Moles in Texas, gophers or grubs? What is making the dirt piles in your yard

Three checks that tell you what dug your yard

Moles in Texas leave raised ridges along with their mounds, pocket gophers leave horseshoe-shaped mounds with no ridges, and root-feeding white grubs mostly leave brown turf instead. Check the freshest pile for three things.

• The pile's shape. A mole mound is circular or volcano-shaped with the plug in the middle, though the plug may not be apparent. A gopher mound is a half circle or horseshoe.
• An open hole, or not. A gopher's hole sits off to one side of the mound and is usually plugged. Armadillo feeding holes and crawfish chimneys are open.
• Raised ridges, or not. A winding raised ridge is a mole's shallow feeding tunnel, and gophers do not make them. One catch: AgriLife's turf damage table credits a thin S-shaped trail about 1/2 inch wide to mole crickets.

The drawing puts five culprits in one Central Texas yard, and the table lines up six, with who handles each one.

Mole vs gopher, and why one hunts worms while the other eats roots

Texas has one mole, the eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus), and it eats mainly earthworms, grubs, beetles and insect larvae. The pocket gopher is a different animal. Texas A&M's pocket gopher leaflet calls moles insectivorous and warns that their mounds sometimes resemble a gopher's, while the gopher eats mainly fleshy roots, trees included.

That difference decides the fix. An insecticide for grubs does nothing to a gopher, because gophers feed on plants, as UC ANR's extension FAQ notes.

The first half of the clip below shows how mole and gopher mounds and tunnels differ.

Mounds and holes in the yard that are not moles or gophers

Three other culprits leave mounds or holes, and none of them makes ridges.

• Fire ants. Texas A&M's fire ant project describes a mound of fluffy worked soil with no center opening, seen particularly a few days after heavy rain. We treat these under ant control.
• Armadillos. No mound, just shallow feeding holes dug in search of food, and more than 90 percent of an armadillo's diet is insect matter. Grub-infested turf may also be dug up by armadillos, skunks and raccoons. Armadillos are wildlife, and we refer wildlife jobs out.
• Crawfish. Mud chimneys that can reach several inches tall in poorly drained soil. They do not harm turf, no pesticide is registered or recommended for them, and improving drainage may reduce their activity.

Width helps with close calls. The gopher mound is the widest thing on the chart, and a mole's feeding tunnel is narrower than a gopher's.

Measure the pile, then the hole

Published widths for the mounds, holes and tunnels found in Texas yards. Inches.

Pocket gopher moundacross the horseshoe

8 to 24 in

Fire ant moundrarely wider than this

up to 18 in

Armadillo burrowdiameter

7 to 8 in

Armadillo feeding holeshallow, 1 to 3 in deep

3 to 5 in

Pocket gopher tunneldepends on species

2 to 5 in

Mole feeding tunnelunder the raised ridge

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 in

Crawfish chimney holecenter of the mud tower

about 1/2 in

Earthworm castingpellets in the thatch

1/8 in

06 in12 in18 in24 in

• Dug by a mammal
• Built by insects, worms or crawfish

Do grubs make dirt piles?

Mostly no. White grubs, the larvae of May and June beetles, feed on roots, so Texas A&M's E-211 guide describes brown turf that loses vigor and, when badly damaged, can be rolled up like a carpet.

The exception in the same guide is the green June beetle. Its larvae feed mainly on decaying organic matter. Their daytime resting places, near heavily mulched or organic-rich spots, are marked by small soil mounds on the lawn.

Grubs are a lawn-care call, and E-211 is the guide to follow. It says more than five grubs per square foot justifies treatment and puts the central Texas window in early to mid-July. Spring and winter treatments for 1-year grubs generally do not prevent turf damage.

The timeline shows the split: grub damage runs from summer into fall, while moles and gophers are most active in spring and fall. For every other pest, see the Austin pest calendar.

Which digger is busy this month

When each one shows up in Texas, as the sources put it. The gopher and grub rows are statewide ranges.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Moles most activedamp, cloudy days in spring and fall

damp, cloudy days in spring and fall

Mole litter, one a yearMarch to early April

March to early April

Gophers active near the surfacespring and fall

spring and fall

Gopher littersusually March to July

usually March to July

June beetle flightslate May in south Texas to early July in north Texas

late May in south Texas to early July in north Texas

Grub damage in turfJune to October, best treated early to mid July

June to October, best treated early to mid July

Cicada killers diggingJuly and August

July and August

• Months named by the source
• Season named by the source
• Wider window named by the source

Austin soil splits at I-35, limestone west and clay east

In Austin, Travis County AgriLife says I-35 helps separate the Edwards Plateau from the Blackland Prairie: thin soils over limestone to the west, black and reddish clays to the east. Along the river bottoms and the broad plains southeast of the city, the soils are often deep sandy loams.

Mammals of Texas places the eastern mole across the eastern two-thirds of the state, largely in moist, sandy soils, and says deep dry sands and heavy clays are avoided.

No source maps moles or gophers to Austin soils, so treat this as background, not a map of where moles live.

What you can fix yourself, and when to call

You can do the ID yourself, and for grubs or a crawfish chimney the fix does not involve us at all. For moles, ICWDM calls trapping the most successful and practical method, and the popular fixes below mostly miss.

It outgrows DIY when fresh ridges keep crossing the lawn. Our mole control is bait placed directly inside the active tunnels, below ground. It is $333 a stop with a three-stop minimum, so $999 for a lot up to half an acre, with thirty days between stops.

Each extra half acre adds $30 a stop, and if three stops have not settled it, the fourth is free. It is a set job, not part of the monthly plan. These are starting prices; your exact number depends on home size, lot size and current pest pressure. See pricing, or the full list of services.

Common questions