Will artificial turf stop armadillos and skunks digging up the yard?

The short answer

Turf takes away most of what an armadillo or a skunk is digging for. Both animals are after soil-dwelling insects and earthworms, not the grass itself, and a lawn that’s watered and fertilized supports far more of that soil life than a turf surface does. What turf can’t do is close off a burrow already under your patio, or stop an animal working the dirt at a flower bed right next to the new lawn.

That distinction matters more than the “will it work” question, because it tells you what else still needs attention.

Why armadillos dig up lawns

Nine-banded armadillos aren’t digging at random. According to UF/IFAS Extension, they “search for food by rooting or digging in ground litter,” and what they’re searching for is mostly insects: their diet is built around insects and their larvae, along with earthworms, scorpions, spiders, snails and small vertebrates. In practice, that often means armyworms, cockroaches, ants, wasps, flies, beetles and grasshoppers.

Soil moisture is the other half of the story. Armadillos favor “sandy or loam soils that are relatively easy to excavate,” and UF/IFAS is direct about what draws them to a yard: a “moist lush landscape is perfect for earthworms and insect larvae,” and “armadillos love earthworms.” A watered, fertilized lawn in northeast Florida checks both boxes: soft ground and a steady supply of the insects and worms living in it.

The holes themselves are usually small. UF/IFAS describes typical feeding holes as “1 to 3 inches deep and 3 to 5 inches wide,” which is enough to leave a lawn pockmarked without any single hole doing much damage. A den burrow is a different matter, at roughly 7 to 8 inches in diameter and as long as 15 feet, and that’s usually dug under cover, a shed, a woodpile or a slab, rather than out in the open lawn.

Why skunks dig up lawns

Skunks in the Denver metro are chasing a narrower target. Colorado State University Extension states plainly that skunks “dig in lawns, gardens, and golf courses while looking for grubs.” Grubs are beetle larvae that live in soil, often just under the turf’s root zone, and a skunk digs down to reach them the same way an armadillo roots for earthworms.

The damage has a recognizable shape. CSU Extension describes it as “small 3- to 4-inch cone-shaped holes or patches of upturned earth,” scattered across a lawn rather than concentrated in one spot. If you’ve been finding those cones after mowing, grubs in the soil are the likely reason a skunk keeps coming back.

What removing the lawn changes, and what it doesn’t

A watered, fertilized lawn is a food source. Take away the soil moisture and the organic matter that grubs, earthworms and insect larvae need, and there’s a lot less reason for either animal to dig there. That’s the mechanism behind “turf stops the digging,” and it’s grounded in what both extension sources say these animals are actually after.

It isn’t the whole picture, though:

• Bed edges and planted areas next to the turf are still bare soil, and still capable of holding the insects and worms that drew the animal in the first place.
• Burrows under a patio, deck, shed or foundation aren’t a lawn problem. They’re a gap in the structure, and turf over the adjacent ground doesn’t close it.
• An animal already established on the property may keep returning out of habit, or to a den site, even after its food source in the lawn is gone.

Our pet turf work and residential turf installations both start with a free visit where we measure the yard and check the ground, including where the turf will meet a bed, a fence line or a foundation. That’s the edge detail worth raising if digging animals are the reason you’re calling.

Closing off the rest: what the extension offices recommend

Removing the food source in the lawn doesn’t address a burrow or a den. For that, both UF/IFAS and CSU Extension point to physical exclusion, not repellents or traps as a first step.

For armadillos, UF/IFAS’s fencing specification is a fence “approximately 24 inches above ground with the bottom of the fence buried 18 inches below the surface of the ground,” and the fence “should be slanted outward at about a 40° angle.” The buried, angled section is what stops an armadillo from digging under or scaling over it.

For skunks, CSU Extension recommends a barrier that “extends 1 to 2 feet below ground and seal[s] foundation openings to prevent skunks from denning under buildings.” That’s two separate jobs: burying the barrier deep enough that a skunk can’t dig under it, and physically sealing the gaps where a deck or slab meets the ground.

Either job calls for hands-on exclusion work, from a nuisance-wildlife or pest control service, not something a turf installation resolves on its own.

A caution on skunks specifically

Skunks carry a real health risk that armadillos generally don’t. CSU Extension calls skunks “a major host for rabies” and warns that a skunk seen out during the day, or one that seems unusually aggressive, “may indicate that the animal is rabid.” If you or a pet are bitten, the guidance is to contact animal control and see a doctor within 72 hours.

That’s a reason to keep distance and call a professional rather than handle a skunk problem directly, whatever you decide about the lawn.

Checklist before you call

• Identify the animal. Armadillo holes run 1 to 3 inches deep and 3 to 5 inches wide; skunk holes are the 3- to 4-inch cone shape.
• Check for a den, not just feeding holes, especially under a patio, deck, shed or foundation.
• Ask about bed edges during the free visit if the yard has planted areas next to where turf will go.
• Plan exclusion separately from the turf: an armadillo fence buried 18 inches and angled outward, or a skunk barrier buried 1 to 2 feet with foundation gaps sealed.
• Treat a skunk as a rabies risk first, a lawn problem second, and call animal control if it’s acting strangely.
• Call 303-349-2368 to schedule the free visit and talk through what the ground looks like at your property.