all you country folk, a tunnel has appeared in my lawn

[RogerMelly]

It is under a bush about a metre from the house and it is about 10cm in circumference. It goes down for about 20cm and then seems to veer off at an angle. I found a little apple by it and put it in the hole, thinking the hole wasn't very big and it seemed to run for ages Do you have any idea what it might be? My first thought is rat but I am reluctant to put rat poison down incase it is something else that i shouldn't be poisoning.

We have had no sign of scratching or anything within the house and we are situated in arable farming country. I have only livedhere for 12 months and I am not used to country ways :o

[dreamingofsun]

our rat man says you can always tell if its a rat as it smells like a public toilet. look for droppings they are bigger than a mouse's and are semi circular a bit like the shape and size of big toe nail clippings. it sounds maybe a bit large for a rat...but i'm no expert either. i wonder if you could put something muddy on at the entrance and see what footprints you get?

[RogerMelly]

I have had rats before in our old house but that was in an urban area. I have had a niff as well and it doesn't smell and it doesn't look 'dirty' iykwim, like a rat hole would and it isn't be a water source.

If it isn't a rat what could it be though?

Maybe I should put some flour by the hole but I wouldn't be able to tell a rat footprint from another one tbh

[Bunbaker]

Could it be a rabbit or a mole?

[RogerMelly]

do moles not create dirt straight away then? It has only been a week and it looks too little for a rabbit

[Bunbaker]

I am not an expert, but we had a mole a few years ago. It tunnelled just under the lawn all along the edge and made a right old mess of the lawn. It didn't dig up for air so we didn't get any mole hills.

I tried to catch it and take it to a nearby field, but it decided to tunnel into next door's garden whereupon their dog killed it

[dwpanxt]

We had a deep hole appear at the bottom of our garden a few years ago. I thought it must be foxes or something quite big making itself at home and asked around t'net .
Turned out it was an old tree stump/roots decaying down to nothing to leave the hole where it had once been . Took a good few years between tree death and hole appearing so we had forgotten what had been there before.

We put a broken slab into the hole to make it safe until it seemed stable.

[RogerMelly]

there is another apple next to the hole again today so it definately an animal of some sort

[peeriebear]

It's the underground lair of the Apple Fairy

[countessbabycham]

I've seen a shrew disappear into a hole in our lawn....

[RogerMelly]

I have to laugh at myself because it isn't apples at all infact an animal hasn't been taking fruit to that spot at all and infact the hole has appeared under a quince bush a quince bush that I didn't even know was a quince bush.....imagine my suprise when today i saw there were 'lots of apples' which said rodent had placed in bush only to find that they were actually attached to the thing I think I need to get out more!

Tunnel is still there obviously...and i am none the wiser whether to shove poison down or not but thanks for the advice

[countessbabycham]

RogerMelly

Doesn't alter the fact that you have strange tunnelling happenings in your garden though

[Hassled]

We had something that was independently verified as a rat hole and it was surprising clean and wide and sort of went diagonally down. No smell at all - so yours could well be rats.

Whatever it is, I'd fill it up with gravel and some mud over the top.

[daenerysstormborn]

it'll be one of

[countessbabycham]

Please,please daenery I want one of those for my lawn!