Have holes in your yard but no mounds? Here’s what could be causing them

Holes that suddenly appear in your lawn can be unsightly and annoying, disrupting your manicured lawn and creating a tripping hazard. To fix the problem, you need to know what is causing the holes, but in many cases the insect or animal causing the hole will do its work at night or out of sight.

This can make it difficult to know why there are holes in your yard, especially if they don’t have the characteristic mounds commonly found in animals like moles and gophers.

By taking a closer look at the size, shape, and location of holes in your yard without mounds, you can narrow down the possibilities and develop a strategy to stop the digging.

Causes of Holes in Your Yard Without a Mound

Vole

Unlike moles, voles will dig holes in your yard that do not have any mounds of excavated dirt at the entrance. Instead, a vole hole will be about the size of a golf ball but quite shallow and sometimes oval in shape.

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Yellow Jacket

Yellow jackets often use holes left by rodents as tunnels to their underground nests. Therefore, holes in your yard that are connected to yellow jacket nests may vary in size or shape, but they are usually found in dry soil that grows over time (as the nest gets larger underground) and may have some debris piled up around the entrance.

Visually observing yellow jackets flying in and out of the hole is the best way to tell if it is an entry point to a yellow jacket nest.

Bees nest underground

Some species of bees nest underground, using a hole to access the underground nest. Ground bees live in social groups around a hive and may use an abandoned rodent hole as an entrance to the hive.

Other bees, such as sweat bees or cellophane wasps, are solitary and dig small tunnels in the soil to lay their eggs underground.

To identify holes made by ground-nesting bees, look for small holes up to ½ inch wide in dry, sandy soil.

Rabbit

Female rabbits often build shallow underground nests to hide their babies. Look for what appears to be a patch of dead grass; in the case of a rabbit nest, you will find the hole lined with dead grass and fur and covered with leaves or other vegetation to hide the babies.

Foumart

If a cluster of holes appears in your yard overnight, it could be the result of a skunk digging for grubs.

Skunk holes in your yard are usually a few inches in diameter or less and shallow enough that you can see the bottom of the hole (it does not lead to a tunnel).

Chipmunk

A hole without a mound leading to a tunnel may have been made by a chipmunk. These small rodents create clean, round holes about two inches in diameter that lead to underground burrow systems.

To make it difficult for predators to detect the hole, chipmunks stuff excavated soil into their cheeks while digging and carry the soil out of the hole without leaving a mound around the entrance.

Mole

Moles dig large holes up to 12 inches in diameter in extensive burrow systems.

While the main entrance to a mole burrow is usually located near a fence, tree, or other shelter structure and marked by a mound of earth, the secondary entrance is a clean hole in the ground, often in an open lawn.

Mouse

Some species of mice prefer to nest underground, creating burrows with multiple entrances. Holes in your yard or garden can be access points for mouse nests, especially if the hole is 3 to 4 inches in diameter and smooth, with hard walls leading into the tunnel.

How to Prevent Holes in Your Yard

To prevent holes in your yard, you need to either eliminate the insect or animal or remove their food source. Here are the best ways to stop digging in your lawn or garden:

• Because some animals, such as rats, dig burrows to create dens in areas where food sources are available, install physical barriers around your garden beds. Materials such as wire mesh can be used as a pest deterrent above ground while landscape mesh buried below the soil surface can prevent digging.
• Reduce the appearance of larvae, which is the main reason skunks burrow, by using Beneficial nematodes. Choose nematodes to kill common lawn grubs and follow package instructions for storage, use, and reprocessing.
• Tall grass provides natural protection and can encourage some animals, like rabbits, to dig holes in your lawn. Mow your lawn with a length of 7.5 to 10 cm; this shorter length also makes it easier to detect new holes that may appear in the yard so that you can address the situation early.
• Use natural deterrents for animal and insect activity; sprinkle things like cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, cinnamon, or mint into areas of your yard that have holes. When deciding what to apply to your yard, consider what type of pest is likely to be causing the holes and then determine what type of topical solution will be most effective.

When to call a professional

It may be necessary to call an exterminator or pest control service if you cannot figure out what is causing the holes in your yard. These professionals can often pick up on subtle clues or use their expertise to determine the cause of the holes in your lawn or garden.

Additionally, you may need professional help if the holes in your yard are caused by a protected species.

Local wildlife control companies will have the latest information on federal or state protection laws and strategies to help overcome the problem.