Here are some photos of holes in the ground and I would like to ID what critter is making them. They go straight down not at an angle as far as I can tell. I would suspect our pocket gophers but they always leave a large unsightly mound of dirt. I would suspect gopher tortise except they always dig at an angle not straight down. These holes are anywhere from 2 to 3 inches in diameter and my guesstimate looking down in them is that they are 12 inches deep before I can't see any further. Can anyone help me please?

Tarantulas! Huge, hairy tarantulas! Just kidding. Maybe just a ground squirrel? Those are around here occasionally and I've never seen them make a mound around a hole. They may and I just haven't seen it. If the hole weren't so large, I might think it was an emerging grub of some kind or some of those huge insect eating wasps. Insects can actually move and displace a lot earth when you think about it. Dirt Dauber nests, the paper nests of wasps, fire ant mounds, and of course, tarantula holes .

As far as I can find we have no ground squirrels in Fl. There are eastern chipmunks in the far western panhandle but that's a long way from me.

Humm, Too small for bunny nests. I hope someone can ID them for you as I have no clue.

Certainly not like the bunny nests I have seen -- way too deep.

flaflwrgrl said:Certainly not like the bunny nests I have seen -- way too deep.

True!

My guess is either chipmunks or rats if the holes are small less than three or four inches.

I found this article when I was Googling to see if you have voles there, don't know if it will help at all:

Ground Hole Identification
http://icwdm.org/Inspection/Gr...

Ann, I would say it's crawfish. If the soil sandy, which it appears to be in the picture, then the crawfish would not be able to build the typical chimney. Wet sany soil would not hold together very well, and I can see a couple of dirt balls near the entrance, that looked like something a crawfish would make.

Crawfish? Put on a pan of water to boil. Then get some string with a bit of bacon rind tied to it. Dangle that over the hole and see if there's a taker. If not, go turn off the fire under the pan before the water boils away.

needrain said:Crawfish? Put on a pan of water to boil. Then get some string with a bit of bacon rind tied to it. Dangle that over the hole and see if there's a taker. If not, go turn off the fire under the pan before the water boils away.

I think I'm the only person in Southeast Texas that doesn't eat Mudbugs.

Thank you Sue! These are much larger than dime size so I don't think it's voles.

Donald -- too funny! Sorry to say that like Jay I don't eat mudbugs but give me an ocean bug & YUM!!!!! You know, the BIG UNS otherwise known as Lob-stah.

Jay, I can't believe I didn't think of that myself!!!! I *know* those kind of dirt balls -- have seen them all my life. Also crabs & fiddler crabs make the same kind of dirt balls as do land crabs. I did see some intact dirt balls the other day before it rained at another spot that had a smaller hole. It's either crawfish or land crabs. I just wasn't thinking that way since we're so far from the coast (70 miles) now but had I been near the coast I would never have had to ask the question b/c it would have been a no brainer for me.

Okay! I'm satisfied it's crayfish or crabs. Thanks everyone for trying to help!
I don't need to get rid of them; they can live here ~~~ I just wanted to know if it was something I should be concerned about.

flaflwrgrl said:
Okay! I'm satisfied it's crayfish or crabs.

Umm.... It's a crawfish, but crawdad is also acceptable. Crayfish is Yankee talk.

http://revolution-computing.ty...

Horntoad said:
Umm.... It's a crawfish, but crawdad is also acceptable. Crayfish is Yankee talk.

http://revolution-computing.ty...

I'll have to blame that one on all the yanks that invaded our portion of the southland.

We call them crawdaddies out west...

Crayfish in PA!

luvsgrtdanes said:Crayfish in PA!

and Michigan!!

oh -- maybe that's because we ARE Yankees ??

Guess so...been a PA girls for 54 years

flaflwrgrl said:Here are some photos of holes in the ground and I would like to ID what critter is making them. They go straight down not at an angle as far as I can tell. I would suspect our pocket gophers but they always leave a large unsightly mound of dirt. I would suspect gopher tortise except they always dig at an angle not straight down. These holes are anywhere from 2 to 3 inches in diameter and my guesstimate looking down in them is that they are 12 inches deep before I can't see any further. Can anyone help me please?

Maybe some type of snake lives there.

I really think it's crawfish/crayfish or some kind of crab tarev but snakes are welcome here too.