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I noticed a few piles of soil near plants in the garden. Not sure which critter is doing it.

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So far I have not seen any damage to the plants. But I'm wondering if this critter will cause any root damage. How to guard my plants against critters like these?

J. Musser
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yasouser
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    Pocket gophers make mounds like that, though I am not sure if they are in your geographical area. They push soil up out of their tunnel network as they dig. A hole with a small dirt plug would be nearby or within the mound. They eat roots and will pull entire plants down from below; there is no guarding, you must rid your yard of them. – Jimmy Fix-it Jul 29 '16 at 21:58
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    And several species of small mammals that eat grubs, insects, etc. also make such tunnels; they can be somewhat beneficial, depending on what there is that they are eating, So long as you see no plant damage and the dirt piles don't upset you too much, I'd "wait and see" before freaking out about it. – Ecnerwal Jul 30 '16 at 14:09
  • @Ecnerwal just love your attitude! – stormy Dec 13 '16 at 22:46
  • The comment by Jimmy Fix-it, sorry Jimmy, is wrong. There is no ridding one's little chunk of the environment of anything that will ever work. One sets themselves up for a lot of crazy work KEEPING them dead. Tide goes out (killing) tide comes in. Tide coming in will be larger than what you killed and more babies are born per litter to boot. I love Ecnerwal's 'freaking' out part. It is so true. Takes brains to create harmony, not killing and certainly sterilization of any part of the system is the worst thing us humans could do. – stormy Dec 13 '16 at 22:50

2 Answers2

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Your location would be helpful here, but it appears that whatever it was is after insects, etc, that are living in the decomposing mulch layer (not plants). If it's not rodents, it could be possums, coons, etc rooting through. It looks to me more like something rooting, rather than a rodent tunneling. The best way to stop this (in my experience), is to catch them in a live trap, and transport them to another location. I wouldn't worry about it so long as they aren't doing any damage to your plants. Also, it looks like pretty much all the turned up layer was decomposing mulch, so that shouldn't harm plant roots growing in the soil below.

J. Musser
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This all depends on location of course. This looks like squirrel gopher. Larger than vole and shrews. Usually the preferred food are grubs. Occasionally they will eat roots, bulbs and tender plants as well. If you don't have a big community of grubs. Echnerwal's opinion to 'wait and see' is wise.

J. Musser's live trap thingy is good...I like it but I have to say, when you remove a critter it only opens up a new niche in your environment for a few others to come and fight over it or fill it. Tide goes out tide comes in. Killing these survivalist species is just silly.

It has been proven that once an environment is compromised with poison and traps somehow that is translated into larger litters, more babies per pregnancy. The trick is to design and expect your garden to fit within the existing environment...a harmony.

These underground animals are wonderful in my opinion. I don't mind 'feeding' them at all. What they do for the aeration of your soil, top dressing of lawns and controlling other insects that without that control will become far worse on your plants than loosing a few to these wonderful, FREE, laborers. A little raking and a few plants that die from root damage or root exposure or eaten is a small price to pay.

There are Rodent Killing Killers Sites I've been harassing, mostly cause I inserted some common sense and the killers themselves became incensed and harassed me! The internet is a wonderful thing...grins!! I have never ever found it necessary to kill a mammal, even mice. Heck, most insects are welcome as they also control harmony. Remember, when you kill something you are opening a niche for more to come into your environment. If you can learn about your new 'family' members you stand a chance to figure out a way to create harmony. Humans are so arrogant. We think if we kill a little shrew that will 'save' our gardens and make sure we are in charge. Ha ha. If we don't understand the system there is no way we are going to make things better by killing

stormy
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    "Humans are so arrogant. We think if we kill a little shrew that will 'save' our gardens and make sure we are in charge. Ha ha. If we don't understand the system there is no way we are going to make things better by killing" --- I couldn't agree with you more. We finally ended up doing nothing like J. Musser suggested as we didn't notice any damage to the plants. – yasouser Dec 13 '16 at 23:24
  • Whew. I get in trouble an awful lot but really it isn't that I love animals and plants to the extreme I am not thinking. I am so very glad you understand, yasouser!! – stormy Dec 13 '16 at 23:30
  • BTW I would not exclude foxes, cats ot also some birds. Too many animals likes our gardens! – Giacomo Catenazzi Dec 14 '16 at 15:33
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    Having wildlife is an honor. Harmony is not setting up animals to cause damage, providing fences and relaxing about a little damage here and there. Feeding animals sometimes to be fair. The smells and plants and other animals will attract wildlife anyway. For them to be starving and looking through a window at survival is not fair. We feed bales of hay to keep elk and deer from jumping through our greenhouse. We feed feral cats so they aren't so willing to kill baby bunnies. Birds have never been a problem, a tad bit when planting corn but row cloth or shade cloth saved the day. – stormy Dec 14 '16 at 21:37