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Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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Posted by
mcgov NY (
My Page) on
Tue, Aug 16, 11 at 20:11
| I am really new at gardening and could use some help.
On top of my black mulched garden area's there has appeared lots of small mounds of loose soil. Like big ant hills but the soil is pea sized.
Anyone have any idea what is doing this and how to get rid of it? The earth under the mulch has become very soft like moles are living there...
thanks in advance |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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- Posted by val_s z5 central IL (My Page) on
Tue, Aug 16, 11 at 21:55
| It's probably Cicada killer wasps. I have them every where this year. In my mulch, along the sidewalks, any where there's loose soil. Val |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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| ditto, Those wasps are huge and scary, but the cicada pressure this year is obscene, from 7am to 8pm constant buzzing. I steer clear of the holes and go about my business. |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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| Those may be worm castings and that loose soil may be from earthworm activity. |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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| Why not moles? If the piles are fairly big (several handfuls of dirt) they probably are. Would the cicada killers dig pea-sized chunks? Seems kinda large for them. If there is no small hole in the center where they go in and out, I'm guessing moles. So get some mole traps, or a cat. Thanks for posting the link to cicada killers, I was just playing golf last weekend in Nebraska and they scared the crap out of me. I did not know what they were. Sounds like the males fight with each other and do not have stingers, so as menacing as they look they are fairly harmless. |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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| mcgov, if you can attach some decent pictures of the mounds, it will really help us come up with an accurate identification. Put a coin or something in the picture so that we can get an idea of the size. |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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Moles leave big clumps of soil visible from a distance.
Cicada Killers and worms leaves clumps of soil that aren't that visible unless you are specifically looking for them. |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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| Sounds sort of mole cricket-ish, too. Are mole crickets an issue in your location? |
RE: Weird clumps of soil on top of mulch
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| The cicada killers I saw the other day had holes bigger than your thumb, at a flat angle into the ground, with a tailings pile about 6-8" long and an inch or two high. Definitely visible from 15 ft. away, but not nearly as big or the same shape as a mole hill. |
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