Hi karyn,

Here is a link they may be useful. How to trap - Armadillo

Karyn, I had something digging around in the yard for a few weeks. It's Burrough didn't seem to be in my yard, it was more like a nightly feast. I went to the dollar stuff and loaded up on cayenne pepper and big bottles of pine sol. And yes ever afternoon, I went out and spread a jar of cayenne over the holes and drizzled the pine sol around the perimeter of the fence. I was prepared to also put down 6" mound of pine bark around the fence too but he found some where new to forage at night. I was just relieved he didn't move in permanently. Oh, and probably the most important thing I did was have a professional lawn service treat the lawn for grubs. Good luck! I know how upsetting it is to have him ripping up your yard!

First off, you don't want to throw poison down the hole. If the bugger dies in there, it will stink for weeks. They are almost impossible to trap and no, you don't want to put that thing in your Lexus. Best bet is to catch it out of the hole and beat it to death with a shovel.

Wildlife told me to put used cat litter down the hole at night when they are out. They will not come back to that hole because they will smell another animal. It seemed to work on the one under my house. I imagine dog poop would serve the same purpose, or something like coyote or fox urine you can buy in garden centers.

Trapping them is nearly impossible because they don't eat except what they dig up. The main way to get rid of them for good is to get rid of what they're eating, namely grubs in your yard. Unfortunately, that requires a lot of chemicals, or you can use beneficial nematodes, but they take a long time to work.

Be careful handling them. They carry leprosy.

Fawn... going native eh?

Actually, what I used to do with iguana was set one of those pickup truck webbed elastic tailgates over their hole, and wait. When they exited and got caught in the web I whacked them with the blunt end of an axe.

The huge barracuda in the canal in back of my house LOVED them. I hear they taste like chicken.

As far as Armadillo go, one thing I can recommend AGAINST is arrows. You do not want to hear that story.

Thanks everyone - those plants to the right are Mexican Petunias. I really don't want to go out there at night and wait (mosquitoes) - or try to play whack a mole with them. *gross*! We have a golden retriever though so maybe I'll try putting her fur and/or poo down the hole first and some cayenne pepper. Then maybe a chlorine tablet and fill lightly with dirt to see if they come back before totally capping it off with concrete block pieces.

Lots of dig fur, poo and cayenne pepper didn't stop the traffic so today I've launched 2 pool chlorine tables down the hole - they are each about the size of hockey pucks and very strong smelling! It will only get worse if they get wet. I'l fill the hole lightly tomorrow and see if they dig out or are gone.

If you want to trap them just find the path they take and set up a little fence like a funnel directing them to the trap.

Since I put wood chips down they do an excellent job of removing Grubs , then I just rake it back into their ruts .

Now if I could only train them to turn my compost pile .....

After doing all of the above it appeared they weren't using the burrow entrance any more so I completely filled it and put pieces of cinder block over the area to block it off from future attempts to go back. So far so good.!

I did note that the literature Carol posted above mentioned moth balls as a repellant - something widely dismissed as urban myth. It also talks about trapping them but then goes on to say "it is illegal to transport and release them." So If you trap one I guess you have to kill it and dispose of it then?

Yeah. That's why I still have cayenne pepper and pine sol by the case lol. But havent seen the holes in months since we had the lawn treated for grubs. And the lawn looks better to boot!! Hopefully, your varmits have moved on! ;)