Hello all
I was watering one of my grapevines with the hose, and a kind of sinkhole opened up right next to the trunk. Didn’t matter how much water I was pouring, it just disappeared. Normally it kind of pools around a bit for a while. A bunch of the roots started getting exposed, and there was quite a bit of empty space under the ground. I just noticed the same thing happening on my peachtree and another vine, all within the same area. They’ve been in the ground about two or three years, haven’t seen anything like this happen in the garden before. Any idea what would cause this?
Not sure if it’s related, but I had covered the ground in the area with cardboard to act as a mulch. I also had a horrendous beetle problem last summer that completely destroyed the grape crop by skeletonizing all the leaves. Could it be beetle grubs digging and destroying the ground? I can’t really dig around in there, as it will probably kill the plants.
Around here it’s pocket gophers that tunnel around the roots and eat the roots. You can run water down their burrows forever. I suppose it could be the grubs. My concern would be the roots. Are the grubs or something else eating the roots?
we have the same issues with moles. I can usualy dig around with my hand and find the path of the hole and if it’s really bad or righ near the roots I’ll back fill with more dirt…unfortunately, it’s a losing battle.
I’m guessing moles or voles. If you can find a tunnel you can get a trap or just push down the soil with a pole or some other piece of wood and hope they don’t come back. Some burrowing creatures eat the roots so it’s best not to ignore the problem.
Not sure if the roots are being eaten, but all of these plants have been doing worse than last year, although it could be unrelated. I’m sure having part of the rootball exposed doesn’t help.
I don’t think it’s gophers, but I would not be surprised if it’s moles or some kind of insect like a grub . Big nasty looking grubbs are all over the place here. Do moles eat grubs, and would be attracted to all of the beetle grubs in the area?
Earthworms or some other natural process wouldn’t cause this?
yes, moles love grubs, but they eat worms as well…
I found the exact same thing in another section of the garden which is normally quite damp compact soil. It was on my large blueberry bush. Exactly the same MO: A mouse-sized hole directly against the trunk and going down into the roots. I got the ground good and wet on all three holes I found, and stamped around with my boots kind of collapsing the ground in. Then I shoveled in some new dirt from another area and packed it down a bit. Then added more water.
They are some sort of ground rodent. Some are burrowing in search of grubs. Those do not eat the roots but their burrowing can disturb the roots. If they have mined the area and gotten the grubs then just stomp down the tunnels. There are some that are vegetarian and just eat roots but use the tunnels created by the former. Before stomping down the holes you can try trapping them by placing a rat or mouse trap baited with peanut butter at any opening. This forum has lots of posts on catching moles/voles/ground rodents. If you have the root eating kind I think you would see much more damage.
Yeah, I think the plants will pull through, but all three of these are stunted this year compared with last year. May be related. Hopefully they took out some of the nasty grubs while they were at it.
Do people let the grub eating moles be because their advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
Just to confirm, it’s definitely moles. Tonight I found a comparatively huge mound around my favorite citrus tree, which kind of pissed me off. At first I thought someone had dumped a shovelful of dirt around the tree.
I guess it’s a good sign, as that area was like a desert before I took it over a couple years ago.
I’m impressed, those guys can really make tracks, they’ve gone from one end to the other of a very long garden.
Something which may be related I hadn’t seen before tonight: i’ve caught this beast on motion sensor night vision camera twice over the last couple of years, it’s kind of a cross between a fox and a large dog. I heard what sounded like a cougar with a sore throat, and up above in the graveyard there were these two large eyes reflecting back from my spotlight. He obviously wanted to come down into my garden, but was being blocked by a very brave or stupid farm cat. Not sure if he didn’t kill him because I was there trying to make him uncomfortable. During the night he kept getting closer, and I heard some rustling in the bushes nearby while I was trying to work in the garden, which kind of freaked me out,. So I decided to let him have it and left, not before switching on my camera.
Maybe he’s after the moles…
Lots more holes popping up all over the place, even after I fill them in they just come back. I’m not sure the mouse traps are a good idea, as there’s cats patrolling the area regularly, And I don’t want them to get a paw stuck in it. I’ll try to pick up a trap thats safe at the store. At least the holes are easy to find.
By the way, I finally IDed the mystery animal. It’s a new animal to me I never even knew existed. It’s called a civet. They eat everything apparently, although their favorite is sweet ripe fruit!
Oh! I just learned a new animal… sooo cute! But not too good for your fruits… Thanks for the update… Hope for you things get better!
Well, the problem just keeps getting worse and worse. I backfill holes I find, but in some cases theyre reopened the next day. More ominously, much of the garden feels very spongy now and it slightly collapses and I step on it. I think there must be a whole bunch of them that have dug through almost my entire garden by now. I can see where a lot of the roots must’ve been damaged. I imagine this would be a probable reason for a whole host of bizarre performance issues with many of my plants.
I’m finally able to start cutting the grass very short. Need to get more batteries though for the gutless grass cutter I bought. We also bought a kind of vibrating weathervane which is supposed to deter them. I’m very skeptical how well that works. There are some small tubular live traps. But I’m skeptical how well these will work because they need to be inserted into a hole, and I’m told moles are very difficult to catch.
I might try the peanut butter mouse trap technique. I know the peanut butter Will get covered with 1 million bugs within the hour, and I have to find someway to stop other animals from stepping on it like cats.