something is stealing my tomatos?!

[mandersald]

i'm so sad!! :( we have our tomato plant on our deck in a container, and i had 3 tomatoes growing that were still green. something has stolen 2 of them!, and they chewed the whole thing off.

our deck is probably 10 ft off the ground, and there are stairs to get up on to it. i am not sure what kind of animal would climb stairs to get to my tomato plant. i live in central pa, and the only animals i've seen in my back yard are chipmunks and rabbits, both of which i doubt would do such a thing.

i tried blocking the stairs up the deck, but that didn't stop whatever it is. does anyone have any clue what i should do? i'm hoping the 3rd tomato doesn't disappear because its the biggest one i've had so far.

not only that, but looks like the flowers were chewed off too. :( i'm a novice at the whole gardening thing, and was happy to see my tomato plant thriving, but now i'm sad!

[jimmysgirl424]

Do you have a stand of some type that you could place the plant on so that it's even higher up than what it is now? Sounds like it is in reach of some type of animal.

[KrissyCat7]

Do you have a lot of squirrels...those little guys are crazy and they will eat almost anything. How about putting some type of wired fencing around the plant...like chicken wire, so they cant get into it?

[fuzzy]

I second the squirrel thought. They would destroy our tomaotes at our old home.

I tried everything and had little luck keeping them out of the garden. They even rubbed salt in the wounds by leaving the remains in the deck so that when we got home, the sun would dry them out and totally cake it on the deck. :mad:

[Baltimoregal]

I third the Squirrel idea.

They will take 'em green take one bite out of them and throw them into the yard.

Squirrels are nasty little buggers.

[mandersald]

squirrels, huh? those sneaky little guys. i guess this makes sense, since we have a ton in our backyard. might have to go find some chicken wire or something? not really sure if that will keep them out for good, but could be worth a try.

wow, kinda surprised me though cause it seems like some of the tomatoes that they took were kinda big. the image of them running around with a huge tomato in their mouth makes me laugh, but also makes me more sad about my disapearing tomatoes. :(

anyways, thanks for the help ladies!!

[Lizard]

Yeah, I bet it's the squirrels.... I have a small basil plant on my deck and they've been eating that. Maybe they're planning on making a spaghetti sauce. :)

[Witty Username]

It's probably squirrels, but I did catch a bird eating mine. Same situation, container on the deck,I was convinced it was squirrels till I caught the bird in action.

[JuliaK]

Something took bites out of my two biggest green tomatoes too. Same situation, the plant is on a container on the deck. DH accused the neighborhood bunny posse but it sounds more like squirrel damage to me too.

[vwinkel]

How about racoons?

My friend has a squirrel that eats her pumpkin every year. We've watched him!

[mandersald]

i originally thought it might be racoons too. but, really, i have never seen or heard of racoons in our area. but, that was the first thing to jump in my head. but, they seem so big that i would have thought i would hear them or my cats would have done something!! who knows. i moved the plant closer to the house, and now i have a few more tomatoes growing. hopefully they stay there!!

[MaineBelle]

I'm a little late to this thread, but I could have written it myself! We had the same thing happen to us, one day beautiful green small tomatoes all on the plant, the next day chewed up tomatoes and part of my tomato plant on the ground. I cried - honestly I did. I had my tomatoes next to a fence that the squirrels run back and forth across, so I moved them away from that. I'll see if I can salvage any this summer.

Those darn squirrels, first they destroy my bird feeder, now my tomoatoes.