<p>So I’ve worked out in my yard for a few hours in the last week, cleaning up stuff, cutting back perennial grasses, etc. Also cleaned up a winter’s worth of dog poop (and lots of rabbit poop for the icing on the cake). I’m just starting to see new shoots of grass trying to come up through the dry matted dead stuff, but nothing we will need to even think about mowing for several weeks yet.</p>
<p>Was out this afternoon, doing a little touch up work before our newest cold spell hits tomorrow and am noticing little ‘divots’, like something is already digging in our yard. We live next to a small pond, so we do have wildlife around here, but other than rabbits, none have ever really bothered to come into our yard, probably because we have a dog, and why come into a yard with a dog, when a pond is on the other side of the fence? I’ve also been spraying some rabbit deterrent around the perimeter to keep the rabbits out, after cleaning up the mess they left. But something must be coming in and digging… I just thought it’d be kind of early in the year for critters to really be getting active.</p>
<p>I know we have skunks in the area, and have already smelled them this spring, so I know they’re out at night. But I thought fall was the time skunks attacked yards, looking for grubs. Regardless, we’ve never had them dig up our yard before (although they have hit up the neighbor’s yard). </p>
<p>Raccoons will dig for grubs and make a mess out of lawn turf. Rabbits will dig under a bush and screw up its roots and moles etc. will dig tunnels.</p>
<p>^^^^Not applicable to Chicagoland, but I, too, found a strange hole in our yard. We have a lake house in the West Texas Hill Country, and yesterday I found a really large hole just under a boulder in the yard. I was looking into it trying to see into it when my husband said, “I see you found the armadillo hole.” Yikes, glad I didn’t wake him up. They are not known to attack people, but something about them just grosses me out, lol.</p>
<p>Squirrels! They are “hiding” their treasured acorns for sometime in the future when they are scarce. They also like to eat your flower bulbs, the little devils.</p>
<p>I was thinking voles, but don’t know if they are in your area…they are tunneling little buggers ! We had groundhogs at out old house and they wreaked havoc and lived under the sheds. I have found a few holes that something has been diggin out in my dog yard…the only thing I know for sure that is out there is rabbits…seen a few clumpos of fur and droppings…not good for my poop eating dog. I hope no skunks , but there was an issue in the fall with a resort town ( snooty wealthy beach town ) south of us that had their animal control rounding up skunks and moving them up to a large wildlife refuge a few miles away from us…lots of STINK about that !!</p>
From the top down. No tunneling noted. These holes are randomly out in the middle of the yard. Maybe an inch, to two, across, and at their deepest, maybe the same. Some smaller ones. My dog is not a digger; otherwise, I’d suspect her.</p>
<p>I just thought this kind of animal behavior was more common in the fall as they fatten up prior to winter, not in the spring.</p>
<p>Contact your county agent or the extension sevice of your state university system.</p>
<p>Even urban areas have these. Usually with a skill set to match the region they serve. They don’t assign pineapple experts to Cook County or urban landscape specialists to areas that are all wheat fields.</p>
<p>oooohhh; yes we have Canadian Geese, who are just returning now that the pond is unfrozen. But I haven’t seen them in the yard, nor have I seen any of their poop in our yard. I can’t imagine they’d be that gracious as to not leave poop.</p>
<p>Where we live, it would be a bad sign of chafer beetles. Hopefully they aren’t in your area. They burrow under the grass and the wildlife rips your yard up in a hunt for them. Lawns where we live eventually look like someone rototilled it (but it starts off with just a few tossed turf bits and small holes).</p>
<p>nevermind… I looked them up. They’re just another form of grubs. Every summer I assess my lawn for grubs, and have never found enough to justify treatment. But I usually treat the lawn every few years anyway. The sod is not pulling up. Just divots.</p>
<p>Skunks - they come out at night and dig for food. If it is a skunk, or a family - watch if they make a home somewhere around your house, under rocks, concrete slab, etc … watch if you let dogs out at night, etc. Skunks frequently live in urban areas, golf courses, etc.</p>
<p>I’m in the Chicago area and I’d say skunks. We had the same problem last year and they were digging for grubs. We started with Scott’s service and haven’t had a problem since. Idiot neighbor down the way puts out tons of bread and fruit for whatever animal wanders around…makes me sick. Can a complaint be made to the village, I wonder? Or is it okay because it’s on his property?</p>
<p>Do you have robins? That’s what makes similar holes in our yard (i.e. only about an inch or two in diameter.) They’re looking for worms and grubs.</p>