Help, something's eating my tomatoes.

13 years ago

Now that I have a steady crop of scrumptious heirloom tomatoes, something is eating great gaping holes in them. Not the leaves, just the tomatoes. I don't see anything, such as tomato worms. What might it be, and what action should I take?

So far the vegetable garden is completely organic and compost-based.

Thanks.

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Comments (13)

Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
Mice, squirrels, birds, other furry/fluffy booger WAGs based on the information provided.

Dan
david52 Zone 6
13 years ago
How high up is the damage? Squirrels bite them all along a line about 6 - 8 inches above the ground. If they're high up, I'd guess a deer.
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autodidact
Original Author
13 years ago
Ooooh now I'm angry. Not deer in our backyard, but raccoons I bet. Those fiendish little critters. We've been working since March on these heirloom tomatoes; they're absolutely delicious and gorgeous, and now these little devils come in and eat them up without so much as a thank you!
elkwc
13 years ago
When you say gaping holes what size do you mean? Although they usually just eat a hole up to a quarter size out of a tomato I had them eat over a 1/3 of a few this year. Here for a while the grasshoppers were getting more than I was. They even eat on the green ones. I was picking at the first blush for a while. I had 2 tomatoes on one vine and wanted to save seeds. They got both of them. And they were bad this year. And very large. Jay
gjcore
13 years ago
If it is raccoons then that's something you might have to deal with in coming years as well. It seems when raccoons get established in an area they stay. A fair size dog (or larger) or a big cat will keep them away to some degree.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
Possums don't mind a banquet once in a while either, but raccoons much harder to fool. Nonetheless, we still have little information to go on, so all this speculation is just a WAG.

Dan
david52 Zone 6
13 years ago
Raccoons and tomatoes, I dunno. I've got a bazillion of both, and I see tracks all around my tomatoes, but they don't bother them. Melons and corn, all the fruit, for sure. But tomatoes, nope. At least, not yet.

Tomatoes we've had squirrels do it several times, and once, a fox.

You might try sprinkling flour around the plants and see what kind of tracks you find.
greenbean08_gw
13 years ago
I'm fairly certain the mice are chomping my tomatoes. That is based on:

1: I know there is a mouse in the garden(and common sense says if there's one, there's more than one). I have seen him myself many times. Unfortunately, my neighbor has seen him there too. I was trying to keep that one quiet...

2: The ones that are eaten are nearly on the ground. I've really been slacking on my garden this summer and I never finished tying my tomatoes up, so I have a lot of sprawl.

3: The eaten tomatoes are tucked underneath plenty of foliage and are eaten from the bottom-up. Safely hidden with a tasty snack...

We do have a squirrel who makes a rare appearance (I've seen it maybe twice in 3 summers...) but otherwise, it's rabbits, pocket gophers, foxes and birds of prey that we see out here. Not too much else.
digit
13 years ago
Quail will also eat ripe tomatoes but leave the unripe ones alone. They are a primary reason for me to pick early.

Pheasants are really hard on gardens. May as well turn a flock of hungry laying hens loose in there!

Steve
autodidact
Original Author
13 years ago
Well, I'm in a suburb, but an area with lots of mature trees and greenspace. We have lots of squirrels, mice, some raccoons and skunks, a few coyotes and foxes. So it seems like it's a mammal, not a bug. We have a dog, but bring him in at night. Maybe I should leave him outside on patrol.

It seems to particularly enjoy ripe heirloom tomatoes, eating big holes in them and basically ruining them.

We've taken to picking them just before ripe and ripening them inside.

It's maddening when you've been growing the seedlings since March, and just when it's time to enjoy the delicious results, chomp!
greenbean08_gw
13 years ago
I discovered the other day that that I have a mouse who not only eats the tomatoes but has moved INTO the tomato bed.

When I went poking around out there a couple days ago, I noticed the ground was disturbed near the tomatoes (and every red one was eaten - which really isn't a lot of tomatoes, but still...). Then I saw the hole. Then when I was watering the tomatoes, a mouse went running past...
digit
13 years ago
I have had this happen . . .

Here is what I did: I set the water at just above a trickle, set the end of the hose near the mouse hole, and walked away.

When I returned about 30 minutes later, there was a puddle of 3 or 4 square feet -- even on my porous garden soil.

While I'm standing there, a very bedraggled mouse came up out of the puddle, shook himself (probably to get the water out of his ears, and ran off under the fence. I was surprised enuf that I didn't do anything! I figure that he was heading to higher ground and he didn't re-occupy the hole.

Steve
David Bofenkamp
7 years ago
Anone have a guess as to what is eating mine? Never seen anything bigger than a rabbit in the yard.