Identify what's happening in your yard.
A hole that appeared overnight. Droppings on the patio. Leaves something has been chewing. YardClues helps you read the evidence, narrow down the likely cause, and decide what to do next — calmly and safely.
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Yard Holes Holes, tunnels, and dirt mounds in your lawn or beds 23 guides Plant Damage Chewed leaves, cut stems, and mystery plant injuries 20 guides Animal Droppings Identify scat and droppings found around your home 13 guides Bugs & Eggs Insects, eggs, cocoons, and webs you can't place 21 guides Lawn Problems Brown patches, yellow spots, and torn-up turf 15 guides Mushrooms & Growths Mushrooms, molds, and strange growths explained 8 guides Tracks, Nests & Outdoor Clues Footprints, nests, and other traces animals leave 8 guides Home Exterior Clues Signs on siding, foundations, decks, and eaves 8 guides
Popular yard clues
Animal Droppings Animal Poop Identification: Whose Droppings Are in My Yard? You can identify most animal poop with three checks: size against a coin, the shape of the ends, and where it was left. Pointed quarter-inch pellets mean mice, blunt half-inch pellets mean rats, round peas mean rabbits, oval piles mean deer, and large tubular droppings concentrated in one spot mean a raccoon latrine. Never touch droppings bare-handed while you work it out — several species carry disease. Read the guide → Yard Holes Animal Holes in Yard: Identify the Digger by Hole Size The fastest way to identify an animal hole in your yard is by its diameter: pencil-width openings are insects, 1–2 inch holes are voles or chipmunks, 2–3 inch smooth holes suggest rats, 3–4 inch cone-shaped pits point to skunks, and anything 10 inches or wider with a fan of dirt is a groundhog. Whether there's a mound, whether the hole tunnels down or stays shallow, and when it appeared tell you the rest. Read the guide → Lawn Problems Armyworms in Lawn: Why Your Grass Turned Brown Overnight If a green section of your lawn turned brown in a matter of hours or a day or two, fall armyworms are a likely cause. These caterpillars chew grass blades and advance across turf in a marching front, leaving rapidly expanding brown patches. A simple soap-flush test confirms them, and acting quickly matters because the damage spreads fast. Read the guide → Animal Droppings Black Droppings on Your Patio: Rat, Mouse, Bat, or Bird? Black droppings on a patio most often come from mice, rats, or bats, with birds and squirrels as runners-up. Mouse droppings are about 1/4 inch with pointed ends, rat droppings run 1/2 to 3/4 inch with blunt ends, and bat droppings look mouse-sized but crumble into shiny insect fragments. Where the droppings sit — piled under the eaves versus scattered along a wall — narrows it down fast. Read the guide → Lawn Problems Brown Patches in Grass: How to Read What Killed the Turf Brown patches in your grass are most often caused by fungal disease, white grubs eating the roots, dog urine, or summer drought dormancy. The pattern is the diagnosis: circles point to fungus, turf that lifts like carpet points to grubs, and small spots ringed with dark green grass point to dog urine. Read the guide → Bugs & Eggs Cicada Killer Wasps: Do They Sting, and Should You Worry? A very large wasp — 1.5 to 2 inches long, black with yellow bands — cruising low over your lawn in July or August is almost certainly a cicada killer, a solitary wasp that digs burrows in bare or sandy soil and hunts cicadas. Despite their alarming size, cicada killers are among the least dangerous stinging insects in your yard: males can't sting at all, and females sting only if grabbed or stepped on barefoot. Read the guide → Bugs & Eggs Crane Fly: The Harmless Giant That Looks Like a Mosquito That huge, spindly-legged bug that looks like a giant mosquito is almost certainly a crane fly, and it is completely harmless. Adult crane flies don't bite, don't sting, and barely eat — they live only a few days to mate. Their soil-dwelling larvae, called leatherjackets, are the only part that can damage a lawn. Read the guide → Yard Holes Dirt Mounds in Lawn: Mole, Gopher, or Ant? Read the Shape The shape of a dirt mound is the fastest identification tool in the yard: moles build round volcano-shaped mounds with no visible hole, pocket gophers build fan- or crescent-shaped mounds with a plugged hole to one side, and ants, earthworms, and digger bees leave much smaller piles. Match your mound to one of those shapes and you've usually named the animal. Read the guide →
Know your suspect?
If you already have an animal in mind, jump straight to its profile — the signs it leaves, what it's confused with, and what to do.
How YardClues works
1. Look closely
Note the size, shape, and location of what you found, and when it appeared. A photo next to a coin helps more than you'd think.
2. Match the clue
Use the identification wizard or browse a category. Each guide compares the likely causes side by side.
3. Act with confidence
Every guide tells you what to check, when to worry, what to do now, and the mistakes to avoid.
Common right now: Summer clues
Yard problems follow the calendar. These are the clues homeowners report most in summer — see all summer clues.
Tracks, Nests & Outdoor Clues Animal Burrow Under Your Shed? Who's Living There A burrow entrance under your shed most likely belongs to a groundhog, skunk, rabbit, or rat, and the hole itself usually names the digger: groundhogs leave a 10–12 inch opening with a fan of excavated dirt, skunks announce themselves by smell, and rat holes are only 2–3 inches across. Before evicting anyone, check the calendar — from spring into midsummer there may be babies down there, and sealing them in creates a far worse problem than the burrow. Read the guide → Animal Droppings Animal Poop Identification: Whose Droppings Are in My Yard? You can identify most animal poop with three checks: size against a coin, the shape of the ends, and where it was left. Pointed quarter-inch pellets mean mice, blunt half-inch pellets mean rats, round peas mean rabbits, oval piles mean deer, and large tubular droppings concentrated in one spot mean a raccoon latrine. Never touch droppings bare-handed while you work it out — several species carry disease. Read the guide → Yard Holes Animal Holes in Yard: Identify the Digger by Hole Size The fastest way to identify an animal hole in your yard is by its diameter: pencil-width openings are insects, 1–2 inch holes are voles or chipmunks, 2–3 inch smooth holes suggest rats, 3–4 inch cone-shaped pits point to skunks, and anything 10 inches or wider with a fan of dirt is a groundhog. Whether there's a mound, whether the hole tunnels down or stays shallow, and when it appeared tell you the rest. Read the guide → Lawn Problems Ant Hills All Over the Lawn: Which Ants, and What to Do A lawn dotted with ant hills is usually hosting turfgrass ants or field ants, which are more of a mowing nuisance than a threat. The critical exception is in the southern US, where dome-shaped mounds with no visible entrance hole can be red imported fire ants — an aggressive, painfully stinging species that changes the response from 'rake and relax' to 'treat and keep kids away.' Read the guide →
A calm second opinion — not a replacement for a pro
Most yard mysteries turn out to be harmless: a squirrel burying acorns, worms doing their job, a fungus breaking down an old root. YardClues helps you tell the routine from the rare cases that deserve attention. We explain the probable causes in plain English — but we can't see your yard. For dangerous pests, structural damage, health risks, or a serious infestation, always bring in a licensed local professional.
Learn more about how we put these guides together → Browse all 116 guides A–Z →