How to Get Rid of Burrowing Animals in Your Yard | Hunker (2024)

FAQs

How to Get Rid of Burrowing Animals in Your Yard | Hunker? ›

Some burrowing animals dislike the smell of coffee grounds, so sprinkle some around the hole or holes and around any plants or areas the animals like. Crushed garlic cloves, garlic oil, and rosemary oil work in the same way. Any scent-based repellent must be reapplied when the scent fades, such as after it rains.

Mix one gallon of water with a quarter cup of castor oil and a few tablespoons of dish soap. Spray this mixture liberally on and around any mounds or visible burrows, as well as near your plants. The concoction will make these pests sick, making your garden seem inhospitable and send them packing.

Examine any burrows or nests in your yard to identify the intruding animals. The shape of the burrow's entrance can help differentiate between the diggers. Commonly found burrows and nests include: A few small holes less than 3 inches in diameter could belong to chipmunks, voles, Norway rats, or snakes.

Raccoons and skunks are two common grub-eating nocturnal culprits for digging in yards. Skunks tend to make shallow holes with loosened soil, while raccoons can actually use their front paws to pull up chunks of sod and flip them over to find whatever delicious food might lie beneath.

Skunks | Groundhogs | Moles | Pocket gophers | Voles | Raccoons | Digger bees | Earthworms | Wasps.

What you can do to help with the control is spray the lawn with a mixture of castor oil and Dawn dish soap one week after our application, and again one to two weeks later. This will help deter moles, voles, and other burrowing rodents in your lawn without damaging the turf.

Fill the holes with topsoil, sand, or gravel, tamping the soil to pack it down firmly. If using topsoil, spread grass seed over it to encourage the regrowth of grass.

Animals will dig because they're hungry. Moles, Skunks, and Raccoons all eat a variety of worms, insects, and grubs. Just because you have animals digging, it does not mean you have a grub problem. Animals will dig in search of food and return to places where they've found food in the past.

Encourage predators.

Owls and hawks eat moles and voles, so invite them to your yard by installing a post 10 to 15 feet high. Add a one or two-inch diameter perch to give them a place to land and survey their surroundings. Foxes and snakes are other natural predators that may show up.

Raccoons, however, can easily get over fencing materials. Exclusion options for raccoons need to cover the ground. Lay hardware cloth, chicken wire, or bird netting across the lawn areas receiving damage (or that have high grub populations) and secure it to the ground with landscape staples or bricks.

How to get rid of holes in a yard? ›

Add Soil and Compress

Once enough soil is added to fill the hole, use a tamper or your foot to compress it. It will help prevent the hole from sinking or caving in later. If you have a large hole, it's best to fill it in layers and compress it after each one.

Earthworms are most active in spring and when soils are moist. They leave a granular tower of soil around their 1-inch (2.5 cm.) holes. Many other insects lay their eggs in soil and the larvae hatch in spring, leaving pinprick sized holes.

Force Underground Rodents Out

Homeowners have had luck with both flooding and fumigation methods with all three pests. Pouring water into burrows and causing flooding to their feeding and traveling tunnels will drive them to the surface. These animals will then fearfully dash elsewhere in search of safety.

Signs of vole-related lawn tunnels include: Shallow, narrow trenches revealed when snow melts. Grass-free runways camouflaged as "tunnels" with grass, groundcover or mulch. Dry, drought-like yellow or brown grass beside runways.

Some gardeners use household items like coffee grounds and garlic powder to keep burrowing rodents at bay. Just sprinkle them around active tunnels in your lawn and garden to deter pests from sticking around. You can find a number of commercial products designed to keep burrowing animals away as well.

Now: Moles (with an M) make raised tunnels in lawns that you can collapse by pushing hard on them, but don't otherwise harm plants. Voles (with a V) make little runway-like paths on the surface of lawns and eat underground plant parts like spring bulbs and (especially) the roots of plants like hostas.

Try a homemade repellent. Chop one whole Spanish onion and one jalapeno pepper. Add two quarts water to one tablespoon of cayenne pepper and boil for 20 minutes. Cool, strain water through a cheesecloth, then spray with a garden sprayer in areas where animals are being a nuisance.