Maintaining a lawn can be a challenging job. You must spend lots of effort and money to keep it in prime condition. Unfortunately, certain burrowing rodents can cause serious issues. That’s why it’s crucial to understand how to stop animals from digging holes in yard.
Moles love to tunnel under the ground. Meanwhile, raccoons and skunks fatten themselves up for winter, so they will frequent yards in the fall.
Voles and groundhogs like burrowing in the garden, too. All these animals can considerably damage your property.
Some digging animals might be nice for the ecosystem. However, in most cases, they’re likely to cause real damage to your precious lawn.
The lawn issues normally exacerbate in the spring since pesky burrowing animals begin hunting for places to hide. In this article, I’ve assembled several solutions to them.
Why are Animals Digging Up Your Yard?
I know that you want to jump into some effective techniques on how to stop animals from digging holes in the yard. However, it’s also important to understand the reasons why several animals burrow in the ground.
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Searching for a Secure Spot
Rodents and other animals dig holes in your yard because they need a safe spot for tending to their young and giving birth.
To make a nice and secure nest, those animals must dig up your yard. Be ready to deal with this lawn issue, especially during springtime.
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Foraging for Food
Searching for hideaways is not the only reason why certain animals burrow throughout your yard. They dig up gardens because they are hungry.
Burrowing animals store their food first. Then, they will revisit the same spot later on. This naturally could create a persistent lawn problem.
What Animal Digs Holes in Yard at Night?
You certainly need to discuss how to stop animals from digging holes in the yard with your partner for keeping your lawn in tip-top condition.
Before going further, you surely need to know what kinds of animals that dig holes in your yard. Here are some of them.
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Rabbits
Rabbit likes burrowing into the ground. Also, they love to dig in the yard.
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Skunks
Undoubtedly, skunks are such awesome diggers. Moreover, they serve as a good natural grub control. You might have seen this animal digging up plants at night.
Skunks dig small holes and make pseudo aeration while they’re hunting for food. Scattering grass seed atop skunk damage is definitely a nice idea.
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Moles
People consider these small mammals as garden pests. Moreover, they create mounds and intricate tunnel systems.
What Animal Eats Grubs?
Before talking about how to stop animals from digging holes in yard, let’s discuss another issue in your lawn first.
Animals dig up the yard because they are searching for grubs. Even though your lawn is healthy, chances are you still find 5 grubs per square feet. If the area is around 5,000 square feet, then there will be about 25,000 grubs.
There’s a lot of grubs in just an average-sized lawn. Definitely, animals won’t only sit and let their food go. When they find a great food source, they’ll surely come back again.
That is the reason why you need to identify a grub problem first.
If your lawn is infested with unwanted grubs, there are certainly dead brown grass patches around it. They normally scatter the grass untidily, too.
Grubs typically damage the roots of the grass. When that happens, they can pull the grass out with ease. The dead brown grass patches can get larger as time goes by because the grubs will continuously expand their feeding zone.
Before exploring several ways on how to stop animals from digging holes in yard, you should know what animals feast on grubs.
Skunks and raccoons like eating grubs. Moreover, skunks create shallow holes in the yard with the help of loose soil.
On the contrary, raccoons pull out sod clumps using their front paws. Then, they flip the sod over whenever they see grubs in the ground.
Like skunks and raccoons, moles are attracted to grubs. They will tear up your lawn when searching for their food, including earthworms.
Since grubs already weakened the grassroots, moles will certainly make the damage worse. Even if they have killed the grubs, the animals are likely to revisit your lawn for the earthworms.
How to Stop Animals from Digging Holes in Yard
Finally, I show you several fabulous methods on how to keep bothersome animals from digging holes in the lawn. They help strengthen your lawn, too. Let’s check these incredible tips out!
1. Cut Down on Grubs
Talking about how to stop animals from digging holes in yard, the first thing that you can do is cutting down on their food sources, including grubs. Follow these steps to identify a grub infestation in your lawn.
a) Purchase a liquid detergent;
b) Next, mix 4 tbs of the detergent with 1 gallon of water;
c) Soak the affected areas using the solution along the green grass near the dead brown patches;
d) You’ll see the grubs emerging within just a few minutes.
Remember that this tactic won’t kill the grubs. Although you use a chemical in your lawn for months, removing all of them seems impossible. To mitigate the grubs, try any of these solutions below.
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Adding Beneficial Nematodes to Your Yard
Want to know how to stop animals from digging holes in yard? First of all, minimizing the number of grubs by adding nematodes into your lawn.
Nematodes will enter the tiny grubs’ bodies and produce bacteria that kill them. Essentially, the more nematodes you add into the area, the fewer grubs in your lawn will be.
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Do Not Water for About a Month
Grubs certainly grow from eggs like other insect larvae. Water is such a crucial requirement for their survival.
One of the low-impact methods on how to stop animals from digging holes in yard is to avoid watering for about a month during summertime. This helps get rid of the grub infestation.
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Apply Milky Spores
Milky spores generate a disease that results in an unfavorable soil environment. It encourages grubs to either die or leave the area.
Many lawn owners don’t use chemicals on their properties. If you’re one of them, consider trying these natural methods out.
However, as I mentioned earlier, animals dig in the yard not only for grubs but also for other reasons. Even if you tackle the issue, there’s always a chance that they will continue to dig your lawn up.
2. How to Stop Animals from Digging Holes in Yard with Humane Traps
You might have seen pictures of animal holes in yard. To prevent unwanted holes, I recommend trapping the burrowing animals humanely.
Simply place the traps all over the property. Probably, this isn’t the most practical solution, though. After catching the animals, you could contact the animal services. Another option is relocating them.
To increase the traps’ effectiveness, try adding a few strong-smelling food items to attract them. Moreover, be prepared to check the humane traps regularly. Early morning is surely the right time.
Many animals dig holes in the lawn at night since they don’t need to worry about threats. No wonder you can catch them more easily during nighttime. Within only a few days, these creatures are going to die, thus take action quickly.
Be sure to buy an appropriate trap. For example, if you deal with raccoons on the lawn, choose a large animal trap.
Always relocate the burrowing animals over 10 miles from your property. By doing so, they’re unlikely to come back to their previous spot.
Just in case there are so many pesky creatures to trap, I suggest you ask for professional trapping service help. Certainly, this is one of the humane methods on how to stop animals from digging holes in the yard.
3. Seed Regularly
If you spot lots of small holes in lawn, chances are the burrowing animals like voles and moles have entered your property.
You should seed with tall fescue grass. This turfgrass is suitable for both industrial sites and homes. Also, it will offer you a nice lawn with deep roots.
By seeding with turfgrass, the digging animals cannot destroy your lawn easily while they’re foraging for food.
4. How to Stop Animals from Digging Holes in Yard with Physical Barriers
By building barriers, you can keep unwanted visitors away from your lawn. Consider installing an underground wire mesh fence. It is pretty good at deterring them.
The movement of burrowing animals usually occurs under the ground. That’s why building a fence above the soil doesn’t seem that effective.
Talking about how to stop animals from digging holes in yard, installing a 3-foot simple chain link or chicken wire fence under the ground is a genius idea. It helps you prevent them from going into your precious flower beds.
This solution is pretty labor-intensive. However, you will benefit from an inground fence around your yard in the long run. Moreover, it forces the digging animals to find their new spots.
First of all, you must dig a 3-foot trench in your yard. Then, bend the mesh hardware cloth’s bottom to 90 degrees for creating a flat 6-inch surface at the fence base.
The next thing to do is inserting a wire mesh fence down into the trench. This makes the flat edge protrude outward. Moreover, the fence must be 15-20 inches above the soil. Once it’s in place, put the garden soil back in.
5. Remove Attractions
Speaking of how to stop animals from digging holes in yard, try getting rid of attractions. As you know, they can bring burrowing animals into your lawn. Clearing away all the food sources daily from the garden is a great idea.
For example, if there is an oak tree in the garden, the acorns are likely going to fall regularly. Simply remove the acorns and fruits from the yard regularly.
This is one of the fabulous techniques on how to stop animals from digging holes in yard. Still, you will need lots of effort to keep your lawn in wonderful condition.
Also, don’t forget to get rid of rotten things around the garden. These items produce a pretty strong smell. This is one of the main attractions for burrowing animals.
Furthermore, shrubs and woodpiles around the property might encourage them to return.
6. How to Stop Animals from Digging Holes in Yard with Special Repellents
Certainly, using repellents is another method to drive digging animals away. Many homeowners apply various household products to tackle their garden issues. Here are several types of animal repellents for your lawn.
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Sonic Spikes
Sonic spikes are pretty good at keeping burrowing animals at bay. They produce high-frequency noises to scare the rodents away.
While sonic spikes seem effective at first, remember that digging animals tend to know these are only noises. They definitely can conquer their fear. Be ready to get mixed results from them.
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Garlic Powder and Coffee Grounds
Normally, burrowing animals create small holes in lawn overnight. To keep them at bay, use common household items like garlic powder and coffee grounds.
If you spot some tunnels around your lawn, then simply sprinkle garlic powder or coffee grounds around them.
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Castor Oil-Based Repellents
Speaking of how to stop animals from digging holes in yard, consider applying conventional animal repellents.
Some gardeners use castor oil-based repellents. They are awesome because you can apply them around your kids or pets.
How to Fill Animal Holes in Yard
You have understood how to stop animals from digging holes in yard. Now, it’s time to repair the holes. I recommend filling them with soil. Next, use the shovel underside to level the entire thing.
Check the holes near your house first. If you’re in doubt whether the wall is only sagging or has sustained damage, then contact a local building company.
The builders will come to your property and then check for structural damage signs. They’ll also inform you about the repair costs. However, rodents normally cannot destroy house walls.
There are different techniques on how to stop animals from digging holes in yard. No matter what method you apply, be sure that it meets your budget and current situation. Let’s give these tips a chance and say goodbye to pesky rodents!