Crosswords0 min ago
Do I have slow worms or lizards in the garden
Hi, We have noticed today some small dry crumbly earth mounds (a little larger that a chickens egg) in our grass which have holes the diameter of a pencil in the middle of them. My husband said that he saw something halfway out of the hole, of which he could see approx 2 - 3 inches, a yellow/brown/red colour. Unfortunately it moved quite quickly, he thought he saw a leg on it, but can't be 100% sure. We dug one of the holes out, but couldn't see anything. Completely intrigued and would be delighted to have some sort of reptile in the garden but also need to know if it something we don't want. We live next door to a park and get squirrels and foxes, plus lots of birds in the garden and last summer saw a lizard when putting up a greenhouse.
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by ceg56. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Slow Worms are legless Lizards, so I don;t think it would have been one of them, I regularly get them in my compost, mostly resting on top, if you had one, it would be a silvery colour, and they move really slowly.
I'd be interested to know what it is, so i'll be keeping an eye on your post, if you find out, please, post back.
Hi Lonnie & burnhal, I didn't expect such quick replies, I live near Dartford, Kent - not far from heathland and as I said in my posting, next to a park.
There are at the last count 11 of these in different locations around the lawn, loads of worm casts as well Burnhal lol so don't think it is a "Ruddy great worm" ;-0.
they don't have any similarity to the other casts and look like miniature mole mounds and are made of fine dry crumbly earth.
When I dug one of them out, the hole only went down a few inches and I know from when we had an extension built a few years ago, going down a few feet is solid chalk. So I think I will have to go out early to try and catch them out!!! Many thanks for your replies and will let you know what it is as soon as I find out.
Could be chafer grub or leatherjacket larvae. See: http://www.greengardener.co.uk/lawn.htm and RHS site for chafer grub: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0402/chafer.asp
To see if you have leatherjackets water a patch of the lawn then covering it in black polythene overnight. In the morning look for 1 inch legless grey-brown grubs. Control with suitable insecticide is the only way to eradicate them.
If it is only worm casts, brush them back into the turf as they are really good fertiliser. Have you seen more appear after rain? If so, may be simply the worms doing their thing. It is possible also that is is the earth dug up by badgers or hedgehogs (or birds) looking for grubs to eat.
HI Nickmo, Thanks, I have had a look at the links you posted and it doesn't look as though it is either of them. I was talking to a bloke who I buy get bird food etc from and described what I had found and he seems to think it could be a baby mole. I have spoken to my next door neighbour and he has checked his lawn and has got the same. There is no damage to the grass area except for the small mounds of very dry fine earth and the hole in the middle. Thanks for the reply, will put another post in when I find out anything else.
Many thanks for the replies.
Hi Nickmo,
we have had voles in the garden before, or should I say the cats have found them so even though they don't go far they could have got them from elsewhere. As far as I know the park next to us hasn't had moles and they have a large area of grass which is used for football and cricket.
The suspense is killing me!!!
Many thanks again
Hi Finnfann,
thanks for that, I did say to my husband about Masonary Bees as we had them a good few years ago. They made holes in a rockery and took up residence until we got someone from the council to "evict" them. The only difference is the mound of very fine dry earth around the hole.
Many thanks for your reply.
Hi ceg56;
I found pictures of excatly what you describe (and I have) at the site www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk. small mounds of dry earth with pencil sized holes in the centre,have a look and see if they are the same as the ones in your garden.
My husband has probably made the bees rather angry by stamping on their homes before we knew they were harmless,so our 4 year old will not be playing there for a while!
Related Questions
Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.