Pets Are Not The Only Animals To Damage Lawns

Our pets are often blamed for problems when, in reality, they have had little to do with the issue. Damaged lawns are a good example. A yellowish brown patch appears and poor old Fido gets blamed for weeing there. Perhaps it wasn’t Fido at all – in fact, there could be any number of reasons for that damaged patch of lawn and some of them involve animals from outside the home.

Here is a short list of some of the animals that can cause damage to your lawn. Of course, their attacks are almost always at night.

• Deer – deer tend to nibble the grass right back to ground level, effectively scalping patches in your lawn – and guess what, they tend to attack the best quality grass in your lawn.
• Voles – voles create interesting patterns in your lawn – interesting but damage that still requires work to repair
• Moles – moles cause less surface damage, however, the damage they cause to the roots can result in ugly brown patches that require reseeding.
• Gophers – pocket gophers like to burrow under the snow, however, they leave mounds or dirt tubes, all of which damage your lawn.
• Armadillos – these creatures like to shred the lawn in places where they think they may find a tasty bug or two.
• Racoons – while armadillos are selective where they search for bugs, racoons will tear up the whole lawn in the hope of finding a bug or two.
• Skunks - of the three, skunks are the friendliest, just digging a small hole where they have located a bug or two.

The damage from some animals can be much worse than others. However, they can still be a pain in the butt requiring extensive repair work. A good lawn repair tool is a must if your lawn receives frequent attacks. The lawn repair tool will help to prepare the soil for reseeding, thus avoiding the expensive task of taking up the old lawn and starting from scratch.

We can’t do much to prevent these attacks. There are commercial products around that do have limited success, but if an animal is hungry and they think there is food in your lawn then they will do everything to get to it. At least with the right lawn repair tools you can quickly repair any damage.