Having a heck of a time with my lawn this season. June "monsoons" followed by a heat wave. I just put down corn meal hoping to cure brown spots that might be fungus...rotting grass...or I don't know what. I noticed some small holes about the size of a pencil eraser near some of the worst brown areas. The grass doesn't pull out easily as it would for grubs, but could there be some other bug causing this? I spotted some other round holes that were a bit larger near a maple tree. No signs of tunneling. I'm in Rochester, NY with a KBG and PR lawn...some bentgrass has returned after I thought it was gone for good- murdered it twice with Roundup last year. The KBG is Midnight from Summit Seed as is the PR. I raised my mower, stopped doing my favored golf course cut, used Alfalfa meal once a month since May and really thought that this year would be different, but as soon as the rains ended and the heat hit 90's, everything started going down hill. We've watered during the heat but I don't see much impovement...won't know if the corn meal is working for a few weeks. As for the holes?? Clueless. Thanks for any info you can supply.

If the holes or tunnels are really only 1 inch in diameter, I'm guessing wasps or bees. Try watching the holes for a while and see if anything flies in or out. I have had them before and sprayed wasp & hornet spray into the hole, saturating the area, them filled the hole with soil and saturated the soil with more spray. Later on walk by and if you see bees buzzing around where the hole was, spray them, too. It could also be chipmunks, but their holes are more like 2 - 2.5 inch diameter. I've got them now, too. You can keep filling the holes, but they keep digging them out again. You have to trap & release them, or humanely destoy them, first.

Just wanted to add something. I tried a couple of years ago hiring a professional and he put out rat traps in some sort of black boxes and caught quite a few (all that were left were a couple of paws, etc.) and at nite the skunk smell would knock you out. Also one had a possum caught in it - by the head and I just called up the company and told them to take away the traps. It is against the law in MA to trap and release and I won't take a chance cause I know someone who got caught and I don't need that problem too. I tried replellents too. Right now I am waiting for Aubacheon.com order for a rabbit repellent with stinky eggs in it as I am overrun with rabbits also (found rabbit feces on my ground level patio). Wonder if that would work on chipmunks? If I could just find out how to fill in the holes I'd just keep doing that at this point and pray for a very cold winter.

Bad news here, the creature or creatures are back. They dug up new holes last night & I'm so fed up with this. The thing thats bothering me the most is that my four year old goes outside and runs around and falls in those darn holes. I made a call to base housing they stated they would add the repelant (coyote urine) & look into placing a mesh on the gate (if they show up with some cheap mesh I'm going to lose it). debndal, I thought the same thing this morning. When we lifted part of the grass we saw about 3 grubs I'm having him treat it today. I also noticed a brown patch on the lawn that has suddenly started to get worse since I first posted here. Ugh, I never had these problems before with the lawn. Oh we also use Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble Lawn Food. I'm starting to wonder if this could also be the problem. We follow the directions to the T.