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Gardening

Holes in lawn

(40 Posts)
Stoker48 Thu 17-Sept-20 18:45:59

Seemingly at night holes appear all over the lawn. Don’t appear to touch the borders. . At least six new holes per night of varying depths. They don’t seem to go UNDER ground, mostly about 2 or 3” deep.
No signs of any droppings and whatever it is is not interested in my windwall apples.
Been happening all through summer but getting much worse in recent weeks. Prior to this, never before occurred in twenty years.
Any clues or advice?
Thanks in advance

HootyMcOwlface Sat 19-Sept-20 11:55:38

That picture doesn’t look like chafer grubs to me, we had them last year.

Molly10 Sat 19-Sept-20 12:11:16

It's almost certainly a dinner hole.

It could be made by any number of animals, as it's difficult to guage the size.

I would be inclined to do a night watch to view and photograph the culprit if I was unable to set up a video to record the night action.

Do let us know what it was.

LuckyFour Sat 19-Sept-20 12:14:04

We have the same in our garden. I looked it up on line and I think they are made by voles. I put mouse traps next to the holes but caught nothing, so have removed them. They are still there and there are more so what to do, if anything.

Craftycat Sat 19-Sept-20 13:58:52

We get this too. With us it is foxes.
Next door will insist on feeding them but it is our lawn they destroy!

Kryptonite Sat 19-Sept-20 14:17:12

This is interesting. Happening to us too. Complete mystery. Never happened before, as others are saying too This thread has suggested some possibilities. H thought badgers. No droppings but scratch marks. Ours is a 'shallow' layer of grass/moss.

H1954 Sat 19-Sept-20 16:05:39

We experienced something similar a few weeks ago; there was a mound of very sandy soil alongside a "burrow" that was maybe 2 inches diameter across the opening. I flooded this with water and the following morning all the wet earth had been excavated again. We left it alone for a few days and then scraped the loose soil back into the hole.

Fast forward two weeks and whilst I was watering the veggie patch I discovered a small rodent basking in the sunshine on the garden path, in fact I almost stepped on it! I left it alone and then noticed another one scurrying towards the lavender patch. Seemingly they were voles. We have no infestation in the shed or garage so we've left them alone, everything has to live somewhere after all.

montymops Sat 19-Sept-20 16:55:26

We had a problem like this and it turned out to be badgers who were digging for crane fly larvae. Although the lawn was a bit of a mess we had hardly any daddy long legs in the house that year!

nipsmum Sat 19-Sept-20 18:24:15

My first thought was a Hedgehog. They dig for worms and slugs. As its been quite dry they may have to dig deeper to fond them.

Grandmama Sat 19-Sept-20 20:16:05

Might be foxes or badgers looking for chafer grubs - we have chafer grubs under our turf but nothing has dug for them - yet. There are brownish/yellow areas on our lawn which is probably from chafer grubs eating the grass roots.

Stoker48 Sat 19-Sept-20 20:34:21

Thank you all for your replies. No definite answer or solution.....
The holes still keep on appearing - between a dozen and 20. They are about 3” or 4” deep, some less so and between 1” and 4” diameter.
I’m going to mention this on a local neighbourhood site and see if any of our neighbors have experienced similar.
Will report back if I find out more.
Cheers, everyone

Mamma7 Sat 19-Sept-20 20:53:34

Squirrels - we have holes all over our lawn.......sometimes they even remember to put a Conker or beech nut in them! ?

Davidhs Sun 20-Sept-20 07:23:50

The holes look too big for birds, and too small for badgers, possibly rats, if so rat droppings are easily identifiable However I would bet on foxes, how about a vixen with cubs, as anyone with chickens knows, a vixen feeding cubs is very persistent.

Tooyoungytobeagrandma Sun 20-Sept-20 22:49:36

We have holes and this evening I watched two magpies and a squirrel in different parts of the lawn (where holes have appeared) so think they are the culprits. My dog and cat were going mad at the back door and I couldn't understand why until I looked out to see the lawn being attacked ?

Stoker48 Sun 20-Sept-20 23:31:28

Thanks again.
No evidence of the culprits as yet ....
If it is foxes, anyone know of a deterrent?