My house is built on a slope so part is on slab & part on pier-n-beam. Critters keep invading the open section & getting way under to the narrow junction where the slab meets the elevated floor. It's easy to catch the possums & coons with marshmallows, but how do you trap armadillos? Is there a bait you can use?

BTW: I have a game camera set-up so I know it is armadillos that my dog smells through the floor in the middle of the night & starts barking like crazy!

A funny story. When my son was little, the next door neighbor offered him $10 if he could catch the armadillo that was tearing up his yard. I loaned my son my live trap and he asked me what they eat. I said worms and grubs so he dug some up and put them on an aluminum foil tray in the trap. The worms and grubs kept crawling out of the tray so he asked me if gummy worms would work. I told him I didn't think so but he decided to do it anyway. The next morning, he had an armadillo in the trap and $10 in his pocket.

They do not come to bait. The best thing you can do is put the trap open in the path they walk down. Put leaves and dirt over the trip panel. They will usually dig an escape hole for wherever they frequent. Put the trap on that path. They have given my yard hell when it gets dry so I have considerable experience with them.

Start feeding them meal worms off the back porch, simple drop basket trap will catch them, dip net and relocate far far away.

I�m trying to catch one tonight. Following my late Dad�s suggestions, I use a home made fence to herd them to the trap. The fence itself was a problem for a time, but now I�ve used a sawzall to cut steel cattle panel into 3 foot lengths of fencing. I cut it so that there are prongs sticking out the bottom. I can just stick it into the ground to make a good fence. Works good. We�ll see if the Dillo can beat me tonight. Game on.

Thanks for the advice guys! I have my game camera taking "video-clips" & there is a route the 'dillo seems to follow to-n-from under the house. I relocated my trap in-line with that path & covered the trigger with leaves. We'll see tonight. Game on!

Only time I ever saw my grandfather run was when he jumped out of a Karman Ghia (that my brother had wrecked and Dad had the shop make it into a sort-of dune buggy) and took out after a 'dillo. He caught it and smashed it against a tree. When he was in the Army, in WWI, he stayed states side and bought and sold horses and mules for the Army. A horseman absolutely hates Armadillos with a purple passion.

Armadillos have poor vision. Should be easy to catch. I would bait them in close, spotlight them and shoot them in the head/neck with some 12 gauge remington #6. Not because they are perfect for the job but because they are cheap shells and at close range will kill pretty much anything.

Make a funnel with boards leading to a trap, they will walk along side the board right in. Not real smart.

Along a pathway such as a chainlink fence or even a house works very well.

this

You cannot bait armadillos. To trap them, you have to guide them in a trap using boards. Find where they enter the property and set the trap and use boards to funnel them to the trap. Armadillos are not creatures of habit, and may not come back for days or weeks. It takes me from 1 to 3 weeks to trap armadillos. Just set the trap and look at it every morning. One morning there will be one teed off armadillo in the trap. I capture live and release them at least five miles from where they are caught, usually on a wildlife management area.

One note: armadillos and skunks dig very similar holes. I have caught many skunks that the property owners swore they had seen armadillos. But skunks are easy to trap and easy to get released.

Trapping a skunk... that takes courage!

The trapping is the easy part....the untrapping is the part that takes courage.....

My experience....from another thread...

What a mess! If I was ever so worried about a skunk living in close proximity, he would get a load of #4's. I am not gonna mess with no stinking trap.

I have followed this discussion, hoping to learn how to trap our bothersome armadillo. I used the fence approach, but never was able to trap my armadillo. But, last night I caught that rascal out in the yard and terminated him. Finally...

Okay, guys I took the advice here & put the trap along the armadillo trail, blocking the sides to force the critter into the trap. My game camera even caught the 'dillo heading for the trap. What I got was a bent door! Apparently the door partially closed on him or he was able to force his way out!

Game still on!

Keep up the good fight!

That's how we trapped them...works great.

So here is one other thing and it does work but...you have to catch a dilla first. Using a wooden trap or put a board in your trap (thin plywood) perhaps. Catch the first one and the the board will smell like a dilla and after that just keep using that board in your trap and they will come to it without having to funnel them just by the smell.
Go Get em" Champ!

Nothing like possum on the half shell.

They seem to love the spot where my AC evaporator drains and they have worn out a little ditch where they roll and slide around in the water/mud.

I set the trap right over the water hole they made and make a chute out of 12" plywood to guide them into the trap.
Just make sure you have a trap rated for gorillas as an PO'd armadillo which is used to digging thru solid concrete will seriously screw up a lightweight mesh trap!

Vern, I must ask - is it the A/C drain that comes out of the eve of the house? If it is, you better get someone to unplug the primary drain. A/C condensation should go into the house sewer line. If that gets plugged then it drains into the pan and the secondary drain takes over. There isn't a time when you should have visible water or mud outside your home from the A/C.