Key Takeaways
- Armadillos eat primarily insects, grubs, and invertebrates — up to 90% of their diet consists of animal matter.
- Their constant digging for food causes significant lawn and garden damage across the southern United States.
- Armadillos are nocturnal feeders with a powerful sense of smell that can detect grubs several inches underground.
- Understanding what armadillos eat helps you reduce food sources and discourage them from targeting your property.
- Armadillos share foraging habits with other common wildlife pests like raccoons, skunks, and opossums.
What do armadillos eat, and why does it matter to you as a homeowner? If you’ve ever woken up to find your lawn riddled with small, cone-shaped holes, an armadillo’s appetite is likely to blame. These armored mammals are relentless foragers, and their search for food drives nearly all the property damage they cause. Since armadillos feast heavily on insects — including fire ants and other ground-dwelling species — your yard is essentially a buffet. In this guide, you’ll learn exactly what armadillos eat in the wild and in residential areas, how their diet fuels destructive digging behavior, and what you can do to make your property less attractive to these persistent diggers.
What Do Armadillos Eat in the Wild?
Armadillos are opportunistic omnivores, but calling them “omnivores” slightly overstates their plant consumption. In reality, approximately 90% of a nine-banded armadillo’s diet consists of animal matter. They are specialized insectivores that rely on a keen sense of smell to locate prey underground.
Their primary food sources in the wild include:
- Beetles and beetle larvae — their single largest food source year-round
- Grubs — especially white grubs from June bugs and Japanese beetles
- Ants and ant colonies — armadillos will excavate entire mounds
- Termites — a high-protein food they dig from rotting wood and soil
- Earthworms — particularly after rain when worms surface
- Spiders, scorpions, and centipedes — found under leaf litter and debris
Armadillos supplement this insect-heavy diet with small amounts of plant material. Ripe berries, mushrooms, and soft fruits occasionally appear in their stomach contents. However, these items are secondary to their animal prey.
Seasonal Shifts in Armadillo Diet
An armadillo’s diet changes slightly with the seasons. During warm, wet months, insects and grubs are plentiful near the soil surface. Armadillos forage heavily and put on weight during this period.
In cooler months or drought conditions, insects move deeper underground. Armadillos respond by digging deeper and shifting toward earthworms, small amphibians, and even carrion. They may also eat more plant material during food-scarce periods, including seeds and tubers.
How Armadillos Find Their Food
Armadillos have poor eyesight but compensate with an extraordinary sense of smell. They can detect insects and grubs buried up to six inches below the soil surface. This ability makes them remarkably efficient foragers — and remarkably destructive to manicured lawns.
When foraging, an armadillo walks slowly with its nose pressed close to the ground. Once it detects prey, it uses its powerful front claws to rapidly dig a small hole. A single armadillo can create dozens of these excavation holes in one night.
Nocturnal Feeding Habits
Armadillos are primarily nocturnal, doing most of their foraging between dusk and dawn. This is why many homeowners discover the damage without ever seeing the animal responsible. In cooler weather, armadillos may shift to daytime foraging when temperatures are more comfortable.
A typical foraging session lasts several hours. Armadillos follow irregular paths, zigzagging across an area as they sniff out food. They don’t return to the same spots repeatedly unless the food supply remains abundant.
The Role of Soil Moisture
Soil moisture plays a critical role in armadillo feeding behavior. Moist soil is easier to dig and holds more insects near the surface. After heavy rain, armadillo activity often spikes dramatically. If you irrigate your lawn frequently, you may be unintentionally attracting armadillos by creating ideal foraging conditions.
What Do Armadillos Eat in Your Yard?
When armadillos move into residential areas, their diet doesn’t change much — but the damage becomes far more noticeable. Your landscaped yard offers a concentrated food supply that wild habitats often can’t match.
In your yard, armadillos target:
- Lawn grubs — especially in well-watered, fertilized turf where grub populations thrive
- Fire ant mounds — armadillos tear these apart to access the colony
- Mulch-bed insects — beetles, worms, and larvae living in garden mulch
- Flower bulbs and root vegetables — occasionally uprooted as collateral damage while digging for insects
- Fallen fruit — from citrus trees, berry bushes, or ornamental plants
The irony is that armadillos actually provide some pest control by consuming grubs and ants. However, the extensive digging they do to reach these insects causes far more harm than good for most homeowners.
Armadillo Diet Compared to Other Yard-Invading Wildlife
Armadillos aren’t the only wildlife species that can damage your yard while foraging. Several common nuisance animals share overlapping diets and behaviors. Understanding the differences helps you identify which animal is causing your problem.
| Animal | Primary Diet | Foraging Sign | Active Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armadillo | Insects, grubs, earthworms | Cone-shaped holes 3-5″ deep | Nocturnal |
| Raccoon | Grubs, fruit, garbage, pet food | Rolled-back sod patches | Nocturnal |
| Skunk | Grubs, insects, small rodents | Shallow, circular divots | Nocturnal |
| Opossum | Insects, fruit, carrion, garbage | Scattered debris, knocked-over bins | Nocturnal |
Raccoons cause similar lawn damage when digging for grubs, and they bring additional problems like raiding garbage cans and nesting in attics. If you’re dealing with raccoon damage, our guide on how to get rid of raccoons and keep them out provides a complete action plan.
Skunks also dig for grubs but create shallower holes than armadillos. Their digging is more surface-level. If skunk activity is your concern, learn effective strategies in our resource on how to get rid of skunks from your property.
Opossums share some dietary overlap with armadillos but are far more generalist feeders. You can explore what possums eat to understand how their habits compare.
Why an Armadillo's Diet Leads to Yard Damage
The connection between what armadillos eat and the damage they cause is direct. Nearly every destructive behavior traces back to their relentless search for underground insects.
Lawn Destruction
Armadillos dig small, conical holes throughout lawns to reach grubs and beetle larvae. Each hole is typically three to five inches deep and one to three inches wide. Over a single night, one armadillo can leave behind dozens of these holes, making your lawn look like a miniature battlefield.
The damage worsens when armadillos detect a heavy grub infestation. They’ll return night after night, systematically excavating larger sections of turf. Repairing this damage requires filling holes, reseeding, and sometimes replacing entire sections of sod.
Garden and Landscape Damage
Flower beds and vegetable gardens attract armadillos because loose, amended soil is easy to dig and rich in insects. Mulch beds are particularly appealing. Armadillos will uproot plants, scatter mulch, and destroy root systems — not because they’re eating the plants, but because they’re digging through the soil to reach insects beneath.
Structural Risks from Burrowing
Beyond surface foraging, armadillos create large burrows for shelter. These burrows can extend 15 feet or more and are typically 8 inches in diameter. When dug near foundations, sidewalks, or driveways, they can cause settling and structural cracks. The burrows themselves have nothing to do with feeding — they’re rest sites — but the animal’s presence in your yard is driven by food availability.
How to Reduce Armadillo Food Sources in Your Yard
Since armadillo damage is food-driven, reducing their food supply is one of the most effective long-term deterrents. You won’t eliminate every insect, but you can make your yard less attractive compared to surrounding natural areas.
- Treat grub infestations — Apply a grub control product like milky spore or beneficial nematodes in late summer when grubs are actively feeding near the surface.
- Reduce soil moisture — Water your lawn in the early morning so the surface dries by evening. Avoid nighttime irrigation, which creates ideal foraging conditions.
- Clean up fallen fruit — Remove ripe fruit from the ground promptly, especially under citrus and berry-producing plants.
- Minimize thick mulch layers — Mulch harbors beetles and earthworms. Keep mulch layers to two inches or less near the home’s perimeter.
- Remove leaf litter and debris — Brush piles and leaf accumulation shelter insects and attract foraging armadillos.
These steps also help deter other wildlife. For example, grub reduction is equally effective at discouraging raccoons and skunks from tearing up your lawn. Wildlife that invades attics and interior spaces — like squirrels that get into your house — require different strategies, but yard-level food reduction helps across the board.
Do Armadillos Eat Plants, Vegetables, or Pet Food?
This is one of the most common misconceptions about armadillo diets. While armadillos occasionally consume plant material, they are not herbivores and rarely target garden vegetables intentionally.
If you find your tomatoes or sweet potatoes disturbed, the armadillo was almost certainly digging for grubs near the plant roots. The vegetable damage is incidental, not the goal. True garden raiders — like groundhogs — eat plants deliberately. If your garden is being consumed rather than dug up, you may be dealing with a different animal. Our guide on the best groundhog bait can help you address that specific pest.
As for pet food, armadillos occasionally eat it when left outdoors. However, they don’t seek it out the way raccoons or opossums do. If your outdoor pet food is disappearing at night, a raccoon or opossum is the more likely culprit.
When to Call a Wildlife Professional About Armadillos
Reducing food sources often discourages armadillos over time, but it’s not always enough — especially if an armadillo has already established a burrow on your property. Once settled, armadillos are habitual and persistent. They’ll continue foraging in your yard even if food availability decreases slightly.
You should consider professional wildlife control if:
- Armadillo damage is recurring nightly despite your prevention efforts
- You’ve found one or more active burrows near your home’s foundation
- Digging is causing damage to irrigation lines, wiring, or structural elements
- You suspect multiple armadillos are foraging on your property
A wildlife control professional can humanely trap and remove armadillos, identify and address burrow systems, and recommend exclusion strategies tailored to your property. Combining professional removal with the food-reduction methods above gives you the best chance of a long-term solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Do armadillos eat fire ants?
Yes, armadillos eat fire ants along with many other ant species. They use their strong front claws to excavate ant mounds and their long, sticky tongues to capture ants quickly. While this provides some natural pest control, the digging damage usually outweighs the benefit for homeowners.
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What time of night do armadillos come out to eat?
Armadillos typically begin foraging shortly after sunset and remain active until the early morning hours. Peak feeding activity occurs between 9 PM and 3 AM. In cooler seasons, they may shift to late-afternoon or early-evening foraging when temperatures are milder.
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Will armadillos eat my garden vegetables?
Armadillos rarely eat garden vegetables on purpose. Their diet is roughly 90% insects and invertebrates. When they damage vegetable gardens, they're digging for grubs and worms near plant roots. The plant damage is a byproduct of their foraging, not the intended result.
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Can I use food bait to trap an armadillo?
Baiting armadillo traps is notoriously difficult because they prefer live insects over any prepared bait. Most successful armadillo trapping relies on strategic trap placement along known travel paths and near burrow entrances rather than bait attractants. A wildlife control professional can position traps effectively.
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Do armadillos eat the same things as moles?
Armadillos and moles share a similar insectivorous diet — both eat grubs, earthworms, and beetle larvae. However, moles tunnel underground and rarely surface, while armadillos dig from above. Mole damage appears as raised ridges and surface tunnels, whereas armadillo damage shows as scattered surface holes.
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How much food does an armadillo eat per day?
A nine-banded armadillo can consume hundreds of insects and invertebrates in a single night of foraging. They eat roughly one-third of their body weight in food daily. This high intake is necessary to sustain their active digging lifestyle and maintain body heat, since they have very low body fat.