How to Get Rid of Armadillo Under House. Is Trapping Best?
When sweet Margie next door was convinced she had an Armadillo under the house, I knew I had to rush to the rescue. So I thought I’d share my easy steps to get the situation under control and help Margie sleep better at night. As I share my experience, keep in mind how to CATCH an Armadillo and how to GET RID of an Armadillo are two separate things.
With that in mind, be sure to check your state and local regulations regarding the trapping and relocating of these creatures. Some states may allow it, while others may not.
My Armadillo investigation found three important clues:
Signs of foraging in the yard.
An obvious pathway a critter could follow behind a hedgerow against the house.
A gaping hole, leading under the foundation right at the end of the hedge row.
It made sense to me that the Armadillo probably ran behind the hedge row until it dug a nice hole in the moist soil by the water softener. But here’s the thing that made Margie feel better -- chances are, it wasn’t living there. No way.
You see, Armadillos usually live in the woods or underbrush, but they love to go out at night looking for grubs and worms to eat. Armadillos especially like to dig under foundations, not just yours, or Margie’s, but under houses all throughout any given neighborhood.
See, the holes they dig are their way of creating a cool refrigerator to raid for a snack in the middle of the night. The Armadillo follows its scent from one house to the next, eating worms and grubs in the untreated topsoil under your foundations, then when it’s had its fill, it goes back home! Simple as that. So COULD an armadillo be living in there? Maybe. But it’s more likely this hole was just an Armadillo drive thru.
So here’s my do it yourself solution to solve the Armadillo problem at Margie’s. Keep in mind everything I’m about to show you will only cost about $40. Which is a steal compared to a typical armadillo trapping & removal fee of $300! You can see more details, complete with product links in our Armadillo video.
STEP 1
I got a trap. It’s what they call a LIVE TRAP, because it doesn’t kill the animal. I baited it with something fragrant just to catch the Armadillo’s attention. In this case, a banana. Even though Armadillos don’t eat them, I figured it will sure smell it and investigate. A bunch of worms stuffed inside a nylon stocking would be the perfect bait for an Armadillo, but Helen wouldn’t let me use her pantyhose (or her worms) so I first tried the banana.
STEP 2
Now, since the critter isn’t living in that hole, I didn’t point the trap TOWARDS the hole. Instead, I situated it up against the house, in the pathway the Armadillo was likely to travel along.
STEP 3
If I caught one, the next morning I would drive him away. FAR away. About 5 or 10 miles, so he couldn’t find his way back. Notice I said CAREFULLY, because Armadillos can carry leprosy. And that’s nasty. So you would never want to make direct contact with an armadillo.
ALTERNATE, NO-TRAP METHOD:
Here are 2 more bonus suggestions that you might like because with these next methods, trapping the thing and hauling it away won’t even be necessary.
I simply bought a repellent. There are several on the market, but I happen to like this one in the picture. It’s got granules in it that stink really bad. Read the package for exact application directions and safety precautions of course. What I did, was I just scattered it along the Armadillos pathway. And to get it behind the shrubs, I just threw it against the house and let it fall to the ground back there.
Next thing I did was I filled in the hole. Even added a bag of concrete and watered it really well. Now, after making the yard smell bad and screwing up it’s snack bar, I figured if that Armadillo came back, it must really be an obnoxious one that deserves to spend the night in prison. So the trap was just my backup plan really.
Of course, I washed the extra concrete off my hose and tools, then I put my shovel back on display in a real nice location where I can be proud of it.
