Knowledgebase
Lawn pest identification southern wake county #752683
Asked May 28, 2021, 10:38 AM EDT
Wake County North Carolina
Expert Response
Very curious. In wet areas crayfish can create mounds in lawns. See https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/crayfish-in-turf. Is your lawn wet?
Voles can’t make tunnels, and moles make tunnels, not kicking out so much soil in a single location. And it’s not like an ant mound.
Dear Tyler, here's the response to your question:
Very curious. In wet areas crayfish can create mounds in lawns. See https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/crayfish-in-turf. Is your lawn wet?
Voles can’t make tunnels, and moles make tunnels, not kicking out so much soil in a single location. And it’s not like an ant mound.
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Louise Romanow
Entomologist
Master Gardener Volunteer
Extension MG Program, Wake County
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I’ll send in on to NCSU's PDIC for their advice. This may take a few days.
Here’s what NCSU team wrote:
Mounds like this can be difficult to identify as several larger digging arthropods and vertebrates (moles and voles as you said) can cause them. If they see something going in and out that may help, but otherwise the soil would need to be removed from the surface and activity be monitored to see if a culprit can be found. Some likely culprits other than what's been mentioned are mole crickets, Earth-boring dung beetles (Geotrupidae), and some digging wasps (though there would likely be external holes for them).Please let me know if they find some other evidence.Matt
Looks like you’ll have to do more investigating
Thanks for the help. I never identified what they were, but a granular insecticide took care of them. I have been doing less of that for the last couple of years, and maybe that caught up with me!
From: Ask Extension [mailto:<personal data hidden>]
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2021 11:35 AM
To: Tyler H Robeson
Subject: Re: Lawn pest identification southern wake county (#0022614)
Thanks for the info.