# Defending my tomatoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004 "2010-08-30T14:28:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/1 "2010-08-30T14:28:15Z")
I have 11 tomato plants of four different varieties. Something has been eating them, just when they’re starting to ripen. Occasionally a tomato is half-eaten, and there are definite teeth marks, which rule out birds. The only animals I see around here are squirrels, and the occasional cat, dog, skunk, rabbit, and possibly a mole or two. There are no deer around here, and the bite marks came from something smaller than a deer anyway. I bought some screening and covered the entire area with it, but an animal got under the screening and just trampled about half the plants. So it did more harm than good. I remember when I was a kid, my father put moth balls in the flower garden, to repel rabbits, but I don’t remember him putting them around the veggies. I’m very reluctant to use anything like that around things I’ll be eating. Does anyone have a better solution? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/2 "2010-08-30T14:50:52Z")
You’ve mentioned a number of possible suspects. One of my colleagues at work has a dog that plucks off and eats all his ripening tomatoes. You can try to catch the offender (if it’s small enough) in a Havahart trap, use fencing with the bottom six inches or so buried in the ground to discourage burrowers, or utilize a motion sensor device that sprays water. Mothballs are an environmentally poor choice and I doubt they’d discourage a determined tomato-eater anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Minnie\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/3 "2010-08-30T14:58:07Z")
Groundhog, maybe? The one bite and gone rule seems to be what the ones in my yard want to do with the tomatoes. We have given up and now only plant tomatoes on the deck. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/4 "2010-08-30T14:59:13Z")
rabbits will eat greens in reach. squirrels and chipmunks will eat anything, at least sample, and will persevere at circumventing barriers. it sounds puzzling what would trample a fruit bearing sized plant and get in an enclosure, maybe a panicked trapped squirrel could. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/5 "2010-08-30T15:06:31Z")
Squirrels and chipmunks do a number on my tomatoes every year - from what you describe that’s my bet. I wouldn’t care if they just pulled one off and ate it. The problem is, they pull the fruit off, eat a few bites, then drop it and pull another. Repeat until most are gone :mad: ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/6 "2010-08-30T18:40:42Z")
Racoon? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/7 "2010-08-30T19:27:34Z")
Have you carefully inspected for tomato horn worms? I was convinced that a groundhog or somesuch was having a buffet on me – until I found a bunch of GIANT hornworms in the act of nomming. [They look exactly like a tomato leaf](http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/images/non-food/hornworm.jpg) and you can miss them on casual inspection. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/8 "2010-08-30T19:51:21Z")
I LOVE the fact that the link for the hornworm uses “non-food” in the URL. Ahhhh … vegans. I didn’t think hornworms attack the actual fruit, though - just strip the plant of all leaves, thus halting fruit production. Was I wrong? They’ll eat the fruit, too? OP: Sounds like a squirrel problem to me. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/9 "2010-08-30T20:04:28Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > … use fencing with the bottom six inches or so buried in the ground to discourage burrowers … Better still is to bend the bottom of the fencing like so, garden **L** not garden, 1 inch chicken wire being the best choice “[rabbit guard](http://www.lowes.com/pd_97029-80032-837029_4294817820_4294937087?productId=3160983&pl=1¤tURL=/pl_Garden/Utility%2BFencing_4294817820_4294937087_)” is good too, at least that six inches, 12 to 18 inches is even better. Anchored with weed barrier [pins](http://www.drillspot.com/products/577610/dewitt_company_apb5_500ct_weedbarr_anch_pin?s=1) at the bend and the edge of the fencing, just to hold it in place until the grass does the job (not a bad idea to cut the grass as low as possible before laying the fence down). You’ll be amazed at how fast the fence disappears and how difficult it is to pull up after just one season. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/10 "2010-08-30T20:23:12Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I didn’t think hornworms attack the actual fruit, though - just strip the plant of all leaves, thus halting fruit production. Was I wrong? They’ll eat the fruit, too? > . Nope,[they’ll eat the fruit](http://www.examiner.com/gardening-in-philadelphia/tomato-hornworm-caterpillar-it-s-probably-not-a-deer-eating-your-tomato-plants) (In such a way that it looks like a rodent has taken exactly one bite out of each tomato) and even cut the fruit from the stem. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/11 "2010-08-31T03:06:29Z")
I agree about the tomato hornworms or even tobacco hornworms. This is totally gross, but you can see their monstrous droppings. They look like thick, black cylinders, practically the size of mouse droppings. You might see them underneath the plants. I know–caterpillar shit!!! Ewwwwwwwwwww!!! Last time I tried to raise tomatoes organically, I ended up infested with them. I think they must arrive on the actual tomato transplants, as I doubt the ones I had could have hiked up the desert mountain to infest my plants. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/12 "2010-09-01T15:48:51Z")
I’ll vote for the green hornworms too. I was taking care of my sisters tomato plants and one day noticed one had been completely stripped of leaves and fruit. I didn’t see the worms at first, but upon closer examination there were a dozen or more on various plants. They are exactly the color of the plants. I pulled them off with pliers (a few “broke” and were full of bright green liquid) and threw them down in the woods. She hasn’t had any problems since. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/13 "2010-09-02T22:58:35Z")
I had a large caterpillar tear up some tomato plants. looked like a mammal might have been the culprit till I saw the actual creature responsible. BIG. I can post pics if interested. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/14 "2010-09-03T01:04:45Z")
Once again, I took a good look at the plants today and see no evidence of hornworms. In my experience they eat the small shoots at the ends of the branches first, then go for the fruit. There’s no evidence of them anywhere, neither eaten greens nor droppings. Plus the trampling of some of the plants was done by something a lot stronger than a hornworm. I had tied up some of the branches of these plants, and whatever took them down was strong enough to do it in spite of the ties. Plus, there’s no new damage for the last few days, since there are no newly ripening fruit yet. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/15 "2010-09-03T12:13:12Z")
Try “liquid fence” if you suspect rabbits. It stinks gawd-awful, but works as good as it stinks. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defending-my-tomatoes/552004/16 "2010-09-03T20:49:14Z")
Soak red chile flakes in water overnight. Strain them out. Put the water in a spray bottle and spray over the leaves and tomatoes maybe a couple of times a week. Take the chile flakes themselves and spread them around the plant. I know that this will keep squirrels, dogs and slugs away. I suspect it will work against any mammal. It’s useless against birds, but you’ve already ruled those out.