Tomatoes are being eaten

11 years ago

For the first time this year my Brandywine tomatoes, as the pic shows, are being eaten. Not nibbled or picked by birds but eaten! I don't think that caterpillars or slugs (do slugs go after tomatoes?) would do that kind of damage.

I should say that for the last couple of years, in more that 30 years of gardening, my backyard has received visits from raccoons and skunks. They'd go after earthworms it seemed to me. I've humanly trapped 4 of the critters and relocated them several miles away. But some members of their families may have been left behind. Can any expert tell me if any of those animal might be the culprits? The thing I can't figure out is that some of the eaten tomatoes were right in the middle of my very bushy plants so I'm asking myself how such hefty animals could have gotten to the fruit without ripping off branches.

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Comments (11)

harveyhorses
11 years ago
My guess would be squirrels or coons. My electric fence had been keepoing them out, but the fluffytailedrats have managed to breach my defenses, and it is too hot to spend an hour or two trying to fugure out where. It is still keeping the coons out.
yep I am a weenie.
Rusty
11 years ago
Could be Opossums, too.
Especially young ones.

Or mice or rats. . . . .

Rusty
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Nunyabiz1
11 years ago
Most likely Ecoterrorist (Squirrels) or Raccoon's.

I have Ecoterrorist eating mine, they have partially eaten about a dozen tomatoes so far.

I have trapped and relocated 16 so far but lately they have figured out how to trigger the traps without getting caught inside.
So I pulled out the heavy artillery (air rifle) and have taken out 2 terrorist with that.
They seem to be never ending, it's like I am fighting the hoards like I am in Helms Deep in LoTR or that movie 300.

The more I trap or snipe the more that come.
Ohiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
11 years ago
Don't rule out deer, especially when tomatoes several feet up are taken while ones lower down are not. I live in a small town in southwest Ohio and have never seen so many deer in my neighborhood just a few blocks from town center. On Sunday, I caught a yearling eating daylillies in my front yard at midmorning, another in my fenced backyard in late afternoon near the tomatoes and a third in the backyard around 11 p.m. My golden retreiver went crazy each time but they kept coming back. Monday morning I found a green tomato that looked like yours a few yards away from my garden. At one edge I saw the clear teeth marks that could only have been made by a large vegetarian mammal. The drought and heat may make them more bold in their foraging.
dfw_gardener
11 years ago
You might consider getting a dog.

Here is a link that might be useful: DFW Gardener
Nunyabiz1
11 years ago
That (dog) would only work if you are torturing him staying outside in 100+ degree humid weather.
MrsJustice
11 years ago
You have a rodent problem. They often get confuse when eating in your garden by taken a bit off every tomatoes in that location of your garden. Rodents love tomatoes as they are ripening too.
jsturm4057
8 years ago
I have a tomatoe garden with a raised bed covered completly with bird netting, every day I have had one or two tomatoes eaten by some critter.

I have made sure that the netting was totally secure without any breaches, yet something is still eating them, I think it must be rodents, but how are they getting in?
caryltoo Z7/SE PA
8 years ago
Is the bird netting secured to the raised bed? My tomatoes were being eaten last summer, not quite as badly as the ones above, but with big teeth marks gouged out. I suspect rabbits as we have no squirrels in our yard but have many rabbits. They can squeeze under wire fencing even when it's all the way to the ground with maybe an inch to spare -- I've seen them do it when I surprised one in the garden once. Rats and mice can also squeeze through small openings, and they can climb.
aruzinsky
8 years ago
The easiest way to reduce the problem is to plant sacrificial, unsupported, cherry tomato plants around your caged tomato plants. After the animals fill up on cherry tomatoes that are close to the ground, they don't bother with the caged tomatoes.
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
8 years ago
The eating pattern tells me that it is not the birds. Other those mentioned, how about rats ?

I suggest using a humane trap to catch them.

Sey