Nocturnal veg patch destroyer

miezekatze

I have a vegetable patch / raised bed in my garden, it's about 3x1.50 m in size, in a wooden frame. I've been using it for a bit over a year and I put some netting over it to prevent it from being used as a litter box by the neighbours cats which has worked quite well. I currently have strawberries, gem lettuce and shallots in there, and I put down seeds for other lettuce, spinach and carrots. The seedlings are just starting to grow.

For the last two nights, something got under the netting and dug lots of holes in the ground. Yesterday morning I thought everything was destroyed, there were between 8 and 10 holes, it looked awful! I managed to save most of it though and put the netting on a bit more securely. However, this morning I noticed another 3 or 4 holes in the ground! They are 10-15 cm deep which is about the depth of my vegetable patch.

Does anyone know what kind of animal could have done this? Maybe a Fox or something like that? It must have been fairly strong to get under the netting. I don't think it was a cat as the holes were not filled in and I didn't see any faeces. What else could I do about this? We live in the Dublin suburbs btw, not in the countryside, so there isn't too much wildlife around. I have seen a hedgehog in my garden before though, and a fox in my driveway.

my3cents

If you used Bone Meal then foxes can think there is something buried and try and dig it up.

Some idea of the size of the holes might help. Look also for poo, foxes often mark where they have been foraging.

miezekatze

I didn't find any poo. The holes were about 15 cm in diameter and about the same depth.

I didn't use bone meal.

my3cents

Sorry other than Cat (or Fox) I can't think of anything.

Badger is the only other thing I know that scrapes out a hole that size. looking for grubs, he'll push his way through anything.

Don't know about squirrels?

miezekatze

Don't think there are any squirrels around here.

Yeah I think it might be a fox. Hopefully if I tie down the net even more it will leave my veggies alone.

mr chips

Could it be rabbits?

miezekatze

mr chips wrote:

Could it be rabbits?

I've never seen any around, but I guess it's possible. I also noticed some small holes at the back of the garden now where the soil would be a lot harder to dig up.

I tied down the net a bit more securely and didn't get any more holes/damage last night. I hope whatever it was has moved on, but I'll keep an eye on it. It will be difficult to keep the net on like that once everything has grown a bit.

lk67

Rats can often be responsible for this kind of damage. They find it easy to dig for grubs in loose soil.