Hi! I have an issue and was trying to google a solution and suddenly realized this is a problem for the outdoors board!

We had one large spot near our AC that an armadillo had been digging and my husband finally got it to stop. A month later he's back and working on two new spots near the house/slab. Is there anything we can do/buy to put out to get them gone for good? I'd love to avoid traps if I could or maybe try something else first and then call someone to handle that. Thanks!

If your sure it's an armadillo and you don't want to trap it your options are limited. A large dog, pellet rifle or eliminating their food source (grubs, meal worms) are your only other options.

First thing you want to remember with nature is that there is no such thing as "gone for good." Nature fills a vacuum.

There are wooden armadillo traps that come with dirt in them. The dirt is scented.

Armadillo Traps

Maybe your husband is good with a compound bow? My son wacked a few from 30 yards this weekend. No more issues with those two.

Moth balls are worth a shot.

+1 for getting rid of grubs.

Our old house had one always digging in front flowerbeds. I would hit them with grub/insect killer every 2-3 months, or whenever I noticed activity and it usually died down within a day or two of that.

Also used some of this - not sure if it did anything or not. https://www.victorpest.com/victor-mole-and-gopher-repellent-4-lb-bag-m7001-1.

We had a Hav-a-hart trap that I'd continually catch possums/raccoons with, but could never get the dillo(s) to wander in.

I had this problem about 20 years ago in Seabrook. Large burrow under the slab. Moth balls, cayenne pepper, urine (yeah tried it), no repellent works. Blocking the hole will only cause them to dig around it. The only solution will be trapping.

I found out armadillos are extreme creatures of habit. They will have several burrows in the area, and rotate through them. They will always come back, or the offspring will.

I started trapping, but could not bait them. I noticed that the tails left furrows in the soft soil around my as they bumbled along (they are damn near blind or act like it). Always the same spot, same path. Once I figured out which direction they came from I placed the trap directly in the path. They began walking straight into it. They were such creatures of habit they would not go around. Over the next couple of years I trapped 13 of them. They were relocated to a dumpster in a permanent fashion.

I think it was 3 different generations. Fun fact, they always reproduce in litters of identical quadruplets.