I am coming into the forums a bit dejected tonight- it feels like I am losing the battle against an unknown pest or pests, and I am not even sure who I am up against!

Background: We moved into this house about a year and a half ago. The home is surrounded by a 1+ acre property that is mostly mixed perennials. The former owner was a master gardener, but unfortunately she had a fondness for a few species that are classified as noxious weeds/invasive species in my zone (5b). So, the first order of business for my first full season in the home (last spring/summer) was to remove the invasives and replace with natives. I removed loads of dame's rocket and Ox Eye Daisy, and replaced with a variety of native prairie forbs and grasses. Also, there was a small patch of lawn between a bunch of garden beds which was basically just there as a neutral zone under where she had her bird feeders. I took that out and replaced with no-mow grass to reduce the maintenance needs (it is small, steep, and disconnected from all other lawn areas so it was hard to mow).

I share the background because I'm not sure if the recent disturbance caused by my changes would have led to the pest activity. Either way, something is going CRAZY in my garden beds and in the brand new little no-mow lawn that took hours of back-breaking labor to get done. There seems to be some combination of a tunneling thing (mole? vole? chipmunk?) and a digging thing (skunk? fox? feral cat?) at work in my garden. It seems like every morning when I go out, I find new damage.

Any advice for me on how to curb this activity? Here's a photo tour.

HOLES IN NO MOW LAWN: these don't seem to be tunnels. They seem to be something digging for food- like grubs, maybe. The bare spots you see are holes from last week that I already tried to fill and patch. Of course the grass seed hasn't done much in this %&(&@ heat.
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TUNNELS AND HOLES IN GARDEN- here it looks like there may be a mole or vole tunneling around just below the surface, but I also have random holes (not burrows) that look like something is also hunting for grubs over here.

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ONE BURROW HOLE POSSIBILITY: I do see one hole that seems to lead somewhere-- I wonder if this could be a mole/vole/chipmunk burrow entrance? It's right next to a patch of volunteer strawberries that have decided to grow among my perennials.

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What do I do? I feel like I have compounding problems here and not sure where to start. Thanks for any advice on diagnosing or repelling whatever beast or beasties are making a mess of my garden!

What are you working on?

Integrated Pest Management