Question
Mr. Vantassel,    I live in the southern part of Iowa - zone 5.   
This is a very rural area.    My father is burried in a cemetary that
has a terrible pest problem tearing up the grounds.    It was very
unsightly last fall,  and seems to have killed a lot of grass over
the winter.     The local "wisemen" seem to believe the problem
is grubs - and animals such as skunks and raccoons are tearing
up the grounds digging the grubs.    What to do to get rid of this
problem so the grounds can be smoothed off and grass
replanted?

The entire cemetary is damaged.    There are areas the grass is
not killed,   but there isn't any part of the cemetary that hasn't
been touched - every side of the roads going through it.

Surrounding the cemetary is the town's sewer lagoons,   a corn
field,  and a homestead.    The fourth side is a county road -
paved - across which is another corn field.     They people who
live right there do not have damage in their yard,  but claim they
have done nothing to prevent it.     Seems unique to the
cemetary.

I'll try to describe what it looks like:

There are channels of grass torn completely up that seem to
tunnel several feet along and then stop.   No,  it is not mounded
channels like a mole would do.    It is right on top of the ground.   
The first time I saw it,  before it got really bad,  I thought the
lawn mower had gotten off balance and dug in for a short
distance.    Then it got where the entire grounds were a mess
and everyone was talking about it.    From the dug up grass
channels,  radiating outward a couple feet,  the grass has turned
brown and seemingly died.    

My guess is, if it is truly critters after grubs,   we need to rid the
cemetary of grubs.      Do you have any thoughts on this,   and/
or know how to fix the problem?       Thank you for your help.


Answer
It sounds to me that the channel damage you are describing is caused by voles.

the best way I can answer your question about resolving your vole problem is to point you to a document I helped write.  Visit  http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=100

As for the tearing up of the grass, yes, raccoons and skunks will do this searching for grubs and worms. Generally, the best solution for this is trapping as it is too late to use grub control.
Trapping information can be found at http://icwdm.org