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Reptiles & Amphibians

Frog Holes in the Yard? They Are Almost Certainly Not Frogs

Frogs do not dig burrows in most of the world. What the holes in your lawn actually are, how to read them, and which ones need dealing with.

By Salma 4 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
A common toad sitting low on bare gritty soil, warty skin and copper eye in close-up
Photo: fotoblend, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay
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Frogs are poor diggers. They shelter under things rather than excavating, so neat holes in a lawn were made by something else — and the shape of the hole tells you what.

What frogs and toads actually do

  • Frogs shelter in existing damp cover: under logs, flat stones, leaf litter, pots, the gap behind a step. They do not excavate
  • Toads back into loose soil, mulch or compost and shuffle down until the head shows. That leaves a saucer-shaped depression the size of the toad, with no spoil beside it
  • Spadefoot toads, in drier regions, genuinely burrow — with hardened spades on the hind feet, and they go straight down and stay down
  • In winter, frogs overwinter in pond silt, under log piles or in existing cavities rather than in holes they dug

So “frog holes” is almost always a misread, and it matters because the real maker may need dealing with and the frog does not.

Reading the hole

What dug it, by what it looks like
What you seeAlmost certainly
Shallow saucer, toad-sized, no spoilA toad. Leave it
Cone divot 2–3 in, turf rolled backSkunk, raccoon or armadillo after grubs
Pencil-width, no soil around itEarthworms or cicada emergence
2 in hole, fan of soil to one sideChipmunk or ground squirrel
1–2 in hole, no spoil, in a runVole
Mound of loose soil, no visible holeMole
3–4 in hole at a wall or slab edgeRat. Worth acting on
Many small holes, bare patches, after rainGrub damage, and whatever is eating them
Neat 1 in holes in soil beds, springSolitary bees. Harmless, leave them

No spoil beside the hole is the most useful single clue

A mammal digging a burrow has to put the soil somewhere, so there is a fan or a mound.

A clean hole with no excavated soil was made by something emerging from below — a worm, a cicada, a solitary bee — or by something using a cavity that already existed. That immediately rules out most of the animals people worry about.

The one that usually turns out to be the answer

If the holes appeared overnight, in a lawn, with the turf rolled back, the cause is grubs — and the holes are the animal that eats them.

  1. Lift a square foot of turf at the edge of the damage
  2. Count the larvae. More than five or six under a square foot is an infestation
  3. Treat the grubs — beneficial nematodes for a slow biological route, or a registered product for a heavy infestation
  4. The digging stops when the food does. Chasing the skunk or the armadillo without treating the grubs just moves the problem a week

Before you fill anything

  • Confirm it is empty. Crumpled newspaper in the mouth, or a dusting of flour across it, read at first light for two or three nights
  • Backfill with tamped gravel, not soil, which is reopened within the week
  • Hardware cloth pinned flat and buried an inch down stops a fresh dig at the same spot
  • Do not fill a hole you have not identified. Sealing an animal in is both cruel and a smell problem for months
  • Worm and cicada holes need nothing. They close on their own and they are a sign the soil is alive

And leave the frogs alone

  • Slugs, snails, beetles, mosquitoes and flies, in quantity, nightly
  • No damage to lawn, beds, structure or anything else
  • Protected in much of the world, along with their breeding sites
  • If you want them out of one spot, take away the damp cover there — do not take away the frogs

A garden with frogs in it usually has a slug problem it is not aware of having solved.

Common questions

Do frogs dig holes in the yard?

Most do not. Frogs are poor diggers and shelter in existing cover — under logs, stones, leaf litter and pots — rather than excavating. Toads are the exception that gets mistaken for them: a toad backs into loose soil and makes a shallow scrape it sits in, not a tunnel. The spadefoot toads of drier regions genuinely burrow, but if you are finding neat round holes in a lawn, the cause is almost always something else.

What is making small holes in my lawn overnight?

Read the hole. A cone-shaped divot three inches across with the turf rolled back is a skunk, raccoon or armadillo foraging for grubs. Pencil-width holes with no soil around them are earthworms or cicada emergence. A two-inch hole with a soil fan beside it is a chipmunk or a ground squirrel; a hole surrounded by a mound of loose soil is a mole or a vole run. Loose soil pushed up with no visible hole is a mole. Each of those has a different answer.

Do toads dig holes in the ground?

They make shallow scrapes rather than holes. A toad backs into soft soil, mulch or compost and shuffles down until only its head shows, which leaves a saucer-shaped depression the size of the toad and no excavated spoil beside it. They also use existing cavities — under a paving slab, a pot, a step. A deep hole with soil piled alongside was dug by something with legs built for it.

Should I fill in the holes?

Identify the maker first, because filling a hole while an animal is using it either traps it or guarantees it is reopened by morning. For grub-foraging divots, the real fix is treating the grubs. For rodent burrows, confirm with a flour or newspaper test that it is empty, then backfill with tamped gravel rather than soil. For worm and cicada holes, do nothing — they close themselves and they are a sign of healthy soil.

Are frogs in the yard a problem?

No, and they are worth keeping. Frogs and toads eat slugs, snails, beetles, mosquitoes and flies in quantity, they damage nothing, and in much of the world they and their breeding sites are legally protected. A garden with frogs in it generally needs less slug control. If you want them out of a specific spot, remove the damp cover there rather than the frogs.

What attracts frogs to a yard?

Damp cover and insects. Log piles, dense ground cover, leaf litter, the shaded gap under a deck and the space behind pots all hold the moisture a frog needs, and outdoor lights draw the insects they eat. Standing water for breeding completes it — a pond, but also a blocked gutter, a saucer under a pot, or a tarpaulin with rain pooled on it.

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