what animal rips up the sod in yards?

Question

my side yard is completly riped up it looks horable my neighbors yad has doe patches as well is there any thing i can do to stop the critter from doing that

Answer 1

Isadora is correct about the armadillos or it could be a shrew ,a mole, a meadow vole or pocket gopher.
The way to tell the difference is by the size of the tunnels/holes/mounds. A mole will be much smaller is size a shrew/or vole even smaller and the armadillo would be the biggest. In all probability it is a mole . There are several ways to get rid of them all of them unpleasant. Moles are creatures of habit and they are active at very certain times of the day.

The link below will have drawings and pictures plus "what do I do now"?
Controlling Nuisance Moles
University of Missouri Extension
http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/wildlife/g09440.htm

In the diagram showing the tunnel system Figure # 6.
This is what I did. I bought 4 (as large as I could find )cheap bottles of pine oil me and my daughter went around to all of the tunnels (see figure # 4 plug) lifted a plug and poured down about 1/3 of the bottle making sure to get as many tunnels as we could and not disturb them.
NO MORE MOLE.......I guess he went to my neighbors yard cause he wanted to know how I got rid of them so he did it. I guess we just ran the mole out of the neighborhood. Or killed it . I saw this on TV.
The link below has several suggestion as well.
If you don't have kids or pets coming around the garden, you can get castor beans
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf270879.tip.html
NOTE: they are after worms mostly grub worms but if you use a chemical to kill the grubs you'll kill the good worms.

Answer 2

It's usually a skunk. An opposum could do this as well. They are digging up grub worms which are just under the surface. The only options are to kill either the grubs or the skunks. For the grubs, they make pellets or sprays to apply to the yard, but they work best in summertime. You could try that now or just bear it for a little while and do it next year. Fall is the time when this happens the most. It will end as winter progresses.

Answer 3

If you live anywhere south of Kansas City you might have an armadillo problem. They work like little plows, digging up turf and soil as they go, looking for worms. The only way you can stop them is to trap them. Here is a link to a web site about that:

http://www.247wildlife.com/armadillotrap.htm

The range of the armadillo is no longer just in the deep south. They have extended their range until they are way far north, even into zone 5 now, as I said, even up to Kansas City Mo. I see them dead on thehighway all the time clear up there.

If you want to see what is causing the problem, you might have to sit up at night and watch. Or get a game camera and set it up, it will take pictures of whatever is doing it.

Answer 4

If the sod is displaced with a small twisting ropelike appearance, those are moles. You can't stop a mole outside of calling an exterminator and having all kinds of chemicals put in your yard.

Just tamp it down and go on about life.

Answer 5

Sounds like moles. Stab the tunnels with a pitchfork maybe youll get lucky.They also make poison to disperse into the tunnels.

Answer 6

Sounds like you may have moles. They can really do a number on your lawn. To get rid of them, get rid of the grubs they feed on by using an insecticide; when the grubs (their food source) are all gone, they'll move onto someone ELSE'S yard.

Good luck!

Answer 7

A mole. They do have traps. If it is a big problem call a expert.

Answer 8

if you live in the deep south - it could be wild pigs or armadillos