If you’re finding small, scattered holes across your Florida lawn, armadillos are one of the most likely culprits. Nine-banded armadillos dig two distinct types of holes: shallow foraging pits (1 to 3 inches deep, 3 to 5 inches wide) where they root for insects, and deeper burrows (7 to 8 inches in diameter, up to 15 feet long) where they sleep and hide from predators. Knowing which type you’re looking at tells you a lot about how to respond.
What Armadillo Holes Look Like
Armadillos leave behind two very different signatures in your yard. The more common one is a cluster of small, cone-shaped holes scattered across the lawn. These are foraging pits, created when the armadillo pushes its pointed snout into the soil to dig up insects. They’re shallow, rarely more than 6 inches deep, and roughly the width of a tennis ball. You’ll often find dozens of them in a single area, especially in loose soil or mulch beds where armadillos root around like small pigs.
Burrows are a different story. These are the armadillo’s actual living quarters, with round, cylindrical openings about 7 to 8 inches across. You’ll typically find them near tree roots, along fence lines, beside driveways, or at the edges of buildings and other structures. If frequent digging damage shows up in your yard, the armadillo probably has a burrow within 100 yards, usually in a nearby wooded or brushy area rather than in the open lawn itself.
Armadillo Holes vs. Other Florida Wildlife
Florida has several animals that dig, and confusing one for another can lead you down the wrong path, or even break the law. Here’s how to tell them apart.
Gopher tortoise burrows are the most important to distinguish from armadillo burrows, because gopher tortoises are a threatened species in Florida and their burrows are legally protected. The key difference is shape: armadillo burrow entrances are round like a circle, while gopher tortoise burrows have an arched top and flat bottom, matching the shape of the tortoise’s shell. Gopher tortoise burrows also typically have a fan-shaped apron of soft sand spread out in front of the entrance. On average, they run about 15 feet long and 6.5 feet deep, and they provide shelter for over 360 other wildlife species. If you see a half-moon shaped burrow with a sandy apron, leave it alone.
Eastern moles create a network of underground tunnels that show up as raised ridges of soil snaking across the lawn, with small cone-shaped mounds of dirt at entry and exit points. If you see raised trails rather than individual holes, you’re dealing with moles, not armadillos.
Why Armadillos Target Florida Lawns
Armadillos are insectivores. They eat beetles, grubs, worms, spiders, and termites, with the occasional fungus or fruit thrown in. Florida’s warm, moist soil is ideal habitat for these prey species, which is why armadillos thrive across much of the state. A well-watered lawn full of grubs is essentially a buffet.
The digging is worst after rain or irrigation, when soil is soft and insects move closer to the surface. Armadillos are mostly nocturnal, so you’ll rarely catch them in the act. Instead, you wake up to a lawn pockmarked with fresh holes. Mulch beds and flower gardens take heavy damage too, since loose material is even easier to root through.
How to Stop Armadillo Digging
There’s no single magic fix, but a few approaches used together give the best results.
Reduce the food source. Treating your lawn for grubs and other soil-dwelling insects removes the main reason armadillos visit. If there’s nothing to eat, the armadillo moves on. This won’t work overnight, but over the course of a season it makes your yard less attractive compared to neighboring properties.
Apply a castor oil repellent. Castor oil-based granules or sprays penetrate the soil and work in two ways: they make underground insects taste unpleasant, and they create an odor inside burrows that armadillos dislike. These products are widely available at garden centers. They need reapplication, especially after heavy rain, but they’re a reasonable first line of defense for a yard with recurring damage.
Use fencing strategically. Armadillos are surprisingly poor climbers. A fence buried a few inches into the ground around garden beds or vulnerable areas can redirect them. They tend to follow edges like walls, fence lines, and landscaping borders, so a physical barrier in the right spot can protect the areas you care about most.
Trapping and Removal
If repellents and habitat modification aren’t enough, trapping is the next step. Florida law allows landowners to live-trap or humanely destroy nuisance armadillos on their property. However, the rules around what happens after capture are strict: any live-captured armadillo must be euthanized, released on the same property where it was caught, or released on a property of 40 acres or more within the same county, with written permission from that landowner. You cannot relocate armadillos to public parks or other public land without permission from the land manager.
Armadillos are notoriously hard to trap because they don’t respond well to bait. The most effective setup is an unbaited live trap (at least 10 by 10 by 36 inches) placed directly along an active travel path or near a burrow entrance. Attaching wing boards, two 6-foot-long planks angled outward from the trap opening like a funnel, dramatically improves capture rates by guiding the armadillo into the trap as it walks along its usual route. Placing traps near natural barriers like building walls, fallen trees, or landscaping edges works on the same principle. If trapping sounds like more trouble than it’s worth, licensed wildlife control operators handle armadillo removal throughout Florida.
Repairing the Damage
Shallow foraging holes are easy to fix. Simply push the displaced soil back into each hole with your foot or a rake, tamp it down, and reseed or patch with sod if the grass was torn up. For mulch beds, a good raking is usually all it takes.
Burrows require more effort. Before filling a burrow, make sure it’s no longer active. Look for fresh tracks, recently disturbed soil at the entrance, or new digging nearby. Once you’re confident the armadillo has moved on, fill the tunnel with a mix of soil and gravel, packing it in stages to prevent settling. For burrows near foundations, driveways, or retaining walls, filling promptly matters because the void underground can undermine the structure over time. Compact each layer firmly, and top it off with soil and grass seed to match the surrounding lawn.
If a burrow is located under a concrete slab or next to your home’s foundation, it may be worth having a professional assess whether any structural settling has occurred before you simply fill and forget.