Poor tomatoes

[bethh]

What's eating my beautiful tomatoes? I thought the pest had moved on until I found this this morning. Help

 

[flowerbug]

larger animal... deer or goat or rabbit or...

how far off the ground is it?

 

[bethh]

Not my goats, they don't have access to the tomatoes ever. Guess I'll have to let my LGD have access to both yards at night so she can run them off. You don't think rodents like rats/mice?

Some of them are close to the ground, that specific one was at least 4foot off the ground.

 

[flowerbug]

if you have soft enough ground you should be able to see tracks if it is deer...

i've never had to contend with rats here so i can't say for sure what that would look like, but to me being up that high makes me think it less likely.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I would not expect mice for sure and probably not rats to eat that much. Their stomachs are not that big. I can't think of anything small enough to climb up there and eat that much that would not break the plant down. But I'm guessing, sort of thinking out loud. Maybe someone has seen that kind of damage from something small.

Four feet high. I'd expect a raccoon to not be that delicate, the fruit would be picked or he'd break the plant down. A groundhog, maybe. I'd lean more toward deer.

 

[Just-Moxie]

Do squirrels eat tomatoes?

 

[digitS']

Tree squirrels will climb into tomato plants and eat the fruit.

Ground squirrels here will eat almost anything.

If their burrow is close to a tomato plant, they may not eat it but they won't likely tolerate it growing there.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Do squirrels eat tomatoes?

i've heard of it in the city, but not seen it done here, there aren't too many squirrels around with the open fields and plenty of hawks.

in more arid climates always put out bowls/saucers of water around the gardens at a bit of a distance to see if the animals are going after the fruits for their water content.

 

[Carol Dee]

I vote for ground hog. They did a real number on our garden one summer. War was waged.

 

[ducks4you]

I say buy/use fox urine, or, if you have naughty kitties (or, like naughty Eva, who used to run to the basement to pee instead of asking to go out...
...
...
Eva just hijacked this thread)
You could soak that up with paper towels and put it around your tomato plants. Meanwhile, plant some catnip and go out at night to see if there is a nocturnal culprit.