New, extremely greed tomato theif

[tnkrer]

last year a varmint was doing similar damage to my tomatoes. I caught it read pawed one day. It was a chipmunk. Though I don't know if they work at nights. I saw it eating tomatoes in the early morning.

[rwsacto]

I vote for squirrels. They eat the bottom or side of my tomatoes exactly in half and leave the rest on the vine.

Mine prefer blacks and pinks over reds. They tend to leave the cherries for the birds.

Rick

[bcday]

Squirrels are not active at night.

[shelleybean]

But they get up pretty early!

At first I thought all my damage had been done at night but I went to brunch and came back and found more had been eaten.

[sfmathews]

Originally Posted by cythaenopsis

The main thing is that you don't want the tomatoes to advertise to the wildlife. So, if you don't have too large an abundance, try tying cheese cloth or some other permeable material around your tomatoes so that they're hidden from view (no bright red magnets among all the green). I've even heard of some people using cut up pantyhose--just slide it over and tie it up; the material will be a turn off to animals but you'll still be able to see the ripening progress.

I tried this with some black nylons. I left them loose and open on the stem and blush ends. I think the black may have conducted too much heat, because The fruits looked like they had been scalded near the stem end. I don't know if a nude color would work better or not. Maybe the hose just hold in too much heat.

[bcday]

Brunch?
You went to brunch before dawn?
No one around here serves brunch until 10 or 11 a.m.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by sfmathews

I tried this with some black nylons. I left them loose and open on the stem and blush ends. I think the black may have conducted too much heat, because The fruits looked like they had been scalded near the stem end. I don't know if a nude color would work better or not. Maybe the hose just hold in too much heat.

YouTube vid

Sure it was the heat?

[Dewayne mater]

Good suggestions! I don't believe we have Voles in N. Tx. I suspected a rat(s), but, my rat traps with peanut butter have not caught any. One trap disappeared one recent night, making me thing something bigger got caught in it and was able to walk away with the trap.

I do know of a very large long time resident Owl that lives nearby and makes visits to my backyard usually with 3 a.m. hoot fests! I'm pretty sure he/she is a carnivore though.

Right now, raccoon is my top suspect. This has to be large enough to eat 50-100 cherry tomatoes in one sitting and then bite into a dozen more. So, I think we are dealing with a fairly large animal/stomach capacity.

If so, they are clever and I don't think bird netting or other cover type devices will stop them. I'm hoping that a heavy dose of repels All will be a deterrent!

D M

[sfmathews]

Maybe a combo of heat and stink?

Originally Posted by Redbaron

YouTube vid

Sure it was the heat?

[cythaenopsis]

Originally Posted by sfmathews

I tried this with some black nylons. I left them loose and open on the stem and blush ends. I think the black may have conducted too much heat, because The fruits looked like they had been scalded near the stem end. I don't know if a nude color would work better or not. Maybe the hose just hold in too much heat.

Yeah, I wouldn't put black ones on tomatoes that have a lot of sun exposure. Try a light colored nylon with a thin denier. If the nylon is too dense then that could cause heat damage. I've had my tomato shrouded for 3 days and checked again--looks fine.

[Vespertino]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

YouTube vid

Sure it was the heat?

I knew someone who had foot odor like that. I forbade him from taking off his shoes in my house. The stink could KO an elephant.

[lycomania]

That stinks a lot. Aside from aggressively defending your garden with deadly means, which is what I would do if I lived in a slightly more rural location, you have the options of enclosing or what I did for my small space, get the "Scarecrow" water sprinkler. I only have one row of tomatoes, so I only needed to get one. I make sure it's on every evening, and I went from losing every single ripening tomato to not losing one.

At least so far. I suspect there will come a time that the target critters become accustomed to it, but it hasn't happened yet, and this is the second season. I feel for you, good luck.

[shelleybean]

No bcday, I didn't go to brunch before dawn. I came out early in the AM to check for damage and found none. Went to brunch a few hours later and when I came back, I did find new damaged fruit not there earlier in the morning. That was how I was able to figure out that whatever was eating my tomatoes was also around during the day.

[shelleybean]

I found most of our damage when we got back from vacation but I didn't know when it had been done. The first two mornings after we got back, I found new bites as soon as I got up and came out to check. The last visit was made when we were at brunch that day. And whatever came here could carry pieces of tomato across the yard because I found them several feet away, so I knew it wasn't a rat. But I could tell it had teeth like a rat from a couple of tomatoes that were only bitten once or twice.

So like I said before, it came around just because we were gone and the dog was gone or it left because of the hot pepper spray. It has apparently moved next door to their garden.

I had thought of raccoons too because we live on the water and there are a LOT of raccoons here. I can't keep a bird feeder even a day, they just take the whole thing, including the feeder! But I could see it didn't have teeth like a raccoon.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by tlintx

I think chupacabras eat goats, not tomatoes.

Sounds like a squirrel to me. Caught one in my leafy greens box this morning. It was apparently trying to make salad.


Tl

Marsha