seriously though, look for scat traces on the ground and on the leaves. Different animals leave different poop behind. Also, describe what your environment is like? woods, city, suburbs, backyard ect. Don't forget about the 2 legged thieves also.

hi jean, yes, i've had snails and slugs coming to my tomatoes... it's just rained so they're out in force... i never realised that the snails and slugs crawled so high just to eat the stems... i always thought they were ground dwellers... :) Thanks for your imput!

I keep a tub of killer soap water handy to drop critters into.. It is a mass grave for stinkbugs, harlequins, and leaf footed guys. The leaf footed guys are quick when they are old. I have a mature couple that are eluding me. So I expect to see a bunch of babies soon. stink bugs are easy to grab so are harlequins. Try some soapy water with dawn original soap on the babies. I hear that the parents are susceptible but the babies are more vulnerable. It is worth a try. My hand held vacuum cleaner was worthless for me. True, I got it from Goodwill. The dawn soap spray mixture works almost IMMEDIATELY on coried bugs ( a relative to the stinkbugs) by getting into their breathing apparatus. They take about 15 seconds and then start twitching. The net bags are good for the toms but these bugs also suck the plants and leave a poison that causes decline of the plant if it gets too much.

Sounds like a plan with the alternate watering hole. I'd be more confident with that if they were birds, but with squirrels once they are on to something they can be real pains to change their behavior, since they discovered ripe tomatoes which clearly the pest in your case prefers to your green ones. The hot pepper seems to work for some people with rodents / mammals (not birds), usually just spraying it on the fruits and including ground garlic in it seems to help according to them. Check the threads here for many discussions. Here's one including some individually wrapped tomatoes (link) Good luck PC