Understand the digging
Armadillos don't eat your plants — they eat what's under them. Their diet is grubs, earthworms, and insects in the top few inches of soil, and they find them by smell, rooting up mulch and soil with their snouts and claws. A yard full of small conical holes and torn-up mulch isn't vandalism; it's a buffet. The digging is worst after rain, when grubs move toward the surface.
Reduce the food
Fewer grubs means less reason to dig. Grub control products applied to the lawn reduce the larval population armadillos are hunting. Water less — overwatered lawns breed more grubs and soften soil for digging. This won't stop a determined armadillo overnight, but it lowers your yard's ranking on their nightly route.
Block the access
For flower beds specifically, buried fencing works: wire mesh buried 12–18 inches deep and bent outward at the bottom, extending a foot or so above ground around the bed. Armadillos are strong diggers but poor climbers and they don't think to back up — an L-shaped underground barrier defeats them. Above-ground-only fencing fails because they dig straight under it.
Trap along the path
Armadillos are creatures of habit, following the same routes nightly along fences and foundations. Live traps placed directly in the travel path — ideally funneled with boards forming a "V" into the trap — catch them reliably. Random trap placement in the middle of the yard catches nothing. After removal, the fencing and grub work keeps the next one from moving in. Read about our armadillo removal service.