# Lifestyles & Discussion > Freedom Living >  What keeps eating my tomatoes??

## devil21

I have a decent sized outdoor garden and recently something has been eating my biggest tomatoes right off the plants.  Whatever it is has a hell of an appetite.  It's eaten the bottom half of two nearly full grown Mr. Stripeys, one full grown Pink Brandywine, one full grown Beefsteak and two full grown Goliaths!  It only eats my biggest tomatoes and leaves everything else alone?!  All over the last 3 days no less.  It only eats the bottom half of the fruits so whatever it is seems to be working from the ground.  The fruit itself looks kinda "shredded" at the feeding spot.  I already have a rabbit fence surrounding the garden.  A couple of times I saw something out of the corner of my eye run from under the fence into nearby brush but that was small, fast and dark colored.  Didn't look big enough to do this much damage but who knows.  Anybody know what may be doing this and solutions?  At this rate I wont have anything left after this freeloader takes its toll.  Help!

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## Kotin

could you take pictures of it? that would help me identify whatever pest it might be..

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## devil21

> could you take pictures of it? that would help me identify whatever pest it might be..


A picture of the pest?  LOL if I could do that I wouldnt need help 

The small brown critter Ive only seen twice for about a split second out of the corner of my eye.  He's a fast SOB.  But Im not sure that's whats doing the damage.  Probably a rodent of some sort.  Guess Ill hit the Home Depot and see kind of goodies they have to rid me of the unwanted guest.

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## Brian4Liberty

Rats and squirrels will eat tomatoes. I had rats eating my tomatoes and jalepenos one year. Rat trap did the trick.

It could also be worms/caterpillars eating your tomatoes. Any small dark droppings?

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## Time for Change

frustrating isnt it...
I had the same thing going on with a combination of squirrels, racoons, rabbits and a few mice / rats.

Crafty little $#@!s too.
(I dont want to kill the squirrels or rabbits because I may want (read=need) to eat THEM one day)

I finally gave in and planted some sacrificial plants for them to eat and made them easily accessible while my food was a bit harder to get to.

So far so good.

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## Original_Intent

> Rats and squirrels will eat tomatoes. I had rats eating my tomatoes and jalepenos one year. Rat trap did the trick.
> 
> It could also be worms/caterpillars eating your tomatoes. Any small dark droppings?


It's not worms eating the bottom half of tomatoes like he described. Rat or squirell, a rabbit would probably do it too.

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## Kotin

> A picture of the pest?  LOL if I could do that I wouldnt need help 
> 
> The small brown critter Ive only seen twice for about a split second out of the corner of my eye.  He's a fast SOB.  But Im not sure that's whats doing the damage.  Probably a rodent of some sort.  Guess Ill hit the Home Depot and see kind of goodies they have to rid me of the unwanted guest.


I meant the damage..

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## devil21

> Rats and squirrels will eat tomatoes. I had rats eating my tomatoes and jalepenos one year. Rat trap did the trick.
> 
> It could also be worms/caterpillars eating your tomatoes. Any small dark droppings?


Im leaning toward it being a rat.  My garden is near a lot of thick brush and a stream which sounds like good rat habitat.  That would also fit the description of what I saw out of the corner of my eye hauling ass out of the garden, plus the shredded appearance of the tomatoes.  I picked up some rodent repellent pellets to spread thru the garden and some old fashioned mouse traps.  We'll see how it goes.  Thx for the thoughts all.

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## pcosmar

> Im leaning toward it being a rat.  My garden is near a lot of thick brush and a stream which sounds like good rat habitat.  That would also fit the description of what I saw out of the corner of my eye hauling ass out of the garden, plus the shredded appearance of the tomatoes.  I picked up some rodent repellent pellets to spread thru the garden and some old fashioned mouse traps.  We'll see how it goes.  Thx for the thoughts all.


You need a predator of your own, Cats or a Rat dog. 

Ginger was a great little rat killer. May she RIP.
http://pcosmar.blogspot.com/2008/05/sad-news.html

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## Working Poor

I keep hoses laying in my garden for watering and keeping the rabbits and rats out because they see them and think they look like snakes....and old farmer taught me that one.

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## klamath

I doubt you have deer but they will eat a tomato patch down and the tomatos.

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## Elwar

I'm sorry...I was hungry and your tomatoes looked so tasty.

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## GBurr

It's probably a ground-hog. It really doesn't matter what it is. The solution is the same. Bust it in it's head with a .22.

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## acptulsa

> I finally gave in and planted some sacrificial plants for them to eat and made them easily accessible while my food was a bit harder to get to.
> 
> So far so good.


There are also plants that keep certain pests out.  You'll have to do some research on that--about all I can remember is marigolds repel some kind of insect, not much help.  But whether they mask the good smell or are just repulsive, if they work they work.  For instance, a row of poison ivy might keep Elwar out of your garden...

So, if you figure out what the pests are, check it out.

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## devil21

> I'm sorry...I was hungry and your tomatoes looked so tasty.


It's ok.  I do grow a mean tomato plant.  They are hard to resist.

So after spreading the pellets the critter is back and decided to harvest another Brandywine for me.  My biggest damn tomato no less.  While the .22 suggestion is tempting, I live in a large city and I doubt my neighbors would be thrilled if I decided to give my AR a backyard workout on some rodents.  

So the next step, today I harvested some ripe Habanero peppers, boiled them (note to self:  get out of kitchen while boiling next time!), threw the broth in a blender to puree' and strained the juice into a spray bottle.  A dash of Tea Tree Oil was added for bug repellent then sprayed liberally through the garden.  My gardening "partner" is adamantly against killing the rat (vegan  )so I gotta try all this holistic crap before I just sneak a few snap traps in there to kill it while she's not looking.

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## amy31416

> I keep hoses laying in my garden for watering and keeping the rabbits and rats out because they see them and think they look like snakes....and old farmer taught me that one.


Never heard of that one, worth a try and gives me an excuse to not put my hose away neatly.

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## Bruno

Ground squirrels.  

In our area we have the 13-lined ground squirrel.  They love to get at the tomatoes.

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## Brian4Liberty

> There are also plants that keep certain pests out.  You'll have to do some research on that--about all I can remember is marigolds repel some kind of insect, not much help.  But whether they mask the good smell or are just repulsive, if they work they work.


The theory on marigolds is that they are preferred by white-flies over your tomatoes and peppers. They like yellow/orange. Related to that is putting up big yellow/orange sticky traps like flypaper around your garden. White flies don't eat your tomatoes, but they do kill or severely stunt your plants.

I want to put an electric fence around the garden. Might keep out many animals, including cats who think it's a big litter box, and dogs that dig and trample.

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## Brian4Liberty

> My gardening "partner" is adamantly against killing the rat (vegan  )so I gotta try all this holistic crap before I just sneak a few snap traps in there to kill it while she's not looking.


Lol! Mine is not vegan, but she freaks on killing anything. Luckily she draws the line when the little bastards are eating _our_ food.

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## catdd

It's a groundhog, I'd bet 20 dollars on it.
Did you look around for a burrow?

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## devil21

> It's a groundhog, I'd bet 20 dollars on it.
> Did you look around for a burrow?


Im pretty sure it's not a groundhog but Ill look closer for a burrow inside the rabbit fence.  I do need to do some weeding so I may have missed it.  Whatever it is is actually climbing on the plant itself (I can see the claw marks) to get to the lower tomatoes so it can't be all that big.  Groundhogs are pretty large aren't they?

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## Bruno

> Im pretty sure it's not a groundhog but Ill look closer for a burrow inside the rabbit fence.  I do need to do some weeding so I may have missed it.  Whatever it is is actually climbing on the plant itself (I can see the claw marks) to get to the lower tomatoes so I can't be all that big.  Groundhogs are pretty large aren't they?


Groundsquirrels are small and light, can climb and love to eat tomatoes.  They eat mine and my neighbor's. 

See my previous post for the little rascal that's probably eating the fruits of your labor.

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## catdd

Yeah, they are pretty big. I had one in my garden once and one groundhog can really do some damage. I also found out they have incredible eyesight and it's very hard to get a shot at them.
Take some flour and spread a good coat around the bottom of the plants they are eating so you can see the paw print. That will tell you what it is.

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## devil21

I found no garden damage today but it occurred to me that the bastard has already eaten the lowest hanging tomatoes so he probably can't reach anything anymore without doing some serious acrobatics.  Ill keep looking but I think his free lunch has run out.

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## Krugerrand

> There are also plants that keep certain pests out.  You'll have to do some research on that--about all I can remember is marigolds repel some kind of insect, not much help.  But whether they mask the good smell or are just repulsive, if they work they work.  For instance, a row of poison ivy might keep Elwar out of your garden...
> 
> So, if you figure out what the pests are, check it out.


That poison ivy line made me bust out laughing.  Unexpected.  Thanks!

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## Kylie

This is the first year I've ever grown anything, and my tomatoes are doing great. We live in an area that has alot of wild life(ducks, groundhogs, moles, rabbits, you name it) so I put a line of marigolds all the way around my tomato box. 

Have not had one animal in there yet. Have had the birds get a few tomatoes but I put up a few pie pans and fixed that. 

Maybe putting up an owl (plastic, you can get them at any farm store) on a pole would help?

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## Objectivist

YouTube - Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Funny Scene

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## devil21

I caught a rat in there.  My vegan gardening partner was busy buying herself a house (in this economy?  yeah, I warned her...) so I laid out a few snap traps baited with peanut butter.  Im not sure exactly what happened overnight but the carnage I found yesterday in the garden was pretty "interesting".  I found one half of the rat (tail half) near a triggered trap but couldn't find the other half of the rat and I can't find one of the traps?!?  Then I found a few pieces that appear to be rat innards strewn around the general vicinity.  A completely and perfectly sheared little stomach even....yeah gross.  Not sure what went down in my garden overnight exactly but there's definitely a dead rat that was inside my fence.  Seems theres more to the story but I guess Ill never know.  I think the rat hit a trap overnight, died, then the morning birds had their way with it and carried half of it off, probably with the trap still attached.  That's the only thing that makes any sense.  Well that or I have a chupacabra in my garden

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## RSLudlum

It's always good to fasten the snap-traps down to something so they can't run off with the trap; esp. a good idea if you're setting the traps in your house.  You don't want a rat crawling off and dying anywhere in your house like a inside a wall.  This is one reason I've never used poison when I've had a problem with mice/rats.

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