Hi Knightstick,

Welcome to Garden Web, and The Tomato Forum.

I'd suggest you asking on the Discussion side of the forum. This side is for (off topic) Conversations, and there haven't been many of those for some time now. The link to Discussions is found at the top and to the right of the list of threads.

Sue...an unofficial member of the Unofficial Garden web welcome Wagon

My experience has been that squirrels love tomatoes! I wish, though, that they'd not be so wasteful and only take one or two bites out of them. I see several half-eaten tomatoes in our yard each week during the growing season.

RATS!

I've had the exact same experience. The guy behind me grows avocados and the fruit rats love them. Seems they need a little tomato taste to complete their meal, so they hop over to my side of the fence and eat the bottoms out of the very best tomatoes.

The cure? I have a small optical tool -- with cross hairs! I haven't seen one yet that can run faster than 1400 feet per second. That's how fast the little lead thing goes I send their way to chase after them!

Of course, the BANG scares off the rest of the crew, so I can only "manage" them one at a time. They're gluttons for punishment though; they keep coming back.

The holes sound like Groundhogs/Woodchucks. When thirsty they take 1 bite out of each ripe tomato. Sound right?

1. Put out some water for the chucks.
2. Find a store (HD) that sells the smoke bombs for Woodchuck & other rodents. The hardest part is finding their hole(s), you've done that.

Wait til sundown so you know they are in and then cover the holes
1. so the smoke doesn't get out
2. so you know if anything has left the den.

fwiw - there is usu. a whole family of these rodents, so getting one really does nothing.

This animal at the end of my arms

My guess would be rats or squirrels. If a rat I would try a couple of glue traps with some string or fishing line tied to a stake so that the trap doesn't get carried off somehow. Last year I had birds (I suspect) pecking holes in my ripe tomatoes. Research told me to put water out for the birds to drink but I feared that would attract more birds and they would still be attracted to the tomatoes.

I have that for the first time ever this year. They attack the big red (or just turning red in one spot) "Mortgage Maker" tomatoes which are about 4-5" dia right now, only the ones near the ground so far but they ripen first anyway. I am sprinkling sulfer powder on the ground, putting out water for them, and most of all I check daily and pick the ones just starting to turn before they get deep soft red. Putting them in a paper bag in the house lets them ripen fully without being eaten. They do try to bite green ones too but with little reward. Last year was the hottest of any state ever in Oklahoma but this year looks to make up for it. Everything lush.

What animal eats only the red ripe tomatoes. These bites are big. Not rabbit or squirrel size. Today while looking at the deck I saw a big animal in the bush outside of the deck. It was big. Didn't look to be a raccoon but as big as one. It looked like it was trying to either get on the deck or back down this tall leafy weed. This creature looked big enough to take the big bites out of the red tomatoes. What is it and how do I get rid of it? Thanks for your help!

My tomatoes are in raised beds. I set out four glue traps close to my semi ripe tomatoes and bird feathers were on one and one trap was gone. I then realized who the culprits were.

Birds make messy, jagged holes in almost exclusively ripe fruit (from stabbing at them with their beaks). They find the fruit by color and almost never bother green-when-ripe varieties.

Rodents often leave visible marks from their teeth. They mostly scout out ripening fruit by smell.

Any chunks taken out of fruit that has very smooth margins, almost surgical looking, in both green and ripe fruit will be the work of caterpillars. If the damage is extensive over a lot of area on large fruit, look for the "sixpack frass" that gives away the presence of a hornworm.

Definitely groundhogs, with the large holes.

My eaten tomatoes are four feet off the ground, and visible from above. Clearly birds. These birds don't quite make messy jagged holes. They peck at one place, and the hole expands as it deepens. Edges of the hole aren't smooth, but they are pretty round.

Debbie721, groundhogs get surprisingly large.

either the birds in my area don't like tomatoes or are dumb because i've seen them walk right by tomatoes that had fallen off the plant.

there are plenty of things you can spray around the plants or even on them to deter animals.. peppermint oil, garlic, cinnamon, thyme, etc..a lot of these can be found premade in lowes/hd. peppermint/garlic is probably most effective against rodents.. don't know if it will work with birds..

believe it or not, but you can also try inflatable garden predators such as snakes and lay them around. even fake decoy birds like an owl might also work keeping birds and rodents away.
http://amzn.to/2rpfgrQ
http://amzn.to/2smtyyF
the owls head even rotates ;)

Mine have been eaten by birds, on occasions. I know deer, coons and few other animals like ripe tomatoes too.

Sey

Birds only hit my tomatoes when they are red and we are in a dry spell. Even then, they hit a few and then mysteriously stop. I've started assuming that this is because whatever species of bird, it is attracted to the red color, thirsty and tries a few, and then assume it gives the bird an ulcer, and my pest bird species learns to avoid tomatoes by negative reinforcement.

Cheers

PC

My Boston Terrier has the the taste for blood, as soon as a tomato ripens, she pounces, no unsupervised time in The backyard during tomato season!

I am not an animal, I am a human being!

But I eat ripe tomatoes. Had my first two SS 100s of the year just yesterday :-)

My deck is on the second story of my split level house with steps up to it. I set 2 tomatoes on the deck yesterday as I walked by and forgot to carry them into the house last night. This morning I noticed one of the good sized tomatoes half eaten at the top of the steps and the other tomato had teeth marks in it. I’m wondering what could have eaten that much tomato on my deck. Shelly

Do you have squirrels?

Chipmunks eat them on my deck - grrrr! I've been finding half-eaten greenies :(.

If you have an animal problem, pick the tomatoes at the first blush of pink. Place them on a plate in the house, out of the sun. They will ripen there and be delicious.

Just before frost, I pick every green tomato and ripen them indoors that way.

fwiw, I have deer that eat green tomatoes along with the branches. But up on the deck that won't be Holly's problem.

Another vote for squirrels. Raccoons also get to mine that are on the second story deck.

Dave

Aren't squirrels color blind? They sure never discriminated between ripeness stages of my tomatoes last year.

We don’t have many squirrels in our area. I didn’t have the gate closed on the deck so not sure if chippy or raccoon. Thanks for answers.

Groundhog

Chipmunk