We re-evaluated the hypothesis that primary macrophages use autophagy as a defense against invading L. monocytogenes. Here we present a detailed cellular study that strongly suggests L. monocytogenes induces bacterially targeted autophagy early in infection as a result of phagosomal membrane damage caused by cytolysin expression. However, in contrast to earlier findings in transformed MEFs we report that either autophagy has no role in control of L. monocytogenes replication or that an as yet undiscovered bacterial virulence factor effectively circumvents autophagy.