The animal digging holes in your yard is most likely a skunk, raccoon, armadillo, mole, vole, groundhog, or chipmunk, and you can usually identify which one by the size, shape, and pattern of the holes. A few quick observations, especially checking the holes first thing in the morning, will narrow it down fast.
Small Holes: Under 3 Inches Wide
If you’re finding holes smaller than about three inches across, the usual suspects are chipmunks, voles, ground squirrels, or sometimes snakes. Chipmunk holes are distinctive because they’re very clean, roughly the size of a silver dollar, with little to no loose dirt piled around the entrance. Chipmunks carry excavated soil away in their cheek pouches, so the tidiness of the hole is a reliable giveaway. You’ll often spot chipmunks during the day darting near the holes.
Thirteen-lined ground squirrels leave similarly clean holes, but you’ll typically find a second entrance within about 20 feet. Look for worn grooves in the grass between the two openings. These squirrels are active on warm, sunny days and easy to spot if you watch for a few minutes.
Voles create a different pattern altogether. Instead of individual holes, they leave networks of small openings connected by surface runways through damaged or thinned-out grass. If your lawn looks like something has been chewing trails through it, with small holes scattered along those trails, voles are the likely cause.
Shallow, Scattered Holes Appearing Overnight
This is one of the most common complaints, and it almost always points to skunks or raccoons foraging for grubs, earthworms, and other insects in your soil. Both are nocturnal, so the damage appears between dusk and dawn.
Skunks press their nose to the ground and dig with their long front claws, leaving holes roughly the size of their snout surrounded by a ring of loosened soil. In heavy infestations, your lawn can look like it’s been tilled, with dozens of small, cone-shaped holes concentrated in one area. The key identifier: the holes are neat and relatively uniform.
Raccoons do something different. Instead of poking individual holes, they use their front paws like hands to grab chunks of sod and flip them over. If you’re finding torn-up pieces of turf that have been peeled back or rolled, that’s raccoon work. This is especially common on newly laid sod or lawns with shallow root systems, since the grass pulls up easily.
Armadillos (in the southern U.S.) also forage this way, creating many shallow holes one to two inches wide and up to six inches deep as they root for invertebrates. Armadillo damage tends to be widespread, with dozens of small divots scattered across the yard rather than concentrated in one spot.
Mounds Without Visible Holes
If you’re seeing mounds of dirt but can’t find an actual hole, you’re probably dealing with moles or pocket gophers. Both live almost entirely underground and push excavated soil to the surface.
Mole mounds are small (under six inches across), symmetrical, and volcano-shaped with an exit hole right in the center. Moles also create raised ridges across your lawn where their shallow tunnels run just below the surface. These ridges are the classic sign. Moles eat insects and earthworms, not plants, but their tunnels can damage roots indirectly by creating air pockets around them.
Pocket gopher mounds are larger, around ten inches across, and shaped like a crescent or fan. The hole is plugged with a cap of soil and sits off to one side of the mound rather than in the center. You won’t see a visible entrance. Gophers tunnel six to twelve inches below the surface and, unlike moles, they do eat plant roots, bulbs, and tubers.
Large Holes: 6 Inches or Wider
Holes six inches or larger point to bigger animals. The most common culprit in suburban yards is the groundhog (also called a woodchuck). Groundhog burrow entrances are 10 to 12 inches in diameter, angled steeply downward, and marked by a large mound of excavated dirt at the main entrance. They favor spots along fence rows, stone walls, building foundations, and the bases of trees. If the hole is near a structure or at the edge of your yard where it meets a brushy area, a groundhog is a strong bet.
Red foxes, skunks, and coyotes also dig larger holes (six to twelve inches across), typically near the base of trees, logs, or walls. Fox dens often have multiple entrances and scattered prey remains nearby. Armadillo burrows are round, seven to eight inches across, and usually found in soft or sandy soil.
In the southeastern U.S., a large hole with a substantial pile of sandy soil in front could belong to a gopher tortoise. Their burrow entrances have a distinctive shape: flat on the bottom and rounded on top, wider than they are tall. Gopher tortoises are a protected species in many states, so identification matters.
Wild Pig Damage
If your yard looks like someone took a rototiller to it, with large swaths of torn-up ground rather than individual holes, wild pigs may be responsible. They root through soil aggressively across wide areas, creating deep, messy damage that looks nothing like the work of smaller animals. In wetter spots, they also create muddy wallows where they roll to cool off. Wild pig damage is common in rural and semi-rural areas throughout the southern and central U.S. and is expanding into new regions.
Non-Mammal Holes
Not every hole comes from a furry animal. Cicada killer wasps, which are common throughout eastern North America, dig burrows in bare or thin-grassed soil. These are large, intimidating-looking wasps, but they’re solitary and pose very little threat to people or pets. Their burrows are roughly dime-sized with a small mound of loose soil around the entrance. Crayfish create small mud “chimneys,” little towers of rolled mud pellets, in wet or poorly drained areas of the yard.
How to Stop the Digging
The most effective long-term approach is removing whatever is attracting the animal in the first place. For skunks and raccoons tearing up your lawn, the draw is almost always grubs. Treating your lawn for grubs with a biological soil treatment in late summer or early fall eliminates the food source and often stops the digging within a season.
Scent-based deterrents can help in the short term. Rags soaked in vinegar, sweaty clothing, used cat litter in small paper bags, or animal hair placed near the digging sites all introduce predator or human scent that makes foraging animals uneasy. These work best when combined with other sensory deterrents like a motion-activated light or a radio tuned to a talk station (human voices sound predatory to most mammals, while music does not).
For burrowing animals like groundhogs, physical barriers are more reliable. An L-shaped mesh barrier buried along the base of a shed, deck, or fence prevents animals from digging underneath. The horizontal foot of the “L” extends outward underground, blocking attempts to tunnel past the vertical section. Once an animal has left a burrow, seal the entrance with packed soil or hardware cloth to prevent reuse.
Keep your yard less inviting by trimming tall grass, clearing brush piles, and removing fallen fruit or accessible pet food. Animals that feel exposed and can’t find easy meals will move on.
Trapping and Relocation Rules
Before you set a trap, know that most states regulate wildlife trapping and relocation. In many jurisdictions, transporting a trapped animal to another county is illegal without a permit, particularly for rabies vector species like raccoons, skunks, and foxes. Some areas prohibit relocating animals off your property entirely, requiring instead that a licensed nuisance wildlife control officer handle removal. Trapping a parent animal during breeding season can leave offspring behind to die, so timing matters too. Check your state wildlife agency’s rules before taking action, or hire a licensed professional who already knows them.