Moles, voles, gophers???

Dirty

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Regarding picture by Yoby in post 23 looks like same problem we had few years ago turned out to be a skunk digging for nightcrawlers, grubs, or whatever. Would always happen during the night, but he stayed to long one morning and I watched him doing it thru the scope, no problems since

Raccoons also will do this, same as skunks. I agree that is what this looks like.
If you have a lot of cutworms (Junebug larvae) it is like a buffet to coons and skunks. While they did you of the grubs they wreak havoc on your yard...as the grubs would have done.
Have you in the past couple years has a crazy year for June bugs within the past three years, yoby?
 


Yoby

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We almost always have June bugs. Have then everywhere in the garage.

Raccoons also will do this, same as skunks. I agree that is what this looks like.
If you have a lot of cutworms (Junebug larvae) it is like a buffet to coons and skunks. While they did you of the grubs they wreak havoc on your yard...as the grubs would have done.
Have you in the past couple years has a crazy year for June bugs within the past three years, yoby?
 

Dirty

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Junebug grubs live under the layer of grass for three years. Must be a lot of juicy ones there ready to emerge in a month or so, pulling in the critters that like to feast on them.
Pretty sure that’s what you have goin on.
 
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Yoby

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I'm out here filling in holes and saw this little bastard. Is this the grub worms you were talking about?
20200501_161645.jpg
 


Yoby

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My 6yr old climbers in a hole something dug out. It was a striped gopher hole. Guessing a badger went after them.

20200522_193117.jpg

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Here a comparison. With the 8yr old in the hole
20200522_193145.jpg
 

shorthairman

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I know I am late to this thread, but in post 26 Yoby said he can't walk through his yard without compressing the runs...I know you guys said you do not have moles in ND, but that sounds like a mole to me. I have moles and pocket gophers around my place. Pocket gophers make the dirt mounds, and moles make tunnels/runs, along the surface of your yard and when you walk on them they compress. The trap in post 7 is a mole trap. You compress the run back to level with your yard and then set the trap over the spot where you compressed it. When the mole comes back down the tunnel it will push the dirt back up, spring the trap, and the spikes will hopefully get the sucker. Skunks and raccoons will dig all over in your yard to get grubs, but if you say you are walking and compressing runs/tunnels it sounds like a mole. They will eat grubs also. I usually put a couple different types of poison in mole runs, and I use the scissor type traps to get gophers. Using your mower to gas moles probably would not work since their runs are so close to the surface of the lawn and I am sure the gas would escape.
 

Dirty

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The one thing I missed in Yoby’s post is where he said his dog was the one doing the above ground damage. Yoby, are sure of that?
if that is the case and all of the “tunneling” etc. was underground then it wouldn’t be a coon or skunk. Their damage looks like what you have in your picture, with sod and dirt ripped up and turned or flipped over.

Prior to your dog getting after it, were their above ground mounds of dirt to go along with the underground runs?

Pocket gophers, in addition to tunnels that go several feet underground, also do make shallow feeding runs right under the ground. They are at root level of whatever they are eating. In our clover plots, they will be anywhere from An inch or two to six or more inches under the ground depending on root depth. Also, on hill sides and changing alleviation the tunnels vary in depth. In our plots, deer and people step right through the surface into the runs all the time. It adds to the mess.
 
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Yoby

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I think my dog finally found the nest. I've had the mole trap out and it keeps getting set off, but can never confirm that some was killed. Guessing I'm doing something wrong.

20200524_163105.jpg

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Stepped down the tunnel and put the trap over it. Any suggestions?
20200524_163648.jpg
 

shorthairman

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Thanks Dirty...now I can show my wife that I am right every once in a while!:)

Yoby...I have never had good luck with those traps, but some people swear by them, I usually just put poison down in the runs in several places.
 

tikkalover

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I'm confused......................was I right (see post 3)?? or............ was I right??? :cool:.......;:;rofl
 
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Dirty

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Tikka, you were wrong. 7mag started the thread and has pocket gophers.
Later in the thread yoby had a different issue. That was moles and I was wrong on that one.

I see Yoby is from SD too, which does have moles the farther south and east you go.
The original starter of the thread lives in ND, which doesn’t have moles...or at least not to my knowledge.
 
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7mmMag

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F42062DB-97FA-4ECD-B4C6-02D46BE31C54.jpg

1 down. I had 3 traps set, got 1 and the other 2 traps got buried. Thanks for the advice.
 

Dirty

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The traps that were buried likely weren’t flat enough to the dirt and the gopher figured out they were there. Sometimes I will scrape a little more dirt off the bottom of the tunnel and push the trap down against it flat. You can also slightly widen the tunnel where the trap is...whatever you have to do to make it fit yet still be able to spring. Also, remember to have that thing just a hair away from going off, that way even if they try to bury it is sprung.
 
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guywhofishes

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I've never, in my decades of lawn ownership, had a mole,vole, ground squirrel, or other digger issue with the exception of groundhogs under a shed.

You can imagine how that went for the ground hog.
 

LBrandt

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Declaring "WAR" for the next couple weeks, pocket gophers are starting to sneak in to close. Get them now before they get to the lawn and garden, also my fiber-optic and power lines
 


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