Squirrel(s) are eating my tomatoes!

[Hilde]

I noticed that some animal ate some of my cherry tomatoes, and especially the yellow Sweet Gold, but also the red cherries. So far they haven't started eating the Azoychka, but I fear that they might start eating them too, and I still haven't had the first one mature. The problem is that most of the Azoychka are pretty far down, almost to the ground, and I got Early Blight which is killing off the newest buds. I remove sick leaves and hope that the plants will fight off the early blight, but fear that the squirrel will eat the ones far down.

I actually thought it was a vole or rat or rabbit that ate the tomatoes, because I used to have a vole problem here. I killed a lot of them with the bait I put out in the spring, but I see signs of them again now, so I put out bait pallets on strategic places that the birds wouldn't get to. Today I caught the squirrel in my tomato patch and realized (s)he was the perp. I think it is the squirrel who has eaten the bait also, so I guess his/her time is limited. I will just continue to put out the bait and hope the tomatoes are left alone.

What do people here usually do to stop squirrels from eating tomatoes?

Hilde