Yes, skunks dig holes, and they’re one of the most common culprits behind mysterious overnight lawn damage. They leave behind small, cone-shaped holes about 3 inches wide and deep, typically clustered together in patches. If you’ve woken up to find your yard pockmarked with shallow divots, skunks are high on the suspect list.
Why Skunks Dig
Skunks are after food. They have a strong sense of smell and can detect earthworms, grubs, and other soil-dwelling insects just below the surface. White grubs (the larvae of beetles) are a particular favorite. A skunk presses its nose into the soil to locate prey, then uses its long front claws to dig out the area. The technique is efficient but messy: they rip through turf, eat what they find, and move on to the next spot.
Heavy rain or overwatering makes the problem worse. When soil is saturated, grubs migrate closer to the surface where skunks can smell them more easily. Once the lawn dries out, the digging typically stops. So if your yard suddenly looks torn up after a few rainy nights, the combination of wet soil and hungry skunks is the likely explanation.
What Skunk Holes Look Like
Foraging holes are small and cone-shaped, roughly 3 inches across and 3 inches deep, surrounded by a ring of loosened soil. They’re about the size of a skunk’s nose. You’ll rarely see just one. Skunks dig an array of individual holes, often clustered close together. In extreme cases, so many holes overlap that the ground looks like it’s been tilled, with large patches of loose turf peeled back.
Occasionally you’ll find a larger, more dramatic hole. This happens when a skunk discovers an underground wasp nest, which it will dig up aggressively in late summer or fall. You may notice chunks of honeycomb scattered around these bigger excavations.
Foraging Holes vs. Den Burrows
Skunks make two very different types of holes, and it helps to know which you’re dealing with. The shallow, nose-sized divots across your lawn are foraging damage. They’re cosmetically annoying but don’t threaten your property.
Den burrows are a different story. When skunks establish a nesting site, they dig under buildings, sheds, decks, concrete foundations, or stone walls. Den openings are 4 to 6 inches wide and often have a faint skunk smell near the entrance. Females typically den in spring to raise litters of four to six babies born in May or June. They also use abandoned groundhog burrows, hollow logs, and rock piles. These deeper burrows can undermine foundations and porches over time, so they’re worth taking seriously if you spot one near your home.
When Skunks Are Most Active
Skunks are primarily nocturnal, which is why the damage seems to appear overnight. Late summer and fall are peak digging season, when grub populations are highest and skunks are fattening up. That said, skunks will dig any time food is available. They sometimes forage during the day, especially mothers feeding hungry offspring or when pet food is left outside.
Is It a Skunk or Something Else?
Several animals dig up lawns, and the holes they leave behind are distinct enough to tell apart.
- Raccoons pull up large sections of sod and flip them over, leaving behind ragged, torn patches rather than individual holes. The damage is messier and more destructive than what skunks do.
- Moles create raised tunnels and ridges running across the lawn. They don’t leave open surface holes the way skunks do.
- Squirrels dig small holes to bury or retrieve nuts, but these are scattered randomly and don’t appear in dense clusters.
If you see dozens of small, cone-shaped holes concentrated in one area, with rings of loose dirt around each one, that pattern points to skunks.
How to Stop the Digging
The most effective long-term fix is removing what skunks are digging for. If grubs are the main attractant, treating your lawn with a grub-control product in late summer reduces the food source. Beneficial nematodes (microscopic organisms you water into the soil) are a non-chemical option that targets grub larvae. Once the grub population drops, skunks lose interest.
Watering habits matter too. Overwatering pushes grubs toward the surface where skunks can detect them. Letting your lawn dry out between waterings keeps grubs deeper in the soil and makes your yard less appealing.
For den burrows under structures, exclusion barriers are the standard approach. Hardware cloth or galvanized mesh buried 12 to 18 inches deep around the base of a deck, shed, or porch prevents skunks from digging underneath. If a skunk is already denned up, wait until the animal has left for the night before sealing the entrance, and avoid doing this during May through August when babies may be trapped inside.
Repairing foraging damage is straightforward. Press the loosened turf back into place, water it, and it will typically re-root within a week or two. For heavily damaged areas, overseeding with grass seed and keeping the soil moist speeds recovery.