what would dig a potato out but not eat it?

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

the past couple weeks i have been noticing patches being dug out of my potato area. a few days ago i inspected each of the shallow holes that are about 8" wide and thought i noticed big stones right beside the hole. so i went to pick them up to toss aside my fruit tree growing nearby. nope, not a stone, one of my potatoes that was starting to grow tiny tubers. inspected it but didn't see any marks on it to suggest it was eaten or clawed by anything i would have expected.

i just found yesterday a mole hole but that isn't even near the potatoes, close to my tomato pots though. i'm hoping the holes and mess of what looks like some type of tunneling isn't a groundhog/woodchuck. would a raccoon or skunk do this? i've seen signs of raccoon hanging around the property lately but i would think it would have eaten the potatoes if it got one.

 

[897tgigvib]

Actual Moles are mostly insectivorous and also eat worms. Sometimes they'll eat nuts. A Mole would dig up a tater and not eat it, especially if there were a lot of worms around there.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i don't remember seeing a lot of worms in the potato area when i tilled since that was a new area full of grass and near some trees and scrub bushes. i can understand the divots in the garlic/pepper patch on the other side of the house where i found the mole hole, that is where i threw down shavings from last winter's coop clean out and there have been tons of nice wigglers in there! i don't think i'd mind as much if he stayed over there as long as he doesn't pop out my garlic during his search like he's been doing with the potatoes.

eta, he's probably been feasting on the huge night crawlers i've spotted on the garlic/pepper side on the house. it stays a little wetter over there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

8". That's a wide hole. How shallow? Here skunks and armadillos will leave holes when digging for grubs but not that big and that's usually in a grass area, not cleared ground.

Is a dog digging after voles or something maybe? Mine make holes like that in the yard when going after and sometimes getting moles.

Something canine is what I'd first think for something to make holes that size and not eat the potatoes; dog, fox, maybe coyote digging after some small critter.

Squirrels used to dig up anything I planted when I lived in suburbia, any time I disturbed the ground. They were so thick I'd usually see 5 playing in the back yard at any time of the day. I guess they thought another squirrel had buried a pecan there and was going to dig it up. I don't recall the holes being that big though and I don't know what squirrels or chipmunks would be going after in your potatoes?

Can you see any tracks in the soft ground? Maybe smooth the ground out and scatter some flour so they leave prints.

 

[lesa]

Cats in the neighborhood? One of mine loves to dig. She unearthed most of my elephant ear tubers...

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i thought canine at first too since my dog was in the garlic patch but he usually keeps out of areas i've told him are 'garden' and he usually avoids them without a reminder. but right around the time i started noticing the holes in the potato patch he started digging holes in the garlic patch when i tied him outside the coop while i did my chicken chores that morning. he's not allowed to roam the yard alone since it isn't fenced in, so he's on leash when we go out. i do have 2 neighbors' cats that frequent our yard often but i have yet to see them hanging around those 2 areas. they usually make a 'b' line to the stand of aspen trees growing behind the house and coop. i also haven't seen their poop in those areas and i know that is a sure sign they have been in there.

i also thought squirrels when i saw some of the smaller holes that looked like their acorn hiding spots. but this area has been planted for over a month and this just started happening about 2 weeks ago. squirrels and chipmunks would go for freshly planted stuff i've noticed. and they usually take a nibble to see if they like it. they did that years ago to tulip bulbs i had just planted at my parents.

i did do a coop clean out and added the stuff to the potato patch a few days before i started seeing the holes so i am wondering if the shavings/straw/poop mixture may have attracted whatever animal it is. so i'm thinking voles/shrews, but i know those also like to sample the spuds.

btw, the big holes tend to be shallow, only a couple inches deep. but some of my recently inter-planted kale has been kicked out of there holes too. usually only 1 or 2 and the same ones.

 

[catjac1975]

I would guess in NH it is a woodchuck. They eat their favorites first. They would never touch a tomato in my garden preferring tender emerging peas and beans, mowing down half your crop in a single meal. Yet a friend that grows little cannot grow tomatoes in an unfenced garden-woodchucks! If they ate nothing it could be that they just started on the den and got disturbed before much work was done. We can keep them out with a buried fence but when the garden gets dense they can get in creating a giant mound of dirt carefully hidden in a dense crop-usually large squash. They go inside during the heat of the day but have a front and back entrance when they are done. They create miles of tunnels under roads and under out garden. When my husband tills in the spring he often falls knee deep into a collapsed tunnel.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

well, i think that makes sense now. out of the 50 beans i've planted only 3 i noticed were coming up with little affecting them. the rest look chopped off but not like a cut worm's doing. they are growing around the edge of the potato patch. it also nibbled my chinese cabbage both in the patch and still in their container while i was waiting for the rain to go away. they have left the kale and brussel sprouts alone though. :/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ive seen three different things do that to beans. On the scale youre talking about, I suspect groundhog, woodchuck, or whatever else you want to call them. Remember when calling them you are on a family forum. Groundhogs will just mow beans down, just like you said. But why would that groundhog be digging in the potato patch when she has plenty of other stuff to eat, like beans and cabbage. What could it be after?

Ive had rabbits eat beans off like that. Not quite on that scale though in on night. Probably less than a dozen a night. I had to take 18 rabbits out of my garden last summer before I could get my fall bush bean crop established. Out of my garden, not just in the vicinity. I think our drought had a lot to do with that concentration. By the way, rabbits are still not an endangered species around here.

The last one was weird. I had a nest of rats in a pile of stuff near the garden. Every night, two or three bean plants would disappear from the end of the row. They were just mowing them down a few at a time. If I hadnt seen a rat out there one evening I dont know that Id have ever figured it out. Anyway, I got rid of the rats and that problem went away.

Dont totally neglect the possibility that you have a groundhog eating beans and something else digging in your potatoes.

 

[bj taylor]

I guess you don't have armadillos in NH do ya? they don't make big holes like that anyway, they're more gentlemanly about it.