Pest Damage
 

Again this year. From what I've read in other posts could be squirrels, rats, possums(?). Some of these were still attached to plant but were pulled off prior to photos. Others were already on ground. Am open to both humane and inhumane ways to handle. The irritating part is that they don't eat the whole thing.:evil:

[QUOTE=glowe1e06;417611]Again this year. From what I've read in other posts could be squirrels, rats, possums(?). .:evil:[/QUOTE]
I suggest it's something bigger than squirrels. My experience, squirrels just take a bite and discard, rarely do they eat any quantity. Racoons?

Check for broom sized holes in the ground around the edges of the garden because it could be voles which are also called field mice.

If they are mice, then regular mice traps with peanut butter might do the trick.
Another option is to set out some poison. For rats and mice I use the bars that are a peanut butter color. I get them at our feed store, and they will kill a variety of animals, so keep your dogs and cats away from the garden. Some mice baits come in a plastic container that will not allow larger animals to eat it, but it would keep squirrels, and such from getting to it too.
Live traps seldom catch all the offenders, so I use poison. Steel traps I don't like bc it catches larger animals by the leg which causes a lot of suffering. Some animals chew their their foot off to get away.

This is a pretty suburban area with not a lot of undeveloped space. I did catch a baby possum in a havahart type cage this winter. Let it go. Hope it's not decided to stick around. I also found a dead rat near the garden (also during the winter). They nest in some large palm trees I think or a thicket of wisteria at the back of the yard. I guess I'll reset the cage trap and also buy some bait. Have also caught rabbits but have the garden area pretty well fenced off now. I don't really want to kill the possum, or maybe raccoon, or rabbits, but I really dislike the rats. Thanks for your thoughts so far.
glowe1e06

Could it be a deer?
I have seen deer all over the Houston area before.

Worth

It looks like rats. If it is then you better act quick because they will keep coming back and they can do a tremendous amount of damage. I have them from time to time even with 8 dogs so I set out a bait station whenever I see damage like that and usually within a few days will find a dead rat in the garden. Thankfully I haven't had any this year but I have bait and if I see this kind of damage I will set out my bait station under the tomatoes where it is happening.

Bill

You could make it a little safer by placing the poison inside a tomato cage near the center.

Does look like what rats would do. They usually take a bite or two and leave the tomato where it is and come back for more later. Had that problem too last year, I keep finding ripe tomatoes with bites taken out of them. The cottontail rabbits and squirrels up here never touch the tomatoes so I knew it was something else. I staked out one night just after sunset and sure enough I saw a couple rats coming in along the back fence line from the neighbors yard. Got some D-CON rat bait traps the next day, put one next to a tomato that they bit into before that was laying on the ground. They came back that night and devoured all the bait in a half hour. Put out another the next night and same thing.
Found a couple of dead rats in the yard the next couple days and then no more rats after that.

i have a problem with feral cats. i dont think they eat the tomatoes but all the kittens were running /playing every morning in my garden jumping on the plants. bought a product in home depot called critter ridder by havaheart. it takes a few days for the animals to stay out as it makes laying where you spray it uncomfortable for them. seems to be working as they are still there but do not go where i sprayed.
seems like you can make your own, the main ingredient is capsicum which is from peppers. smells like black pepper that you shake on your food. don't like to kill animals even if they are eating my tomatoes unless of course if it's rats but with all the cats i have i dought that