What is it - gopher, mole, vole, aliens?

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The past few months I've noticed a few small pushed-up piles of crumbly soil, typically just a few inches across. There are no noticeable trails between the piles and I've not been able to uncover any kind of opening under them. I believe they're too small for gophers, no tunnel evidence for moles, and no open tunnels for voles. So what are they and how do I make their lives miserable and short?
20200823_110002.jpg
 
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The past few months I've noticed a few small pushed-up piles of crumbly soil, typically just a few inches across. There are no noticeable trails between the piles and I've not been able to uncover any kind of opening under them. I believe they're too small for gophers, no tunnel evidence for moles, and no open tunnels for voles. So what are they and how do I make their lives miserable and short?
View attachment 70473
It's probably earthworm castings
 
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Hmm, I doubt it's earthworms. When I lived in Michigan, we had huge nightcrawlers. But we only have a few, very small earthworms in So.Calif. And to make a casting pile that big would require a worm to eat a couple of burritos! They definitely don't help my lawn - they cause a lot of barren spots where the mounds are.
 

the lawnsman

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we have the big, non aggressive wasps that we call "cicada killers", as they burrow down underground hunting the cicada.

You can tell where they've been active, as they leave a very fine crumbly small pile of soil, almost sand like.

I've often seen them flying low, sometimes in groups, but like I said, very non aggressive, I've cut lawns where they were abundant with no problem.

(yellow jackets another story!)
 

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