Grubs & Turf Damage: Raccoon or Skunk?

More and more lawns in our area are starting to get ripped up because of grubs. I know that crows will pick at lawns, but some are damaged way beyond that.

Anyway to consistently tell if it's a skunk or raccoon doing the digging?

Skunks digging grubs

Here its a combination of coons and skunks but squirrels diggings can look awful similar to the untrained eye.

A couple of thoughts:
1. There is a fair amount of overlap between skunk and raccoon grubbing damage. Some damage by raccoon becomes obvious due to the size of the animal needed to exact the damage. For example, larger strips of sod that have been rolled. Light damage is trickier to read, and is perhaps indistinguishable.
2. I ask the customer if they have noticed any recent skunk odor. If not, and if there are no other clues in the yard, then I set raccoon traps and risk catching a skunk in a box trap. Or set skunk and raccoon traps.
3. Walk the yard for other clues. Raccoon and skunk scat is easy to distinguish. If the yard is fenced, identify entry points through/under/over the fence and look for evidence (hairs caught along bottom of fence, claw/mud marks up and over the fence, etc.). I’ve even walked a yard and found where something dug under a chain-linked fence, and in looking close I picked up on an ever so slight skunk odor left on/under the fence. The customer didn’t know!

Skunks will dig triangles and rarely roll the sod up. Almost like squirrels burying nuts.

Raccoons will use their thumbs and "hands" to roll and peel the sod back.

Typicaly this is what I find for skunk damage.
As said coon damage will be large areas of turf rolled or folded over.

Thanks for posting the pics. As a new guy these are helpful!

Thanks again for the info. Will examine some damaged areas to see if I can find scat or other sign.

Correct.

Skunks will make triangles or cone shaped holes.
Coons will pull the sod or 'rake' it clean over a larger area.

X2

Personal experience from my own lawn. Raccoons !! Massive massive damage. I had to bring in yards of top soil, and seed 1/2 acre ! One morning, I watched a family of 7 coons work my lawn. It was amazing. Then I started trapping

Looking around our immediate area, looks mostly like crow damage with the occasional coon. A couple of us on the street that have been trapping raccoons, so that has something to do with the low amount of coon damage in the area. I know there's still a skunk in our area, but haven't seen any of the cone type holes.

By the time I discovered grubs in our lawn, it was too late for spraying nematodes, so I opted to try a nicotine tea brewed from a tin of chewing tobacco. We've got all kinds of laws here in Canada about spraying things on lawns for cosmetic purposes....

It seems you boys have nearly the same problems over there as we have here, i dread the calls for lawn damage now as it is nearly all ways Badgers, Badgers over here are a protected species so as apart from exclusion there is nothing we can do, most customers are not willing to pay the cost of this as it is expensive.
They dig the lawns for Cockchaffer grubs or leather jackets depending on the time of yr, i used to use a insecticide that went on in pellet form and then you washed it in to the thatch it worked great but like anything else that is any good they banned it, nowthe only thing available is nematodes but i have had no successwith these at all.

I've never used nematodes. I know someone who has who has had success with them. From what I gather, you've got to follow the directions to a T for them to be effective. Seems to matter the brand, too. The nicotine solution I used and oversprayed on the edges of my neighbour's lawn seems to have been effective. Much cheaper than the nematodes. Will likely use it again next year and see what happens.

I follow a news feed from the UK, GWCT - Morning Briefing, and I feel sorry for you guys over there. Seems like a country being taken over by groups like Extinction Rebellion a real problem for people with pest wildlife.