Sorry you have lost your tomatoes to critter damage. We have had little squirrel or bird damage on our tomatoes this year and are having a bumper crop. Have resorted to putting a box along the street with a free sign. I had expected to can some but had to have another back surgery this week so no canning this year. Would be happy to share if you are in the Mpls area. We are in Maple Grove where 494 and 694 come together.

Thanks for the offer, but I work for one of the biggest produce distributors in the area. I will do alright. Part of this is my own fault for not having caged the plants, and I had the chicken wire to do it with, too.

Without the squirrels this would have been the best tomato crop I have grown for years, too. Before the squirrels invited themselves to the party, I was already giving away tomatoes, too.

Red squirrels or gray? Our yard is like a red squirrel apartment complex, but they never bother the garden (we have chicken wire around it, to keep out the bunnies). Our squirrels do, however, feast on apples. I've seen them drop apples on the dog, carry apples 25' up an ash tree and park them in the branches, and shuttle them through the tunnels they dig through the snow.

I'm crossing my fingers that the little monsters don't develop a taste for tomatoes, because the wimpy little fence is not going to keep them out!

Grays. I grew up with the big red fox squirrels on the farm back in NW Iowa, but here in Minneapolis we have the much smaller grays. They leave my peppers and my alliums alone, but something has a taste for tulip flowers around here and they are my primary suspects of course. Something around here has a taste for sweet corn and pop corn; so I have given up on them too - not enough space anyway.

You really gotta respect commensals, they have adapted to us and our concentrations so very well. That doesn't mean I necessarily have to like it.

In 47 years of gardening I never had a problem with squirrels bothering my tomatoes. They do eat my Bartlett Pears though. Years ago I gave up growing sweet corn because the gray squirrels ate it before I could pick it. I also have problems in spring with them digging in newly planted pots and seed rows. I use cayenne pepper where I can, or cover new plants/seeds with fence scraps.

Same here about the sweet corn; they got the popcorn, too, the one time I tried to grow that. They also dig in the beds as do the stray alley cats. Neighbors have the same tomato problems with the squirrels. Very few around here get many tomatoes or even try any more.