These holes give me a sinking feeling... (1 Viewer)

[JohnVee]

I don't believe the guy. I have never seen such smooth holes done by a critter-they are usually pretty ragged. I vote utilities problem. When critters tunnel through dirt the dirt has to move somewhere to displace the critter. It will go UP. If it's a critter, you will see mounds where they have displaced the dirt. On the other hand, if it's like, water, the hole will sink, as water will 'wash' the dirt, and tend to make it sink(the water is more dense than the soil)
Has your water bill increased lately?

I agree with you. No, my water bill has been stable except for a leaking toilet I was too busy to fix (now resolved). I even cut off the water supply line at the house, not the meter, and found zero flow at the meter based on the tiny flow dial it has. Any leak would be upstream of my meter but there have never been any wet spots in the yard.

I'm actually starting to lean towards thinking that there is a varmint opening somewhere on my property, or my uphill neighbors, that has been there for quite some time and rainwater is entering it and following existing varmint tunnels. I've not yet observed flowing water at the bottom of the holes, though; I've been sidelined with a pulled neck muscle since Xmas day so I'm behind schedule on this problem, but I'm feeling better now and will break out the shovel and se what it turns up.

 

[blkprj80]

That does start to look like water damage from a busted sprinkler pipe or something like that.
I had a pipe split on the side that pointed directly under my driveway slab. For a few weeks, I'd see a bit of mud on the edge of the driveway after the sprinklers had run. I figured it was a bad head, so I put it off until I could get to it. I had a cavern under the driveway the size of a big dog (estimated, as I could barely feel the back end of the hole with my shoulder against the slab).
Is there anything uphill that would find a preferred path through your yard there if there was a big storm?
I remember those pictures of that house that went off the lake cliff in TX last year. Shiiiit. Erosion is a bad thing sometimes.

For fun, here's how my yard looked with the super gasser thing. It's hard to believe that's all connected underground.

 

[sggoat]

Then there is always the C-4 trick--as in Caddy Shack

 

[JohnVee]

I just ordered a bunch of the Super Gasser. Should be here Tuesday. Looking forward to trumping the pics from @blkprj80. Couldn't find road flares anywhere and I'd probably go broke buying enough if I could.

 

[JohnVee]

I got 96 Super Gassers in the mail today. Put out 20 so far into obvious mole trail openings. I thought about doing the shop vac exhaust thing loading it from a steel bucket full of burning Gassers but opted to go trail by trail. Not seeing much connectivity so far. No good smoke pics.

My biggest holes were full of fresh dirt at the bottom after the last days rains. I made damn sure to open up the passages and put a couple Gassers inside.


...via IH8MUD app

 

[Brentbba]

x2 on the Gassers after water hose did nothing. Used those and and then took a good size mole trap, set it and shoved it into the well defined tunnel leading out to a common area hill behind my property. Covered it all up and I haven't seen activity for several years now. I've always wondered if the trap caught one of the little bastards and the rotting corpse has kept others away! LOL!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Definitely ailens like @Burt88 said.

 

[Oakley40]

Have burrowing rodent issues? Gotta take a look at the Rodenator http://www.rodenator.com/ Scroll down to the video. Pretty comical and "humane" as Mr Meyer says.

We have ground squirrels here that can do some damage that you show, but there are always spoils piles, so I doubt that is what it is. I agree with some of the others that think it's water flow. If there are no spoils from burrowing, then rainwater may be flowing underground to an abandoned pipe, septic system, well, or even a mine shaft (an even scarier thought...). Gold mining in NC was a pretty big thing at one time...Quite a bit around Charlotte actually.