# Will pigeons eat my urban cherry tomatoes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pigeons-eat-my-urban-cherry-tomatoes/445639>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 16, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pigeons-eat-my-urban-cherry-tomatoes/445639 "2008-04-16T20:19:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NightRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pigeons-eat-my-urban-cherry-tomatoes/445639/1 "2008-04-16T20:19:25Z")

</div>

Hey, urban-garden dopers,

I just moved into a new apartment in NYC, one with a fire escape that gets bright eastern sun. Since my parents grow cherry tomatoes all summer on their outside deck, I feel like it would be doable to grow a couple pots of cherry tomatoes on my fire escape balcony?

The only problem is that a lot of pigeons hang out around/on the fire escape. Are these pigeons going to eat all of my hypothetical cherry tomatoes? Anything, aside from putting up some big cage of wire, I could do to prevent it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pigeons-eat-my-urban-cherry-tomatoes/445639/2 "2008-04-17T04:34:29Z")

</div>

Errrr…do pigeons eat fruit? I have never seen one do so. I have never seen one eating anything that it wasn’t pecking off of the ground. But if you’re having a problem with marauding birds, hang up:

1. a few junk CDs, or
2. a fake hawk
3. a fake snake (red, black & white works best - coral snake colors!)  
They scare the birds. Plain old scarecrows, not so much.

Best of luck growing your urban tomatoes! My father also is a very successful tomato-growing-guy. He starts his indoors. (down in the garage, with a little light bulb for warmth, I kid you not!)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pigeons-eat-my-urban-cherry-tomatoes/445639/3 "2008-04-17T07:39:19Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=brujaja]  
Errrr…do pigeons eat fruit?  
[/QUOTE]

For the record: Pigeons eat just about anything they can fit in their beaks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pigeons-eat-my-urban-cherry-tomatoes/445639/4 "2008-04-17T16:16:15Z")

</div>

They eat cigarette butts. A cherry tomato has got to taste better than that.