Glad the mystery has been solved! What an interesting question, and good luck on your mole spotting!

Thanks guys. Guess theres not much chance of seeing him then. I`ll cover the hole up and see where he turns up next

Thanks.

Hi Hairy, I have seen this before, hundreds of lttle round balls of earth dug from underneath concrete slabs on the floor of one of my Polytunnels and in my case it was definately a field mouse that was doing it. Or a family of Field mice more likely! So as you say there are mouse droppings in the shed I would say that is the answer. I very much doubt a mole is the culprit though I could be wrong.

ps where abouts in Eastern Scotland are you? I live near Montrose!

Hi Goldfinch, I`m about 5 miles outside Dundee.

It`s interesting you say mice as I`ve caught quite a few of them in the house since the fields were harvested. And I noticed today that some have got under the bonnet of my car and have started to eat the insulation!

Other than waiting to see what pops out the hole is there any way of telling? Ive got a couple of humane traps I could use, do moles like peanut butter?

I could flood the hole but if its a mole I dont want to cause him any undue distress. Although if its mice it would be payback for my car

This is a fascinating turn. I have never heard of field mice making little balls of soil--I wonder why they would do that?

I don't know that moles would go for peanut butter, but they are very difficult to catch in traps, as their sense of touch is so very sensitive. Mice, on the other hand would be pretty easy to catch in humane traps.

Kingfisher

It would be nice if it was a field mouse, or wood mouse as they are one of my favourite animals. The reason I know that in my case they were the culprits was because I trapped them and removed them from the area and the digging stopped. if you have a humane trap then this would be the way to find out. Wood mice live in tunnels below ground so it seems very likely.

I have no idea why they do this, I have been searching the net to find out but I cant find reference to this anywhere. i presume its just as a result of removing it from their burrows. I wish now I had taken a photo to show you but I didn't, this was a year or 2 back now. I hope you do find out what is doing it, I'd be very interested to know!

When I've seen mouse nests under slabs etc. the particles of soil in the mounds have been much smaller than the particles in the mound in Hairy's excellent photos.

I agree with Kingfisher, moles are very difficult to catch. I've never heard of any kind of humane trap for moles and the traditional mole-trap is barbaric, it rarely kills the mole outright and almost inevitably leaves the mole to die a slow agonising death.

I think on the question of 'mouse v mole', 'time will tell' a mole will be looking to create a network of tunnels which it will use to hunt for worms and although this may be its first hill, it certainly won't be its last.

Yes if you don't see anymore hills you would guess that it is not a mole! I'm off to try and find out why a mouse would make balls like that..

Definately a rodent of sorts. Moles dont do the ball rolling thing. I dont think moles chew wood either. Very interesting all the same.

True but I didn't know mice did the ball rolling thing until this thread. It would be brilliant to find out why they did it although a quick google search didn't bring up anything. Perhaps it is just easier to build a warm and snug place if you can move the bits in rolled up balls?