Burrowing pest near raised bed, please help

[Nathan Reed]

I'm new here so I hope this is the right place for this! I want my garden to be completely organic, so any pest control I do needs to be organic, I think this is the right place?

I just noticed this today! something has burrowed around my raised bed and I'm very worried. this is my first year gardening and these are my main vegetables, I would hate if some critter ate them all

I have beets and two kinds of carrots in here, and I'm afraid something might be getting at them from the looks of this trail? I honestly don't know what it could be, but if you have a guess and some ideas of what to do about it please share, I have no idea what to do!

[digitS']

Here is something that has worked for me with gophers - pester them!

I take a metal rod and a hammer. Thirty minutes of punching holes in about 40 square feet of earth will, at least, let them know that they aren't welcome!

Pester them. I have rid my garden environment of ground squirrels by finding rocks slightly larger than the size of their burrows and using a block of wood and a sledge hammer to drive about 3 burrow-sized rocks in each hole! Someone pointed out to me that they live 6 months out of every 12, underground. Well, they didn't make a reappearance that year or the year following so ... it was effective from my standpoint.

Guard your Garden!

Steve

[Meatburner]

That looks more like moles than gophers or ground squirrels to what I see around here. Not sure about the detailed remedy is appropriate without knowing what the culprit is. Just my opinion.

[digitS']

I don't think it is a ground squirrel, either. Nor, a ground hog or their marmot 20# cousins we have to contend with here. Their raiding would likely be above ground and at a distance from their burrows.

Mole activity would be a serious "disruption" to a small garden. I would prefer earthworm activity and my own cultivation to moles.

Steve

[Nathan Reed]

THANK YOU digitS! you sound like a pro at keeping these things away! I'll try your method. and I think after I harvest what's in this bed I'll dig it out and line it with hardware cloth. I've been doing some searches and I probably should have done the hardware cloth thing in the beginning. I guess that will protect it from burrowing things. geez, I did all that work building a cage to protect the top and left the underground open to attack lol!

and yes Meatburner I do think it's moles, this is my grandparents place and I remember grandpa having problems with some tunneling animal, I asked and they said moles so that's probably it.

thanks for the input guys, I feel less worried about it now (:

[Lindsaylew82]

If you can find the main hole..... My nanny and papa used to fill up milk jugs with water and then turn it upside down on the gopher hole. The gopher would try to escape the flood, and crawl right into the milk jug! Then she would hurry and cap it off.

I do NOT know what happened to the creature after that..... But it was great fun watching this as a kid!

[ButterflyLady29]

Moles.Grow castor beans around your beds. Works for me.

[Gary350]

Yes you have moles. I have allowed moles to take over my yard and garden they are my friends. Moles eat grubs, cut worms, wasp larva and lots of bugs. Moles do good things for the soil and never damage the garden.

[ButterflyLady29]

The moles in my yard did damage the garden. True they were just eating grubs and worms but those critters would go into the loose soil around newly planted transplants and just planted seed beds. So next I would have pushed up plants and disturbed seed beds. Those mounds and holes were trip hazards and hard to mow across.