How to Get Rid of Armadillos & Keep Them Away (Control Tips)

Armadillo

Armadillos are adorable mammals that can weigh between three ounces and one hundred twenty pounds depending on the length, which can reach up to almost sixty inches long. The omnivore creatures can live up to fifteen years and love dining on insects, veggies and fruits, herbs, and carrion.

The amazing animals have a three-banded shell for curling up inside when they feel threatened with short legs and feet, sharp claws for digging, and long ears and noses for hunting and sensing all that surrounds them.

Sadly, these beings do not have very good eyesight for fighting predators such as humans and large animals, which is one of the reasons they are on the endangered list. Another reason is their population is slimming down because their home is being taken away, and people are killing them off simply to get rid of them.

Why do people want to get rid of armadillos?

Like moles, armadillos have a tendency of making burrowers in people’s lawns and gardens. For this reason, people tend to want to get rid of the creatures from their space. Another reason is the armadillos love snacking on fresh herbs, bulbs, fruits, and vegetable gardeners and farmers grow. These nocturnal animals can also bite or claw at a humans or pet, if they feel threatened.

Overall, these mammals that come in colors of black, red, gray, and yellow mean no harm to anyone and do love dining on insects as well, which is a positive reason to keep these creatures around if you have a fear of creepy crawling insects such as beetles, termites, ants, and small spiders.

Video showing how to reduce grubs in your lawn to in turn reduce armadillo and mole activity.

Where are the most common places to find armadillos living?

Armadillos love living in warm tropical climates where there are rain forests, wetlands, and places to dig and burrow during the day, grasslands and some desert areas. You will never find these creatures living in cold climate areas since they hate the cold and simply will not survive in it even with their hard exterior shell, which by the way some breeds of armadillos can not curl up inside to hide away from danger.

If you live in a warm climate area and are experiencing many armadillos in your yard you have some options. One of them being you can kindly leave them is to help keep the insect population down, or you can use safe methods for removing and preventing them.

Video explaining how professionals trap armadillos

What are effective methods to keep armadillos away?

Cayenne Pepper

This effective method might sound strange, but you can always sprinkle cayenne pepper around your home, garden or farm to help prevent them from coming into your space. Cayenne pepper deters armadillos away because these creatures do not like the smell of spicy herbs. Sadly, when the armadillo gets a sniff of the cayenne pepper if they do try to enter onto your property, it will burn their nose, but will prevent the creatures from coming back.

Bobcat or Coy Dog Urine

Spraying bobcat, coyote, or dog urine around your yard, gardens, and crops is another effective remedy for repelling armadillos. This is because armadillos are the pray to animals such as bobcats and coy dogs, which can and will hunt these mammals for food.

Get a Dog

Having an outdoor dog is another outstanding way to repel armadillos away. However, you will want to make sure the dog you get has a warm shelter outside on cold nights, lots of food and water and receives lots of tender love and care from you the owner.

Trapping Armadillos

You can use a large luring trap filled with earthworms to safely catch armadillos without killing them. Once the armadillo is caught, you can pick up the cage-like trap, bring it to a safe far away location and release the armadillo back into the wild in a habitat it loves being in instead.

Video showing how to trap armadillos

Hire a Professional

If armadillos are animals you simply do not want to trap and catch yourself, but you want them safely removed from your yard, you can hire a professional such as Fish and Game to come and remove the creatures for you. However, if you are brave enough to catch one of these creatures yourself without professional help you should consider wearing gloves and thick clothing since their claws and teeth are sharp and can cause injury to you.

Solve your armadillos problem by professionals.

Put up Fencing or Netting

Putting up fencing and netting around your home, farm or garden is another way to keep armadillos from invading your space and feasting away on the herbs, fruits, and vegetables you have planted.

Video showing how to keep armadillos from destroying your garden

Armadillo Prevention is the Way to Go

Getting rid of armadillos might be on your to-do list, but do it safely and without causing the creatures harm. Remember, these creatures are on the endangered list, and helping them thrive in areas that they love is one of the best ways to help keep them alive and away from your homes.

This means stopping the destruction of their habitat areas such as the rainforest and grasslands. It also means using methods that safely prevent and remove armadillos away from your space. After all, as mentioned before these creatures are important to the ecosystem and do help keep in insect population under control naturally.

Published
Categorized as Armadillos

By David Jackson

I enjoy learning about new pest control strategies and sharing what I learn at NeverPest.com. I aim to create a reliable resource for people dealing with all sorts of pest issues.

3 comments

  1. Nine-Banded armadillos are NOT endangered. Quite the contrary. They are an invasive species spreading quickly throughout the southern United States. There are few predators, so their numbers are increasing at an alarming rate.

    Using predator urine as a deterrent is ineffective, as such predators are rarely encountered nowadays. So the invading armadillos do not fear the smell of predators they’ve never seen.

    Trapping armadillos is a waste of time, as is hiring so-called professionals. You might as well try trapping mosquitos one at a time for all the good it will do.

    PLEASE STOP PRINTING RUMORS AND WORTHLESS NONSENSE. WHEN YOU HAVE NO PROVEN FACTS, JUST KEEP QUIET!

  2. There are some armadillos on my property, and I don’t know what to do! I think it might be best for me to just hire a professional. I always panic when it comes to this kind of thing.

    1. Branden, can’t go wrong with giving a professional a call! I usually recommend trying a deterrent like using some type of fox or predator urine. We have quite a few reader write to us that mention that worked well for them but if you don’t have the time or do not really want to try that, call up a wildlife removal professional. They will trap the armadillos in your yard and relocate them for you.

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