Mockingbirds love them. Of course, they only poke holes in them.....and, only the ripe ones, just before you had planned on picking them.

The squirrels in my yard have no interest in my tomatoes. Neither do the raccoons or other critters. Just the Mockingbirds.

Hrrrrmmph. The dang blasted M.G. Squirrels around my place enjoy taking a bite or two out of any tomato growing near a tree. Then tossing it on the ground.

~dianne

Ok, all I can think is MiracleGro squirrels, but that is probably not what you meant. (Why I just hate acronyms.) Please help.

I still don't what MG stands for, but I found a video of an MG squirrel:

Here is a link that might be useful: MG Squirrel

Found some more "MG squirrels":

Here is a link that might be useful: MINI GEM CRITTERS

Could it be a malabar giant squirrel?

Hi
Was going to say "If it has a mouth it eats some parts of the tomato "lol I mostly have trouble with insects though I'd second the Mockingbird.Squirrels no problem but they do turn the bird feeder upside down.Much more of a problem with newly planted orchids but only in sphagnum moss, Don't harm the plant but seem to think there is somethin delicious at the bottom of the basket and are not happy until it's all been removed
Had a fair crop of strawberries this winter and didn't lose a single one to any kind of critter lol My kind of crop!!!! gary

While I found an effective way of keeping the mockingbirds out of my tomatoes, it also produces another, rather heartbreaking problem. My 14'x14' bird net indeed works as intended, but it also catches and kills one black snake after another. They get hopelessly entangled and I have to cut some of the mesh to free their lifeless bodies.
Whatta choice!

What causes the snakes to die? The length of time they are ensnared and not able to eat/drink? Or do the birds kill them after they are entangled? Or something else? (You?) I would have thought you would be freeing live snakes.

I think you can add rats & possums to the list as well.

IMPE, the trick is to provide other stuff (wild fruit-bearing plants, water sources) for the critters, so they won't be as interested in the tomatoes. However, for the rats , I rely on bait stations.

Oh my, M.G. Squirrel is what I've taken to calling the dang thangs now that I'm pulling a jibillion baby oak trees out of my veggie beds. I swear the dang thangs are better gardeners than me. So, with that hint? Any takers?

~dianne

I don't know why the snakes die so fast after being entangled. Those meshes are TIGHT! Black snakes are very active and maybe they just "stress out" after being caught that way. I visit the garden every morning, so it's not like they are trapped very long and there are no signs that anything has attacked them.
Snakes are welcome around here and it makes me sad to have this happen. If I take the net off, I'll lose ALL my tomatoes to the birds. If I leave the net on, I kill black snakes.

Any of these?

mg Milligram
MG Myasthenia Gravis
MG Morris Garages (UK sports car manufacturer)
MG Manager
MG Magnesium
MG Minas Gerais (Brazil)
MG Madagascar (ISO country code, top level domain)
MG Mongolia
mg Microgram
MG Medical Group
MG Metal Gear (game)
MG Mardi Gras
MG Machine Gun
MG Management Group
MG Make-Good
MG Master Gardener
MG Matt Groening
MG Mel Gibson (actor/producer)
MG Morning Glory
MG Marvin Gaye (singer)
MG Major General
MG Mini-Golf
MG Mahatma Gandhi
MG Media Gateway (packet based telephony; between PSTN and packet network)
MG Middle Ground (sprite comic website)
MG Military Government
MG Miniature Golf
MG Mini-Game (gaming)
MG Marine Group
MG Mean Girls (film)
MG Metallgesellschaft (Frankfurt, Germany)
MG Maschinengewehr (German: Machine Gun)
MG Mini-Gun (light machine gun)
MG Motor-Generator
MG Milli Gazette (Indian newspaper)
Mg Megagram (metric tonne)
MG Monitoring Group (supervisory body)
MG Match Game
MG Milligauss
MG Mixed Grain (lumber industry)
MG Managing Gigabytes
MG Monster Garage (Discovery Channel)
MG Machine Gunner
MG Magic Gladiator (gaming)
MG Metal Gate (semiconductors)
MG Molecular Geometry (chemistry)
MG Moongate (online game, now Materia Magica)
MG Main Gauche (accordion, left hand side)
MG Magic Gate (Sony memory card DRM)
MG Multi-Grid (algorithm)
MG Message Generator
MG Minimum Guarantee
MG Missile Guidance (radar)
MG Maximum Gain (antennas)
MG Mongolian Grill (restaurant)
MG Machine-Glazed
MG Minority Game (financial markets model)
MG Metre-Gauge (railway)
MG Master Gunner (UK Military)
MG Multinational Group
MG Main Generator
MG Maxwell-Garnett (formula)
MG Mauser Gewehr (WWII German infantry)
MG Menin Gate
mG Miles Gloriosus (gaming clan)
MG Mastergroup
MG Mario Guide (website)
MG Marine Gunner
MG Mongomery Gentry (band)
MG Message Gateway
MG Meibion Glyndwr (Welsh)
MG Morewood Gardens (Carnegie Mellon University)
MG Mega Geek
MG Mirovna Grupa
MG Mean Grayness

Squirrels usually take tomatoes off the plant, bite them and drop a few feet away from the plant if don't like them. Raccoons do the same.
If a tomato is still on the plant and has a hole, like someone took a bite, it usually a slug's or large caterpillar's work. My green cherry tomatoes are all half eaten by green caterpillars. It's hard to find them when tomatoes are grown to 8 feet. I looked for a few days and finally found one huge caterpillar. They usually come in pairs but I could not find another one! Slugs are very damaging to my garden.

The snakes die quick because they cannot breathe. Their lungs are like long thin tubes that run along the inside length of their body cavity and any external restriction is just like choking them to death.

Lou
PS. MG stands for Midnight Gnomes which only come alive at midnight and eat up all the ripe tomatoes. Around an hour before sunrise they go back into their plaster state of existence. Check your Gnomes for traces of mater juice & seeds around their mouths.

Lou, bless you. I wouldn't have figured that out for a million dollars.

Thanks to everyone for the info on my potential tomato loss. Sounds like everyone in the neighborhood would like a few. :)

Carol

Heck - I've seen even the Cardinals AND the Blue Jays in my yard poke holes into my maters!

Normally, I keep full bird feeders...but, with my work schedule lately, no time. So, they opted to help themselves to my tomatoes!

A lot of times, animals/birds go for your tomatoes because they are really thirsty -- not hungry.

If you leave some water out for them, that may be enough to prevent your garden from being raided. For example,
I have three sources of water in my yard and typically have no problems with animals eating my veggies.