New, extremely greed tomato theif

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by bcday

Squirrels aren't nocturnal either, any more than birds are (unless you suspect an owl, LOL).
I vote for raccoon, or maybe a possum. There are nocturnal rodents though. Even a good neighborhood can temporarily harbor a passing rat, especially if the creek serves as a highway, and mice are more common than we like to think.

Agree 100% with this. Those bite marks look exactly like the ones I had, and it was 2 rats. They seem to travel in pairs.
We have lots of squirrels, but they never seemed interested in my tomatoes, this creature was definitely nocturnal. I can't bring myself to kill an animal that I know is just trying to survive, ( yeah, I know, bleeding heart!) so I got a live trap at Home Depot, about 26 dollars. Set it at lightest touch, and placed peanut butter in it, because rats and small possums both are attracted to peanut butter much more than tomatoes.
Caught the first rat about an hour after dark, and it went for a ride about 5 miles away to a forested field. Got home and reset it, and there was another rat by morning.
If you bait the trap with tomatoes it won't be as effective, because they may eat another of yours instead, so I advise go with the peanut butter, they can't resist.

Marsha