veeta : Thank you for the book suggestions I will definitely look into them!!! Maybe I am just over reacting because this is my first garden, but then again you all should have seen what happened to the first basil plant I had!! weirdtrev: I have seen birds like that in my neighborhood but not in my back yard, I have doves, blue jays, and blackbirds in my yard from time to time. The doves tend to hang out the longest but I know where their nest is and it's not fresh plants. I am probably going to look into the bird netting though. Will the netting still allow bees and good flying bugs in? Thanks for all the help, I am kinda new to this so its nice to have guidance. howelbama: Yeah the Sevin line seems a bit extreme for me. I'll try my best to get a picture of the bugs but they are really tricky and I can't even find a picture of them online! They almost look like baby stink bugs but a little different. I'll post a link, that's what they look similar to, but I'm not 100% sure it's the same. http://www.dpughphoto.com/images/leaffooted%20bug%20nymphs%20johnston%20mill%2053107.JPG What I have been doing to trap the earwigs and roaches is I make a mix of soy sauce, molasses, and water and put them in plastic cups about half full then put those in the ground so the bugs get attracted to them for food but can't get out. It seems cruel but once I started doing it I saw a decrease in the destruction to my plants. Although I'm not sure the earwigs are attracted to it, I've never really checked I was just happy there was less damage. As far as the flowers go, the only thing I have there right now is marigolds around the tomatoes because I heard that helps ward off the dreaded tomato worms! But any other suggestions would be appreciated? Not sure if it's worth mentioning but there is a variety of flowers in the front yard. Thank you everyone sooo much for your time and suggestions!!

The seedlings are anywere from 2 days to 2 weeks in the ground, making them 8-10 weeks old. Some of the plants were very frail and others were pretty tough. As we've gone along, the plant killer has moved higher on the the stems. My most recent attempt, which was right before the mouse theory here, was to put a small cone of plastic rabbit fence around each plant. It created about a six inch diameter circle around the 11 remaining seedlings. I figured that if it is a small rabbit, I would either keep it out or at least be able to see the way the animal got around the barrier. I'm down to 9 plants now. two more have been cut off right above the 8 inches of vinyl tubing that I put on the protect the stems. There was no visible disturbance of the cone. It's like it either came down from the sky or up from the ground. I planted the remaining five seedlings in large pots and put them by my front porch. At least they'll get me a few nice tomatoes this season, but it looks like I won't be needing my canning supplies in August. As for next year, I'm going to start working on a plan for some sort of wire mesh cones that will be burried in the ground around the plants. If it is a mouse, it is more than likely that this particular one will be dead by this time next year, and that others won't share it's desire to kill my tomato seedlings. However, I'll be prepared just in case.

Semaspore bait (aka Noseema is one brand). But is has to be applied as early as possible while they are still young. If you can get a good distribution of it in areas with lots of young hoppers the beneficial effects in reduced population can last for several years. It isn't cheap but well worth the benefits. One source but shop around for best price. http://www.planetnatural.com/product/semaspore-grasshopper-control/ Dave

Well in general ground hogs don't leave parts uneaten but squirrels do. So do gophers and rats. I tend to bet on squirrels simply because I have so many of them. That is one reason why many pick at color break and finish ripening indoors rather than leaving ripening fruit on the vine. Once color break happens the fruit gets nothing else from the plant so nothing is gained by leaving it on the plant. Dave