Strange mud/soil pile appeared on my patio in the night
By Geonc
United Kingdom 
This is really puzzling. I went to mow my lawn the other day and where my grass ends and meets the patio was a mud/soil pile. Naturally i was perplexed as to where this had come from as it was almost perfectly formed and there was no evidence that someone had thrown it over the fence. I cleared all the mud/soil up and put it to the back of my mind, however the next day i went and checked my garden only to see another pile in the exact place..... Has anyone ever heard of an occurrence like this before??? There is no signs of damage to my lawn except for a few cracks in the ground but they have been there for a while. On both occasions it has rained abit before i found the piles so could it be something to do with the rain??? Also i have checked around my shed and rest of my garden and there is no evidence of an animal burrowing anywhere.....
17 Jun, 2009
Answers
Some large insects and small mammals and crustaceans will push out soil washed into burrows when it rains and pile it up. Crawfish (Crawdads) are famous for this. We use to have them all over the lawn when I was little and we lived in east Texas. Do you have Crawfish in your area? I understand they have been accidentally introduced to UK. Maybe this is what you have.
My older sister thought it great fun to put muffin papers on top of them after it rained! : )
17 Jun, 2009
Hi Bamboo, it was a fairly large pile of soil, it was kind of like someone had a big shovel full of soil and just left it on the patio. I went home and checked at lunch and there is only a little bit of soil there so maybe i have an ant problem, although i rarely see ants in my garden so looks like the mystery is still unsolved...
Hi Wohlibuli, as far as im aware i don't have crawfish in my area, well i hope not anyway. ;-D
17 Jun, 2009
Sounds like ants to me - there are different species - red ants tend to make little heaps - over many years they can form large humps in fields that grass grows on - sometimes see fields full of humps like these!
Is the soil very fine, looks like it has been seived? If so it's almost defo ants - if not, you've got me stumped.
Wohibuli - what I understand from 'crawfish' is a little lobster-like thing that lives in rivers....not in lawns lol
17 Jun, 2009
Hi Sid, yes the soil was fairly fine, however it was not on the grass but on the patio next to the grass. If it is ants do you think i would notice areas on the grass that would be sunken??? Just curious as like i said all i have noticed in the grass is a few cracks but they have been there for ages and i have never had this problem before.
17 Jun, 2009
No, you wouldn't notice a sunken area. They are tunnelling under the ground and the soil they're throwing up is from their tunnels. They seem to like being under a rock or a patio slab - I've got some big rocks near my pond and there always seems to be a red ants nest there - the pile of fine earth is piled up next to the rock. I don't know how you'd stop them.....maybe pouring water on the area regularly will pursuade them to move off somewhere else?
17 Jun, 2009
You need an anteater...is there anteater.com?
17 Jun, 2009
Thanks for your help Sid, i will have to look into ways of stopping them.
Thanks Volunteer, im still laughing at your response.... ;-)
17 Jun, 2009
Sid,
Most people know that they live in water, but what only a southerner knows is that they like shallow water and will burrow into banks and swampy areas, and most of east Texas and western Louisiana is one big swamp! As kids we called them Crawdads!
17 Jun, 2009
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Could be ants, but not if it was a largish pile of soil. Ants like to make nests in lawns/under stones, so perfect conditions, but if it was a significant pile of soil, I don't know. Sounds more like a mole, but you'd have evidence in the form of mole hills in the lawn.
17 Jun, 2009