Who is living there? This is the question garden owners ask themselves when holes spoil the ground. But not only those who caused it, but above all preventive measures against the damage to the fields are welcome.
Who is digging here?
In order to identify the cause of holes in the garden, it is far from enough to find the hole and determine its size. Because the more the polluters are similar in their body size, the more the holes do. You should therefore use various features that ultimately lead to a comprehensive picture:
- Size (diameter)
- Texture (uniform, irregular, etc.)
- Depth or Presence of subsequent corridors
- Presence of earth ejection on or around the hole
TIP: In addition to the actual holes, you can also collect other clues from the surroundings of the affected garden areas. For example, manure tracks, footprints and other legacies can provide further clues about the animal species causing them
Animal species and their holes
The following animal species keep causing holes in the garden. We focus and in doing so on the holes, the size of which pose a real danger. In contrast, there are tunnels and holes made by insects and worms in every garden
often to be found, but they are neither noticeable nor do they disturb the use of the garden to any significant extent.Mice
Mice can be found in almost every type of landscape, including in the garden. Above all, the widespread and well-known and feared vole represents an enormous threat because it is affected by Like to gnaw the roots of a wide variety of garden plants in their tunnels, making them sure to die off brings.
- Size: voles around 3 to 4 centimeters, shrews and field mice approx. 2 centimeters
- Shape: uniformly round to oval
- Other characteristics: voles often surrounded by flat heaps of earth, other mice without characteristic heaps of earth
- Occurrence: mainly in outskirts with relative proximity to fields and meadows, but now voles in a wide variety of gardens
- Preventive measures: Traps against the mouse infestation, keeping cats as a deterrent or Countermeasure, scented sachets with strongly smelling oils to drive away the animals
Rats
Similar to mice, rats also dig large duct systems, which can be recognized primarily by the entrance holes. However, they are much larger in size.
- Size: up to 15 centimeters
- Shape: uniformly round
- Other features: bare holes without earth ejection, further corridors leading downwards at an angle
- Occurrence: especially when there is a good supply of food in the form of stored food, cultivation of field crops, as well as berry and nut bushes, especially with sufficiently large garden plots suitable as Rat territory
- Preventive measures: keeping animals to deter (dogs, cats), scent traps to deter, poison or mechanical traps to kill
moles
Probably the most common cause of holes in people's memory is likely to be the moles. However, you hardly ever find their holes, as the animals close them again immediately after use. What remains are the consequences of the hole in the form of yielding subsoil and the characteristic hills.
- Size: normally no holes recognizable as they are immediately closed again by the animals
- Shape: round corridors that end in high mounds of earth
- Other features: due to corridors leading away in the hole / hill area, the subsoil is very flexible
- Occurrence: mainly in loose soil types with good food supply in the form of insects, worms, etc. (good soil regeneration)
- Preventive measures: due to the protection status of the mole, only expulsion allowed, other measures prohibited, expulsion similar to mice, etc. by fragrances and regularly compacted mounds of earth (closure of the passages)
Wild boars
Although they obviously do not dig tunnels in the ground, wild boars can make enormous holes in the garden in their search for food in the form of worms, insects, acorns and roots.
- Size: large-format to flat, distributed over large parts of the sward
- Shape: irregular, mostly excessive
- Other features: no corridors, but a downright plowed ground
- Occurrence: large, free plots located on the outskirts, especially near the forest
- Preventive measures: Fencing, in the case of extreme infestation, targeted hunting by the responsible district tenant
Hedgehog
Hedgehogs also like to look for insects in the loose topsoil - their preferred food.
- Size: up to the size of a palm
- Shape: very flat and round
- Other characteristics: not very deep and rarely reaching far below the sward
- Occurrence: wherever hedgehogs live or travel through, especially in well-populated soils
- Preventive measures: no measures known or Required because holes grow rapidly and are not dangerous for garden users because of their shallow depth
NOTE: In addition to hedgehogs, foxes and badgers can also visit gardens on the outskirts of the town in search of food and leave similar hole-like digging there. However, they are rather rare in private gardens, as the animals only dare to get close to urban properties in exceptional situations.
The holes are there - now what?
Whether you drive away your visitors or whether they move on voluntarily towards winter - the holes remain. It is easiest if you fill the actual holes, but also the corridors extending from them, with garden soil. Especially in corridors, you can first let sand trickle in, which penetrates deeper into the ground due to the high natural movement. Then make sure to cover at least the top 5 to 10 centimeters with soil as a basis for growth. Small holes usually overgrow on their own within a very short time. For larger holes, spot sowing of lawn seeds helps.
TIP: So-called lawn repair mixtures use lawns that germinate particularly quickly and combine them with fertilizers and water-storing substrate additions. In this way, voids can be greened particularly safely through holes.