Armadillo Removal in Snellville, GA

Armadillos digging up your Snellville yard

Armadillos have become more common in Georgia every year, and Gwinnett is now well within their range. The yards in Snellville's older subdivisions give them a lot to eat. A lawn that has been mowed, watered and fertilized for 30 or 40 years, with shade beds full of pine straw under trees that grew up with the house, has plenty of grubs, earthworms and beetle larvae close to the surface. The armadillo digs for them at night, leaving the yard full of cone-shaped holes by morning. Some people say it looks like hogs rooted through the yard.

The second thing that draws them is the hardscape that has aged along with the yard. Concrete stoops and porch slabs that have settled, AC pads with soil washed out from underneath, and decks with rotted skirting all leave gaps an armadillo can dig into and enlarge into a burrow. That's where the damage moves from cosmetic to structural, and it's where our wildlife crew focuses.

Lawn damage versus structural damage

The holes in the lawn are ugly but shallow, and grass fills them back in. The burrow is the bigger concern. On an older Snellville lot, armadillos like to dig where something already has a gap underneath: a front stoop that has pulled away from the house, an AC pad sitting on washed-out soil, a deck with no barrier below the skirting, or a gap under the edge of a driveway or walkway. A burrow there removes the soil that supports the slab, which can make it settle or crack.

Why older yards attract them

An armadillo eats insects and worms in the soil, so it follows where they are easiest to reach. An established yard that has been watered for decades, with thick mulch and pine straw that stay damp, keeps food close to the surface. A rainy stretch softens the ground even more and brings the worms up, and that's often when the digging gets worse overnight. Don't treat the lawn for grubs to starve them out. When grubs get scarce, the armadillo just digs more holes looking for what's left.

Skip the repellents

Mothballs, castor-oil granules, predator urine and ultrasonic stakes are the usual things people try first, and none of them reliably keeps an armadillo away. It digs on instinct. At best a product moves it a few feet over. Mothballs in particular should never be spread across a yard. Every week spent trying them is another week of new holes. Trapping is what works.

Trapping is all about placement

There's nothing you can use to bait an armadillo. It won't walk into a trap for food. So the skill is in placement. The pro reads the yard for the animal's regular paths: along a fence line, the edge of a bed, the side of the house, the route to the burrow. Then they set traps, usually wooden box traps, right in that path with guide boards that steer the armadillo in. Georgia has no special legal restrictions on trapping armadillos, but a trap set in the wrong spot will just sit there empty.

Blocking access afterward

Once the armadillo is caught, the burrow is still there, and another one will use it. The pro fills the burrow and installs buried wire mesh along deck skirting, under the edges of stoops and around AC pads, set down far enough that a new armadillo can't dig under it. Thinning dense ground cover and pulling deep pine straw back from the foundation also gives them less reason to dig right next to the house.

When the burrow is under a slab

The calls to act on quickly are burrows under a stoop, slab, AC pad or deck footing. The longer the armadillo stays, the more soil it removes and the more the concrete can sink. The pro catches the animal first, makes sure no young are left in the burrow, then fills and blocks the cavity. If a slab has already settled noticeably, have a contractor look at it once the armadillo is gone. Wildlife pros handle the animal and the barrier, not concrete repair.