What's digging this hole in my garden?

[Whathasitgotinitspocketses]

Help me out here. When we moved in there was a deep but small hole in the garden. We filled it, loosely, it stayed closed. Thought it was foxes digging, as we have them in the garden a lot.

A couple of days ago the exact same spot was dug out so yesterday I filled the hole and around it with some spare mud we had from planting a tree. But this morning it's freshly dug and it looks like some sort of den or an entry hole more than just digging. But whose?

I've added photos. Bear in mind the soil on the grass is a bit of red herring as I was trying to level the ground around it. Size 6 shoe for scale

Foxes or rabbits?

It looks like a rabbit hole next to the shoe. We had a fox den under the fence between us and our neighbours at the back and the entrance was partly concealed but much wider. Maybe check for droppings.

Interesting. Have never seen rabbits out here, have seen plenty of foxes and hedgehogs though

I would say rabbit as well. Could it be a lost pet bunny? Get a cheap wildlife camera to see what it is, and also its schedule as you could be burying something alive when you fill the hole 😮

I don’t think it’s a rabbit hole. You’d usually find rabbit droppings nearby. I don’t know what it is though. We have one and have never seen anything coming or going from it. We had a hole last year in the same place but which was a bit smaller than this year’s and big bees were coming and going.

I’ll watch this thread with interest.

Rat?!

Rats

I was going to say Rats

Squirrels are digging ours up, bold as brass

Do rats dig holes like that?

We had fox cubs that dug similar holes but they were wider and not so deep. That does look like the start of a rabbit burrow.

Badgers are churning up our lawn. Like animal rotivators. And they dig up plants and leave them neatly beside the hole, roots exposed, for DH to replant.

We had a family of them, the garden looked like the Somme. Neighbour said they were after the leatherjackets.

I saw a video the other day which suggested getting your hose out and flooding the hole. Nobody likes living in a damp house!

I have just googled @Whathasitgotinitspocketses and looked at the image, and the one that's coming up most is moles, also rabbits comes up quite a bit. (Too large for rats, too small for foxes) I think, most likely moles, possibly rabbits.

Rats. Sorry.

I think it may be a rat hole. Sadly we have similar issues. I’ve puzzled over this for years. Where does the soil go? I fill them in, they return. Never see them.

Defo Rats. Too small for rabbits and you’d see rabbit droppings.
Moles do have similar looking “air” holes but you’d see mole hills too - rats will often make use of old mole runs too.

Yes we just recently had them. Now the rats have been eliminated the holes have gone

The hole in our lawn is in the middle of it. Rats don’t dig out in the open. They usually do so near sheds, decking, etc. Where’s yours located OP?

Ditto. It's right in the middle of the grass. And I think we'd know if it was rats, our cat would be very interested. But she doesn't care at all. We have had mice in a quieter part of the garden but this seems too big to be rats to me

It's definitely not moles. It's the only hole in the entire garden which is fairly sizeable. And there's no soil (except the soil I've spread around it!)

Our rats dug in the middle of the garden and they were the size of cats 😂 - I hope it isn’t for your sake! Rabbits burrows are not normally that obvious I thought.

Cripes. I'll see if we can borrow a wildlife camera or get an okay one online... Will report back!

My daughter thinks it's weasels (big fan of wind in the willows). I don't have the heart to tell her it's definitely not that...

Rats

Look up Pest Interceptors on YouTube.