The work is devoted to the analysis of the effect of holes made using various technologies on the strength of orthogonally reinforced fibrous composites. Comparison of data obtained by finite-element modeling with results of tensile experiments of composite plates with holes is given. It has been experimentally confirmed that drilling holes in fibrous composites is unacceptable: when making holes, fibers must be expanded at the stage of molding the composite element. It has also been shown that it is possible to model, if not the fiber structure itself, but the properties of the material next to the hole using the built-in functions of FEA programs.