How to keep raccoons and armadillos from digging in garden

• Trap the Armadillo - You can trap the armadillos and relocate them. This can be difficult because first you to have to buy or rent a trap. Many times the experts don’t actually bait armadillo traps because it’s ineffective—they like to eat bugs that they root up for themselves. Instead they place the traps where the armadillo typically walks. They cannot see well, and they aren’t very smart. Still, once you have an armadillo in a trap, then you have to relocate it and release it.

• Use Pesticides to Kill Their Food Source - Fewer insects in your yard and garden can help to make your property less appealing to armadillos. However, these pesticides often kill everything, including the bugs that are beneficial to your garden. Additionally, you may not want to use harsh chemicals on your property.

• Utilize Lights to Scare the Armadillos Away - Armadillos are timid, nocturnal creatures, and they typically do not like brightly lit areas. So, adding lights to your backyard may help discourage armadillos from foraging. You can either keep a light on at all times or you can invest in motion activated lights. While this may help with the armadillos, it may hurt your electricity bill.

A temporary solution to prevent raccoons, skunks, and squirrels from digging in lawns is to cover the perimeter of the area with Ross Garden Netting. The animals evidently are confused and irritated by feeling the plastic net underfoot. The netting will have to be removed when the lawn is mowed, but can be used all summer or until the Beneficial Nematodes or Grub Control ‘take hold’.

Some gardeners have had good luck deterring the night critters by placing a radio in the middle of the lawn tuned to an all night talk program. If the sprinklers come on at night, cover the radio with a big trash bag.

Hi Vickie, Here's a link that may help: http://www.wildlife-removal.com/armadillosyardgarden.html

Good luck!

Use an effective castor oil-based repellent to drive armadillos out and to prevent them from digging for food on your property. Castor oil is an all-natural oil that penetrates the ground, and repels armadillos in two ways: spoils the food sources (insects, grubs, etc.) underground, making them unpleasant to eat.

OK, please stop reading if you are easily offended by facts, here we go......

Armadillos are not native to anywhere in the US, they were transplanted on trucks, trains and by folks who thought it was funny.......

All of the methods discussed really do not work, I have tried them all. The only effective method is local eradication. Purchase a motion detector from Harbor Freight or similar retailer which will alert you when they are in your yard, garden, etc. If legal and you are capable, dispatch them with an appropriate firearm. I live in a semi rural area and use a .22 semi auto with CCI sub sonic segmented hollow points. They usually run about 50 ft. before they are done. If I lived in the country it would be a 12 gauge shotgun. Not pretty, but humane. Most locales with no discharge firearm laws still allow it for defense of property, you make the call. Otherwise buy a cheap crossbow on line and you can get behind them almost point blank, maybe 7 or 10 ft. and dispatch them quietly. Just be sure to get out of the way if the crossbow bolt does not pin them to the ground, they are not aggressive but might bump into you while fleeing before they drop.

Before you flame me, understand that if you hire a pest control company that tells you they "humanely" relocate them........well what most of them do is relocate them in a barrel filled with water til they drown. Cheap and clean but certainly not humane, horrible way to die! It is illegal in almost all states for them to "relocate" them so they do it the easy way.

Sorry to offend anyone but these are the facts.

Well, there is irony for you....as I was typing the post above my alarm went off.....have not had a problem with the ba$#rds for about a year but had one come through about a week ago and destroy my lawn, set the alarm the next night and he sleeps with the fishes! ....walked out ten minutes ago and there was his brother.....he also now sleeps with the fishes!

Just had an armadillo trap built that looks like a wooden retangular box with drop down doors on both ends. The doors are attached by cords through pulleys to a stick that hangs down in a centered hole in the top. When you pull the stick down into the hole and secure it to the edge it lifts the gates at either end. When the armadillo enters he bumps the stick which releases the stick; it flies up out of the hole and both gates crash down entrapping the critter. You can then dispatch it. It is the best trap I've seen. I saw patterns for this trap online but just copied one I had for years. Took it apart and used pieces for a template. No bait necessary; you just put the trap where the armadillo frequents, take two 1 x 4 board and secure them to stand on edge creating a funnel shape on both sides of one of the openings. As the animal bumps up against the board he follows it to the opening, enters and is trapped. This description may not be understandable, but you can see them online.