Something digging in my raised beds

[Spaghetticarbanana]

Ok. Last year DH made me raised beds.
These particular ones are against a wall, the whole structure is about 19 foot long. He built a wooden frame with panels along the front which we then filled with soil. Last year we had a problem with cats using them as a toilet which they have done with our entire garden but once the plants got big enough the cats stopped. This year again we definitely did have a cat problem initially. Something was digging up my beds this particular bed this year I planted carrots chives and sweet peas. The bed was repeatedly dug up i assumed it was cats and that they were just either toileting deeper than I was looking or they were just digging, I got fed up of it so I used bamboo canes pushed down into the soil around the edges of this particular bed to attach plastic mesh. In effect I made a cage.
The first couple of nights I noticed that a couple of my pots had been dug into, the marks seemed small, I started to wonder if it wasn't cats. I don't know if this is relevant but both pots that were dug into contained peas and last year in the bed that I caged I grew sweet peas/peas.
After a couple of days something dug down from the bed on the left of the "cage" under the support frame which is a block of wood several inches wide and a couple of inches thick. Every night since whatever it is tunnels under and into the "cage" sometimes it just tunnels in and there's no disturbance other times it digs the place up. It's only interested in this one bed, usually happens in the night but at least once something has been in during the day I suppose that could be a separate animal though. Today there are four definite 1 inch wide holes that look like paw prints they're not showing up in a photograph but I have measured them and the four of them together are 7 and 1/2 inches long with 6-in across the front two and 5 inches across the back two.
I'm going to try and put some sand down tonight in a tray to see if I can get actual paw prints, I'm not really sure what I'm dealing with. I have no interest in Killing anything but if I could identify my uninvited guest I can work out maybe how we can both use my garden without disaster for my veggies. I've done a picture to help explain the bed setup and paw prints.
Thank you if you made it through all that!

Doesn't really fit your measurements, but mice and voles are well known for loving pea and sweet pea seeds, and snaffling them at any opportunity. Squirrels too. Some people pre soak their seeds in strong smelling things like paraffin to deter. I tend to not sown direct, and plant out as small plants.

Maybe try sprinkling strong chilli powder over the bed, or use cotton wool balls soaked on something strong smelling -olbas oil, mint essence - to put them off?

The tunnel thats being dug is quite wide, I think I took a photo of my hand through it, I'll have a look. We have a river and beck close by, and fields, so it could be anything. I've seen foxes and badgers on my street.

Ooh, badgers is a possibility! In which case I'd not bother to try to deter them as they are very determined and very strong. So I'd transplant smaller plants, or only grow non tasty seeds. And never grow sweetcorn.

Did you put any bonemeal or blood fish bone in the bed recently?

My money is on a rat. They grow massive and the tunnels we have easily fit my adult fat arm.

@TheSpottedZebra I'm growing sweetcorn out front 🤣
Ill try the strong smells, I love olbas oil.
I've got lettuce, carrot, brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, squash, courgette and bean seedlings and runner bean, dwarf bean and pea plants outside right now! Tomato and tomatillo inside. With sweetcorn and bean seeds out front lol.
I think I've opened a restaurant for the wildlife lol.

Sounds like a rat!

Ahh @Pretry I hope not!

Now I've read you are by a river even more certain. They are a bugger to get rid of as well as I won't use poison as a. It's a shitty way for anything to die (it's like wafarin and they bleed out) and B. It goes up the food chain.

I'm not poisoning anything. I've got toddlers/kids and I'd be so upset if I harmed anything like the birds or foxes we see. I don't put any chemicals in the garden.
I'll try putting a tray of wet sand out tonight to see if I can get footprint confirmation of rat.

Squirrels can be diggy little bastards

Just for the hell of it, I plaster cast one of the paw prints/holes in the bed. Looks like four toes and a pad? So cat then? Or fox?
Was bigger than I thought.
This mystery is starting to drive me a bit bonkers tbh!

Oops posted photo twice

Rat. Same issue here. Got a professional in. Couldn't plant anything in my beautiful raised bed. Have to trash the lovingly created soil. Planting in containers with cheapo soil from B&M this year or recycled soil from old containers with some goodies added and different crop grown.
Buggering little shit but at least it's dealt with and dh is spurred on to help overhaul the garden layout.

I thought rat initially but then again last night I noticed the fox out on my patio and this morning Ive gone out to find bulbs dug out from pots and all the earth disturbed. Could be a Fox burrowing under your fence thinking it’s a good place for a den maybe. April a bit late for cubs but they do move to a new den if disturbed so could be. If Rats, they will need a water source close by and a place to live, do you have decking or a shed or something where they could have burrowed in to live? Any open water butts, pond etc?

I'd say if it's bulbs being nicked you've got a squirrel issue the little buggers keep digging mine up!

No advice, but can I just say @Spaghetticarbanana , I love that you made a bloody cast!! 🤣🤣 You've really made me giggle!

Thank you @NotMaryWhitehouse
Stay tuned for episode 2 of Detective Carbanana and the midnight menace 😂

Good luck with your digging visitor. Mine turned out to be a vixen ,who has now produced cubs. At first I thought she only had three, but now they are getting a bit bigger and bolder they are coming out more and there are five, possibly six of them. At the moment they are quite sweet and cuddly, but I know it won't last. Oh well, I needed to rethink my garden......

So... Did you get a sand hand print of the midnight menace? /overlyinvested

Seeing the picture of the mesh, Spag, I don't think it's a badger. It would have just mashed through all the canes and mesh, not just tunnelled though it neatly.

I vote rat, or vole/cat combo.

Squirrels are the culprit in our garden.

We saw a fox trying to eat my daffodil bulbs. It was rooting them out from a container as bold as brass, in broad daylight!

Well, I filled 2 big silver trays with sand and put them in the bed. No visitor.
After a few days I removed one, visitor dug just in front of the tray, but didnt cross it.
Moved tray to the 'entrance side' of the cage, no visitor.
Removed tray, visitor returned. I swear this thing is messing with me!
Neighbour across the road told me there are rats in her next door neighbours garden (which I had concerns about anyway as she put wood pallet decking down) but, they are currently not speaking so that may just be slanderous gossip.

I am updating today as I actually walked into the garden to find a small black cat in 'the cage' staring at me. I approached it and it obviously forgot that it had tunnelled into a cage as it attempted to jump out in every direction, bouncing off the mesh/netting. It looked like a crazy pinball machine until it managed to jump through the gap between the netting above and scarpered over the wall.
The cat was the right size for the paw holes and tunnel, so that may be mystery solved.
I would have updated sooner but there was no news despite me shining a torch every night and dragging DH out at 3am once to investigate like a nutter