This isn’t very important because I have plenty of tomatoes to share with whatever this animal is and still have plenty for my family and the neighbors. I’m just curious.
Something large enough to eat a half a green tomato at a time is getting in my garden. It prefers the tomatoes that are closer to the fence (green or ripe) even if there are rotten ones on the ground on the edge of the garden closest to the yard or on top of the compost pile. From the feces left behind it is either a really large insect or a small rodent. It’s not eating any leaves or stems. And whatever it is doesn’t bother my dogs either.
I’m afraid of mice. I’ve got myself convinced it is a mouse. Do mice eat tomatoes? What do you think it is?
My guess would be some sort of rodent damage. Mice, voles, chipmunks, whatever. Get yourself some fox urine (sold at many fine garden centers) to keep them away or else one of the other commerical small mammal repellants.
The neighborhood sqirrels eat mine. They always go after the nice ripe ones, so I pick my toms a day or 2 early and let them finish on the windowsill.
I have had good luck deterring them from eating my flower bulbs with hot peppe-dilute in water, spray around plant. This also protects my pepper seedlings. I can’t do this near the ripening toms, though, because my 2 year old likes to pick and eat them when we’re outside.
If you have any tomatoes at all this year, its a miracle. Fungus got most of my plants, everyone around here is reporting virtually zero yield.
But anyway, I have a variety of pests after my tomatoes. Squirrels and chipmunks seem to wait for the tomatoes to get ripe, then pick the biggest ones. They usually pull them off the vine then chew them up on the ground. I hate the squirrels, but the little chipmunks are so cute I hate to take any action against them.
But my biggest surprise came a couple of years ago. Something was wolfing down huge chunks of tomatoes right on the vine. I couldn’t figure it out, there was no sign of any varmints. Then one day, I caught the culprit redhanded: a tomato caterpillar! This was one huge mofo of a caterpillar, about as big around as your thumb and about 4 inches long. These caterpillars can chow down a whole tomato in an incredibly short time. The only remedy is tomato dust (i.e. rotenone) which unfortunately cannot be applied within 7 to 10 days of eating the fruits.
Could it be horn worms? My mother gets them on her toms in the summer, and takes great delight in picking the off the vine, and dropping them into a bucket of gasoline, where they SCREAM. She’s a sweet woman in all other respects, though.
I think I’d notice a monster caterpillar, but then again maybe not. I’ll keep an eye out. I KNOW about horn worms, (BTDT my first tomato garden) that’s not it. They attacked the whole entire garden and practically leveled it.
We have large grasshoppers around the yard, could that be it? I wouldn’t think that they would go for only the tomatoes near the fence. I’d suspect it was my dog Bear, but he would go for the easiest to get to and he really only likes the ripe ones. Whatever this is, doesn’t care whether it’s ripe or green.
Oh, I forgot to mention that my plants were knocked over in a storm earlier this summer and I just left them the way they landed. So all of the tomatoes are close to the ground.
Can a rabbit fit through a 2-inch space between pickets? (I just had a “Duh!” moment.) The dogs wouldn’t like a rabbit being in their yard, but if it snuck in quietly, they might not notice. We don’t have chipmunks in these parts. We don’t have squirrels in this subdivision, yet, I’m sure they’ll come along eventually. I don’t know what a vole is. :o
sailor, come to the front door. I’ve got PLENTY to share!
