Learn what nine-banded armadillos eat, how feeding pits differ from burrows, and how to reduce yard attractants without handling or relocating wildlife.
A varied diet built around soil invertebrates
Nine-banded armadillos eat many kinds of invertebrates, including insects and worms, along with some plant material and other foods. Their digging is part of finding food, not evidence that they are hunting vegetables exclusively. A fixed claim that insects make up 90 percent of every armadillo’s diet is too precise for a homeowner to apply to a particular yard.
Florida’s familiar armadillo is the nine-banded armadillo. Its armored back, pointed snout, and digging claws distinguish it from a mole or a furry rodent. FWC notes its expansion from the southwestern United States and recognizes it as naturalized in Florida. That history does not make it an exotic pet that can be moved wherever convenient.
The UF nine-banded armadillo account names insects and larvae—including beetles and ants—along with earthworms, spiders, scorpions and snails. It also describes occasional berries and mushrooms. These examples explain a varied diet, rather than proving a fixed insect percentage or a universal six-inch feeding depth. A keen sense of smell helps the animal search; it roots through ground litter and digs for food despite poor eyesight.
How feeding creates pits
An armadillo searches close to the ground and digs to reach food in soil and litter. The resulting shallow pits can be scattered across a lawn or bed. Moist, workable soil can be easier to forage in, but a damaged lawn does not prove a specific grub count or insect species.
A shelter burrow is a different feature from a feeding pit. Burrows can extend under cover or near structures and may have substantial openings. Do not fill, flood, probe, or seal an opening to discover what is inside. In Florida, a burrow may belong to another animal, including protected wildlife. Arrange identification and occupancy assessment before repair.
Keep notes on fresh damage, soil conditions, and sightings. A photograph from a safe distance is more useful than picking up the animal or disturbing its shelter.
A shelter burrow is much larger than a feeding pit. UF describes nine-banded armadillo shelters about seven to eight inches across and up to fifteen feet long, sometimes under dense cover, brush or a concrete patio. Burrowing beneath a driveway or patio can create structural risk, which is distinct from shallow scattered rooting holes. These are published shelter dimensions, not measurements of this property or a diagnosis that a visible crack was caused by an armadillo. Keep away from a suspected opening and have occupancy and any undermined surface assessed before exclusion or repairs.
Once the animal and damage have been identified, distinguish a confirmed shallow feeding pit from a shelter entrance before restoring turf. Do not fill an occupied or unidentified burrow. For a cleared shallow lawn patch, restore an even soil surface compatible with the existing grade and drainage, then replace missing grass using a method suitable for the turf species. UF lawn guidance describes plugs or sod for bare patches and seed for suitable grasses such as bahiagrass or bermudagrass; the grass type, site and growing conditions determine the choice. Maintain appropriate establishment moisture without waterlogging, and follow the applicable UF lawn-care guidance. Repeated fresh digging or an undermined surface needs reassessment before another cosmetic repair.
Ants, grubs, worms, and plant foods
Armadillos may consume ants among other invertebrates. That does not make them a reliable control program for fire ants. A colony can persist even where an animal feeds, and deliberately attracting armadillos creates its own conflicts. Fire-ant management needs identification and a colony-focused plan.
Grubs and worms help explain why digging appears in lawns, but they are also normal components of soil communities. Insect treatment should respond to an identified turf pest and damage, using a product labeled for that use. A wildlife sighting alone is not a reason for a blanket lawn insecticide application.
Some plant material occurs in the diet. Garden damage may also result from digging around roots rather than eating the crop. Compare damaged leaves, missing fruit, disturbed soil, and actual animal observations before assigning the cause.
Pet food needs a separate distinction. The UF armadillo diet account chiefly describes soil invertebrates, other small animal foods and occasional berries or mushrooms; it does not establish pet-food consumption as a dependable armadillo attraction or a baiting method. Raccoons, skunks and opossums have documented access to outdoor pet food and may share the yard. Bring feed indoors after pets finish and store it securely to remove that opportunity for other visitors, while identifying the animal responsible for digging rather than assigning every meal or disturbed bowl to an armadillo.
Compare other yard visitors
Raccoons and skunks also forage in yards and can disturb turf. Opossums eat varied foods and may visit the same trash or pet feeding area. A hole or patch of damage by itself cannot reliably separate these animals.
Squirrel access into a house concerns climbing and upper building openings, rather than scattered armadillo feeding pits. Match the response to the animal and location, not to a broad label such as nuisance wildlife.
Moles are smaller mammals that spend much of their time underground and can make raised tunnels. Both moles and armadillos consume soil animals, but their body shapes, shelters, and visible damage differ. Garden-eating groundhogs are rodents with a largely plant-based diet; the groundhog diet comparison is useful without implying that every South Florida burrow belongs to one.
Compare these four yard visitors by food, signs and activity together. Armadillos chiefly forage for soil invertebrates and may leave feeding pits roughly one to three inches deep and three to five inches wide; FWC describes mainly nighttime activity. Raccoons eat varied animal and plant foods and may exploit fruit, trash or pet food; UC notes rolled-back new turf during insect foraging. Skunks eat insects along with plant foods and small mammals, including rodents, and can leave small conical pits or rolled sod, often active around dusk, night or dawn. Opossums have a varied diet including insects, plant foods and carrion and may visit shared outdoor food sources; loose debris or a disturbed bin does not identify one. Overlapping foods, night activity and digging mean none of these signs is an exclusive diagnosis. Observe the actual visitor and keep feeding pits separate from occupied shelters.
UC’s mole account describes underground insect-eating mammals taking earthworms, insects and other invertebrates, with shallow surface tunnels and mounds produced by burrowing. That diet overlaps the soil-animal portion of armadillo feeding, while the raised tunnel system differs from scattered armadillo rooting pits and a separate shelter burrow. The UC account concerns its named western mole species; it supplies a useful general comparison, not identification of a Florida animal from lawn damage alone.
Activity, shelter, and young
FWC describes armadillos as most active at night. There is no dependable 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. window for every Florida property. Look at repeated observations rather than assuming an unseen animal has left or a shelter is empty at a particular hour.
Shelter is important as well as food. FWC describes the nine-banded armadillo’s unusual reproduction: young normally occur as identical quadruplets. That fact makes assessment of an occupied shelter more important than trying to close it after seeing one adult depart.
Weather and soil moisture change access to food. A wetter lawn may show digging more clearly, while hard or dry soil may change where an animal searches. These are reasons to inspect the site, not promises that changing one irrigation setting will remove the animal.
Seasonal diet should follow documented food availability, not a fixed spring, summer and winter menu. The UF account lists the varied foods above, and FWC relates moist soil and lush vegetation to worms and insect larvae being nearer the surface when armadillos forage. That supports inspecting local moisture and food conditions; it does not establish a calendar of switching to amphibians, carrion or seeds in each Florida season. Use the observed animal, soil conditions and actual injury rather than assuming a season determines its meal.
Reduce the opportunity and decide when to call
Collect fallen fruit, secure trash and outdoor feed, and avoid leaving pet food overnight. Correct irrigation problems for the needs of the turf and plants; overwatering can create several maintenance problems, but a lawn should not be dried beyond what its vegetation needs merely to discourage wildlife.
Where damage repeats, ask for an assessment of species, active burrows, irrigation, and any verified turf pests. A professional can explain whether landscaping protection or lawful exclusion is appropriate after confirming vacancy. Do not use food to bait a trap or transport a captured animal yourself.
If an opening is close to a slab, utility, or foundation, keep people away from unstable ground and have the structure evaluated. The goal is to address a documented conflict while maintaining a safe yard, rather than treating every armadillo passing through as an emergency.
FWC favors garden watering in the morning so soil has time to dry during the afternoon rather than remaining freshly wet when nocturnal armadillos forage. Match watering and fertilizer to the turf and plant needs; moist, lush conditions can bring worms and insect larvae near the surface. Do not deliberately water an adjacent area to attract wildlife. Milky-spore and insect-parasitic nematode products are proposed lawn-grub tools, not armadillo repellents. Their suitability requires the identified grub and an applicable, supported turf use; the armadillo diet alone supplies no evidence that either will remove armadillos. Nematode species, viable handling, moisture and temperature matter, and a generic biological-product name does not establish control of every grub. Do not substitute a blanket grub treatment for identifying the digging animal and actual turf injury.
The biological-grub distinction is narrower still: Penn State describes viable commercial milky-spore bacteria as working on Japanese beetle grubs, not every white-grub species in a mixed lawn. It identifies Heterorhabditis bacteriophora as a useful insect-parasitic nematode for white grubs, with suitable soil moisture and protection from peak sunlight UV needed for the living organisms. Those turf-pest accounts do not prove an armadillo-removal result or establish a Pennsylvania seasonal schedule for Florida.
Inspect thick, persistently damp mulch and accumulated leaf litter where rooting recurs: armadillos search ground litter for food, and UF describes dense cover and brush piles as shelter settings. Remove unnecessary wet debris, keep landscape materials inspectable and maintain mulch for the plants and site without treating a universal two-inch layer as a proven armadillo barrier. Brush, stumps and dense cover can also conceal an occupied shelter; have that occupancy assessed before clearing, moving a pile or closing an opening. Food-search habitat and shelter access are related but require different maintenance decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Do armadillos eat fire ants?
The UF diet account confirms ants among foods eaten by nine-banded armadillos, but that general account does not settle fire-ant-specific consumption in this yard. It supplies no basis for expecting reliable fire-ant colony control. Identify the ants and use a suitable colony-management plan rather than attracting wildlife to feed on a mound.
-
What time of night do armadillos come out to eat?
FWC describes them as most active at night, but there is no fixed nightly schedule for every animal. Use repeated, distant observations and professional occupancy assessment rather than assuming a den is vacant at a certain hour.
-
Will armadillos eat my garden vegetables?
Their diet includes some plant material, and digging can disturb roots without the animal eating the crop. Missing vegetables have other possible causes. Identify the visitor and the type of damage before choosing a response.
-
Can I use food bait to trap an armadillo?
UF describes the benefit of bait in armadillo cage traps as questionable. It lists worms or mealworms and overripe fruit among suggested lures, while emphasizing travel routes and trap arrangement; a food preference is not proof a bait will produce a catch. Discuss those limits, non-target animals and a lawful capture response with a wildlife professional. Do not improvise a trap, disturb an occupied burrow or transport a captured animal from this article.
-
Do armadillos eat the same things as moles?
Both can eat soil invertebrates, but they are different mammals with different habits. Armadillos commonly leave scattered feeding pits; moles can produce raised tunnels. Damage patterns should be checked against actual identification.
-
How much food does an armadillo eat per day?
Food intake varies with the animal, season, and available diet. A universal daily fraction of body weight is not established for a homeowner's yard and should not be used to predict digging or treatment needs.
Discuss your pest concern
Tell us what you are seeing and where. Our team can discuss the concern and available next steps.
Where can we reach you?
Our team will call to confirm the next step.
By submitting, you’re asking On Demand Pest Control to contact you about this request.
Prefer to call? (954) 947-0805