WTF, seriously W-T-F*K!!!

I’m at my wits end here trying to figure out WHY WHY WHY do the squirrels in my neighborhood all make a beeline RIGHT for my lawn and dig it up with gusto?

I’ve had this issue going on since we moved in and I reseeded my front lawn and have had Lawn Doctor coming and laying down their various fertilizers and sprays and limes etc, and I just had them core aerate everything and then I overseeded.

It’s almost like all of these things attract them to come and dig holes, some as deep as 4 inches and 2-3 inches wide. All the lawns on each side of me and across from me are pristine, untouched. These little bastards just come to mine and dig incessantly.

The core aeration already turfs up the sod a good amount but they came in the week since and have turfed it up really bad. My lawn now looks like total shit and the new seed is never going to get a chance to germinate.

No other neighbors appear to do treatments or have a service like LD come.

Is it the seed? It’s uncoated
Is it some of the chemicals LD uses?
SOMETHING is attracting them! We have a hickory out back that produced 10 metric shit tons of nuts last year but this year it’s produced virtually none so it can’t be that. I’ve even caught these tree rats IMPORTING acorns from a house down the block and burying them in MY yard, yet that guy’s lawn is thick and luxurious and unmarred by holes.

HELP! I don’t know what to do here but I’m nearly at the point of the one member here that said “fuck it” and just let the crabgrass grow and mow that. We just had a baby 6 weeks ago and I don’t have the time to always be dicking with this and it seems to get worse the more I screw with it!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's probably the lack of lead or copper.

A nice .177 cal, a .22lr depending on how close the neighbors are.


But the first one, ya gotta send a message to the other "rats with tail perms".
String that lil bastard up still alive, skinned...
Let the others know not on your lawn!

I've tried signs, but squirrels aren't really known for their reading ability.

I also hear that fox urine works.

get yourself a rat terrier

I'd guess it is about food.... grubs in the ground or putting nuts away for winter.

Might worth getting info from a lawn spray service and maybe trying their services for a year.

Best of luck.

Andrew

They must be commuting between your lawn and mine.

They're burying acorns.

Between them and the cicada-killer wasps they've aerated our lawn in a very unsightly fashion.

Must be too much competition for the armadillos, haven't seen one in a long time.

The little shits are all in my yard too. In my case, I think it's the greater number of trees on the one side of the house and in the park across the street, plus the fact that I have this damned black walnut tree.

I see very few on the "up" side of the street, both in my neighbors' yards and on that side of my house, but lots on the "down" side of the street where the trees and/or vacant lots are.

I have tons of squirrels but what little digging they do is not noticeable . Armadillos on the other hand are destructive as hell . Sounds like what you described .

Could it be the ground in your lawn is softer, and easier for them to dig in, than the neighbors?

We have oaks, squirrels and stony, clay soil. So they like to hide their acorns in our pots instead of doing the hard work of digging in the yard.

How lovely it is to get acorn seedlings in the pots, come spring. Not.

Curb appeal.

You need a few more Hawks in the neighborhood to get them to pay attention elsewhere.

My yard has been getting tore up this year, similar holes as OP described, but in my case it's not squirrels. I do have a lot of squirrels and I have not seen any of them digging the type of holes I'm finding. I've heard skunks will do this looking for grubs, but they do it during the night so I haven't been able to apply the "lead treatment".

You think squirrels are bad? You should see what a grub-hungry skunk can do to your lawn....

Tell me about it! I've got portions that look like a stampede went through it.

I’d say it’s the seed. Maybe aerating it makes it easier to dig in as well. Fuck the lawn til next spring. Enjoy your new baby and catch up on some rest while the little one sleeps. Congrats on the baby, btw.

Rat traps loaded with peanut butter and peanuts placed where only the squirrels will get to it. But you have got to have the stomach for that type of thing.

I'd be happy if they were just digging in my lawn. We live in a rural area and they are everywhere. They have chewed through the main propane line in my RV, I fixed that and added braided stainless steel sheathing to it. Next time maybe they will break their teeth trying to chew it.

So they moved on to my 2018 Ram 2500, climbed on top of the fuel tank, under the bed, and started chewing the fuel tank vent line, all the way through. Got a check engine light and a fuel cap light. I replaced the fuel cap, which didn't fix it, crawled under the truck and followed the fuel lines, reached up on top of the tank where I can't even see, and found both ends of the vent line. I fixed that, now waiting on the next adventure. I'm afraid they may chew on the wiring on our cars.

A hungry tomcat is the answer!!

They are quite busy in our yard in Mccandless.

I can live with the yard digging, sigh... but many of their other activities are destructive. They have chewed on the rubber/foam seals on all of our cars under the hood as well as the rubber hoses for vacuum and antifreeze. We have one Volvo that is outside and they insist on using it as an acorn and nut processing facility. Every time I turn on the @$#$# concealed windshield wipers pieces of nuts/acorns fly everywhere. Weekly I have to open the hood and take a brush and clean out shell/acorn debris from that area. I dunno.
But it is interesting to note that in our neighborhood we have quite a mix of grey, red and black squirrels.
I was always told in the past that black squirrels (due to the genetic mutation) have more testosterone which "may" make them dominate the red squirrels. (Some folks say the red ones are aggressive and the most destructive). Black and grey squirrels can carry squirrel-pox (Squirrel Fibromatosis) and red squirrels evidently have no immunity and can die in a matter of days and weeks if infected.
Here's what we have to deal with-

Red squirrel – The smallest North American squirrel only weighs about 200 to 250 grams with a body length of 18-20 centimeters and a tail 10-15 cm. They prefer conifer tree seeds. Their coats come in many shades, from a grey-brown to rusty red. They generally have a white ring around their eyes.
Fox squirrel – Brown-grey, brown-yellow or brown-orange fur highlights these larger rodents that can have a body of up to 70 cms. They can weigh up to a kilo. They prefer forests with oak, walnut and hickory trees.
Eastern gray squirrels – These squirrels are generally gray but do have color variations. They have a body length of up to 30 cm, with the tail often as long as the body. An adult can weigh between 400 to 600 g. These squirrels are the most common in Ontario.
Black squirrels – All black squirrels are a mutation of the gray squirrel. Brown-black squirrels have one mutant gene and one normal gene that determines the color of the fur.
Western gray squirrel – The Western gray squirrel is usually found on the west coast of the North American continent. These tree squirrels can weigh up to 1 kg, with a body length of 50 cm. These squirrels prefer to live in trees. They come to the ground to forage and are shy around humans.
Who would have thunk it.

They will dig out old hickory nuts that fell in prior years leaving those black quartered pieces and lot of small holes everywhere.

As if the squirrels are not bad enough, I now have a woodpecker problem as well. Our house has cedar siding, and one or more have pecked several 2-inch wide holes into the attic. I guess they are trying to nest in there.

I fill in the holes with wood putty, and they just peck another. Damnation!