Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations damage to weighted hose

Hi guys,
While trying to figure out why my aerator wasn't working at full power, I walked over a section of dirt and heard it hissing. Here in north Texas the clay is cracked up pretty good right now. So I dug down ~8" to my where my weighted hose goes over my dam and find a small tear in the line. Upon further inspection, the whole line looks terrible, it's pitted and rough with what looks like small scoops bitten out of the hose. Are fire ants or some other bug eating into the hose? Anyone else had this issue? It's been in the ground just under 5 years. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

What Brand (in case it makes a difference)?

Mix Air Tech. Here's the link on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OCO0EII/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Thx!

What type of rodents do you have? Pack rats, mice, etc? I'd blame a rodent first over an insect.

I had the same marks on some line coming from my manifold box at ponds edge earlier this year , 100 percent confirmed VOLES were the cause of it , same " scoop " marks and although they did not get breach the casing they sure chewed and scooped a good foot of hose to 2 of the 4 lines .

FWIW I run the airlines leaving the shed my compressor is in through PVC pipe until they are well underground. This was done with the goal of preventing damage from weedwacking, but it could possibly help with rodent damage too.

Good points. The airline is PVC from my house down to the backside of the dam and then I switch to the weighted hose from there to down into the pond. This section is ~8" buried the whole way so I can mow over it. I've never seen voles or moles or gophers or anything like that. Obviously, we have rats and mice, and the highest density critter is actually crawdads. I'm just surprised that it's happening at this depth, if it was laying on the surface, I'd understand. Here's a picture of it, sorry I started to repair it with the white rtv, but you can see on the right hand side the pits and divots taken out of it.

I have plenty of chewing rodents at my farm. They have breached my drip irrigation lines on several occasions.

If you don't see any burrows, then there is a small chance they chewed on the line while it was in your shed, or laid out on the ground before you buried it. Only when the line became a little more brittle with age did the thinned "bite scoops" finally began to leak.

Of all of the wildlife at my farm, the chewing rodents and the digging armadillos are the only ones that have pi$$ed me off.