Holes in lawn

Hi
Can anyone please help? something is digging holes in my lawn a night, they are about the size of a tea cup. I have seen a young fox around here at times would that do it, if not has anyone got any idea what's doing it. Thanks in advance.

John.

 

digging for chaffer grubs

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0402/chafer.asp

 

Thanks for the link very useful.

 

Not necessarily these, but a more common cause of round holes in lawns can be squirrels digging to bury peanuts. They aren't bright enough to fill them in afterwards and pigeons find the peanuts.
I get a few of these holes in my lawn each week.

 

yup, go along with the possibility of squirels - thats if you count early in the morning as night time. Squirels are not active at night.

Excavate the holes a bit and see if you can find either acorns or hazelnuts.

and if you are feeding peanuts to squirels its your own fault!

 

My wife feeds the squirrels, hedgehogs and the birds. We get a huge variety of birds in our garden. As she has MS she's a bit housebound, but she can see all this activity through the french windows (though she throws magazines at the windows if she sees any of the greedy wood pigeons, they are quite cowardly and fly away, the sparrows, tits, robins, dunnocks, blackbirds etc, and squirrels take no notice).

I close up the "squirrel's golf divots" as you would a pitch mark on a golf green. But in this case I use a large flat-bladed screwdriver, so they soon disappear.
Small price to pay, really.

 

Attracting birds gives fantastic pleasure. We found a bird bath is a big draw and is amusing to watch the birds' antics. Thistle seed is brilliant for attracting goldfinches.

All of the nut and large seed containers are squirrel proof as they are a pest and deter the birds.

 

We've found there's no competition for food if there's enough, the birds and squirrels "play nicely."
The birds have a couple of hanging feeders, plus a dish on the patio for food. They also have a Pyrex oven dish for a bath. The squirrels have a tray for their peanuts two feet away pushed under the ceanothus in the narrow bed next to the pool (to deter the wood pigeons). We usually get two or three varieties of birds ground feeding at the same time and they ignore the comings and goings of the squirrels round them.

I have to tell you this, if the nuts run out a squirrel will come to the french windows to attract attention. They don't tend to move far away as my wife opens the door. Once she was opening one of the doors very slowly and carefully so as not to frighten the squirrel. It put one of its paws on the frame of the door and "helped her open it."