Armadillo Bait: What Actually Works in a Trap
Most armadillo bait does not work. Armadillos eat insects, grubs and earthworms they find underground by smell, so food left in a trap rarely draws them in. What catches armadillos is placement and scent, which is why our wooden trap needs no bait at all.
- No bait needed
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Armadillos ignore most bait
An armadillo forages at night with its nose to the ground, rooting for food in the top few inches of soil. The shallow holes in your lawn, 1 to 3 inches deep and 3 to 5 inches long, are made while it digs for grubs and worms.
That diet is the problem with bait. Fruit, peanut butter, eggs and pet food are not what an armadillo is looking for, and live worms or crickets in a trap compete with the thousands already in the soil around it. Armadillos also have poor eyesight, so they do not see a baited trap. They follow their noses and their habits, walking the same routes night after night.
What happened when researchers tested 11 baits
From April to July 2004, University of Georgia researchers live-trapped armadillos at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in Newton, Georgia, using wire cage traps.
| Attractant | Trap nights | Armadillos caught |
|---|---|---|
| Crickets | 94 | 1 |
| Rotten eggs | 52 | 1 |
| Moistened soil | 44 | 1 |
| Commercial armadillo lure | 102 | 1 |
| Night crawlers, chicken feed, whole eggs, bananas, marshmallows, sardines and vanilla wafers combined | 1,040 | 0 |
Baited vs empty
Only 4 of the 10 armadillos were caught in baited traps. The other 6 walked into unbaited traps.
Wings made the difference
4 of those 6 were in traps fitted with wooden "wings" that funnel the animal toward the door.
The researchers' advice
They found no significant difference between baited and unbaited traps, and said to put the effort into where the trap goes.
Source: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Evaluating Attractants for Live-Trapping Nine-Banded Armadillos, Circular 889-3 (revised August 2024).
Scent and placement catch armadillos
Armadillos communicate with each other by scent, and they keep to the same paths. A trap works when it sits on one of those paths and smells right.
- Put the trap where the armadillo already travels. Fresh holes, an active burrow entrance, a fence line, the edge of a flower bed, the wall of a patio or a fallen log are all good spots.
- Use wings to funnel it in. Two long boards staked on edge in a V in front of the door guide an armadillo into the trap instead of past it. In the Georgia study, the wings were 2 by 6 inch boards, 6 feet long.
- Use a trap that holds scent. Our traps are 3/4 inch treated plywood, which soaks up armadillo scent and holds it. The scented trap smells like an armadillo from the first night, the scent typically lasts 6 to 11 months, and each catch recharges it.
- Keep it in shade and leave it in place. A trap in a cool, shaded spot holds its scent longer. Our customers with the most catches rarely move theirs.
A trap that does the attracting for you
The scented wooden trap arrives fully assembled and pre-scented, so there is nothing to bait and nothing to replace.
The #1 Best Selling Scented Wooden Armadillo Trap
$229.95$269.00
- Pre-treated with armadillo scent
- No bait and no guide boards needed
- Most customers catch their first armadillo within 1 to 7 days
Unscented Wooden Armadillo Trap
$139.95
- Same construction as the scented trap
- Use guide boards until the first catch scents it
- A lower-cost second trap for large properties
Scenting an unscented trap yourself
If you start with an unscented wooden trap, the first catch does the scenting for you.
Set it with wings
Stake two guide boards in a V in front of the door and wait for the first armadillo to walk in.
Add soil and water
That evening, pour a mix of topsoil and water in through the hole in the top of the trap.
Wait 24 hours
Leave the armadillo in the trap for 24 hours. It walks over the inside and leaves its scent in the wood.
Use it like a scented trap
From then on the trap works like a pre-scented one. Scent a second trap the same way with a captured armadillo.
Armadillo bait questions
Will armadillos go for peanut butter?
Peanut butter was not part of the Georgia study, and it is not something armadillos eat in the wild. It is, however, a reliable way to catch raccoons, opossums and neighborhood pets, which is the opposite of what you want.
Does cat food or sardines work?
Sardines were tested and caught no armadillos. Fish and meat baits are more likely to bring in cats, raccoons and opossums, and dealing with one of those in a trap is a bigger job than catching the armadillo.
What about worms, crickets or grubs?
Night crawlers caught nothing in the study and crickets caught one armadillo in 94 trap nights. Live insects in a trap are competing with the food already in your soil.
Do commercial armadillo lures help?
The commercial lure in the study caught one armadillo in 102 trap nights, about the same as an empty trap. If you buy a lure, treat it as optional, and spend more of your effort on placement.
Why bait can backfire. Food in a trap invites every animal in the neighborhood. Baited traps often end up holding a raccoon, opossum or cat instead of an armadillo. If that happens, open the door on the far side of the trap and step away so the animal can leave on its own.
Skip the bait. Set the trap.
Handmade wooden armadillo traps, pre-scented and shipped free from South Mississippi.
Comparing trap types? Read wooden box trap vs wire cage trap, or see the Mississippi State University field study behind our trap. Last reviewed October 2026.