pads and even the edge of a slab or crawlspace foundation, and over time the tunnel can undermine what sits on top of it. A burrow next to the house is the reason not to wait.
Why Smyrna lawns draw them in
Armadillos eat grubs, worms and other insects in the soil. An irrigated Smyrna lawn keeps that food near the surface, and Georgia's red clay soil becomes easy to dig once it's wet. The green strips along creeks and parks give armadillos a covered route between yards and a place to burrow during the day. A yard backing onto one of those strips is often the first stop.
Why grub treatment and repellents backfire
Skip the mothballs, castor-oil granules, predator urine and ultrasonic stakes. None of them reliably keep an armadillo off a lawn, and mothballs shouldn't be put out around a home at all. Grub treatment seems logical but is generally not recommended, because with fewer grubs the armadillo just digs more holes looking for the rest. All that trial and error lets the damage keep adding up.
It's all about where the trap sits
There's nothing you can bait an armadillo with. So the pro uses pre-set wooden box traps and puts them right on the animal's run: along the fence line, the edge of the creek strip, or the entrance of the burrow. Short boards are sometimes added to steer the armadillo into the box. Trapping armadillos in Georgia doesn't have the legal restrictions that apply to raccoons, but success depends completely on reading the path correctly.
Make the yard less inviting afterward
Once the armadillo is caught, the pro closes off the spaces it was using. That means metal screening buried along the base of the deck, shed or stoop so another one can't dig under. Clearing brush and thick cover along the back fence line next to a creek strip also gives the next one less reason to stop. Trapping without these fixes just leaves the burrow open for the next armadillo.
When the burrow is under the house
A burrow under a deck, stoop or crawlspace wall needs extra care. The pro makes sure the armadillo, and any young, are out of the tunnel before anything is sealed. Then they fill or close the entrance and screen the space so it can't be dug open again. This is the step most DIY attempts skip, and it's why the same burrow often gets reused.
Common armadillo questions in Smyrna
Something is digging cone-shaped holes in my lawn in Smyrna — 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 Smyrna?+
Other Smyrna 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 Smyrna?
Armadillos are rarely the only animal using a Smyrna yard after dark. See everything we handle locally on the Smyrna 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 Smyrna armadillo crew
An armadillo comes back to the same lawn night after night, and a burrow under a deck or slab grows over time. 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 on the run. Traps set on the armadillo's actual path, then the burrow closed. No bait, no repellents.
- Done right. Removal, exclusion and cleanup.