Sorry don't have a picture, so will have to explain it. I was walking around on my property in south texas and noticed several areas where the cactus was lying on the surface of the ground and it appeared to have burrows underneath the cactus. The ground around the burrows had smooth trails between the burrow openings. Could this be rats?

Welcome to THF, Greytshot!

It would help if we had a pic...

How wide (diameter) were the burrows?

Rattlesnakes depending on the size of the burrows. Welcome

I didn't think rattlers could dig? I would think something else perhaps.

How large were the holes, and how close together were they?

Sounds like mice or rats

Where there is one, there is the other

Thanks for the welcomes. The openings were the size of a can of skoal or a little bigger from what I can remember. It was the smoothness of the ground that caught my eye.

My brothers wife is deadly afraid of rats and mice. One of the last times we went down to our place we shot a big fat ratler, told her it had just eaten the last rat and we shot the last snake!

Rattle Snakes

Here in West Texas rats will build small colonies like that in and around prickly pear, they may have concentrated there for some reason, also if the did several snakes, rattler or otherwise very well could have moved in for the buffet.

4K, A colony is what it reminded me of! Several holes and trails leading in and out of the prickly pear.

Maybe I will set up a game cam and a feeder

Definitely some sort of rodents, probably invasive rats or mice. If you are concerned about trapping non-native species set out a live trap with peanut butter and/or chocolate chip cookies as bait. If you are not concerned about that, then I recommend those alligator style kill traps. Quick and clean. Baited with peanut butter or nutella/hazlenut spread.

A common method is also pouring diesel in the holes I believe, but I do not know if it is still legal so can't recommend it for you.

Pear rats and they live Rat Condos that are open for rattlesnakes to enjoy the free meals.

RATS, I hunt in S Texas too & we have TONS of rats & mice there. The rats like to build colonies in & under the cactus because it offers them at least a little protection from some predators. I've watched them many times come out of their dens & eat the corn under my feeders. I don't know about them being invasive, they've been there all of my life.
I had a rat run across my face & chest while sleeping in the bunk house one night, talk about waking everybody up in the middle of the night LMAO!

We always called em pack rats, if you find a place where they have piled cactus mesquite branches and anything else they can find, thats where the live. My buddy flies a Harris hawk and it is awesome to watch this bird work those rats. The hawk will land in a nearby tree and wait for us to poke around til we flush one out then it's on.

Rats...and they love to make their nests inside your carburetor on your hunting vehicles. They don't mind gasoline at all.

rats or ground squirrels

Come to think of it, there is an old school bus out there that must be 3" deep in rat droppings. I believe we have solved it!
PS...getting the old school bus hauled off!

could be rabbits (not sure what kind) too. i've seen them munching away on the prickly pear, and i'm pretty sure they burrow too. and the smooth spots? well, maybe its rabbit season among snakes... :o)

I was rasied in South Texas, and I'd bet it's rats. I've seen the same thing and all I ever saw was rats coming out. We used to sit in the evenings and shoot them with a 22.