I have a raised garden bed that is about 6 inches high, with no floor. This weekend I cleaned it out and found a hole about 3 inches in diameter with dried grass clippings covering the entrance. The hole was not deep from what I could tell - maybe 4-6 inches, no apparent tunnel. I cleaned it out and smoothed over the soil. This morning I went outside and the hole was there again, without any grass clippings this time and again about 3 inches in diameter, 4 inches deep, no tunnel. There goes my hope that this was a dormant hole from the winter - clearly something is currently using it.
I did some googling and one site led me to think it could be a rat burrow {{shudder}} based on the size of the hole. Another site said voles put grass clippings at the entrance of the burrow, but this hole seems too big for a vole. Can anyone help me figure out what this is? And how to get rid of it safely? This garden bed is my vegetable garden so I do not want rodents in it, nor do I want to use anything toxic to get rid of them. Thank you!