When Animals Eat Your Tomatoes!

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OK – this is a real hot topic.

None of us like it when all our hard work is dashed by some pesky (but often times cute) garden invader eating its’ way through our tomato crop!

Recently I’ve had quite a few people ask me “what’s the best way to keep these varmints off my tomatoes?”

Well, there’s hundreds of answers to choose from – and to be honest – what works for John may not work for Joan – and what Fred thinks is humane, Freda thinks is torture – so you can see it’s not quite so easy to pick a ‘one size fits all’ answer here!

Here’s my best shot:

First of all, if something is eating your tomatoes, the usual suspects are rabbits, deer, rodents (squirrels), or even caterpillars. Please be aware that many states and countries have laws against trapping and/or killing wild animals, and anyway, that’s not something that EasyTomatoes.com recommends.

So the following are some ideas for preventing animals from stealing your tomatoes; depending on the size of the critter involved, some may work better than others, so use your judgment.

(1) Cages or other physical barriers around the plants.

Chicken wire and mesh will work, but just be sure to also cover the tops of the
plants otherwise the tomato stealers may just learn to take the tomatoes from the top rather than from the sides. And thank you for the free workout!

Very important here – make a ‘bendy fence’.  Tie chicken wire to the top of your sturdier fence, and leave it floppy.  That way, when a critter climbs up, the fence bends in on it, effectively throwing it back to the ground.  The wire springs back up into place, and is ready for the next assault.

There’s some great info on this technique over on Marc’s Garden Desk blog, here.

(2) Noisemakers and other distractions.

Suggestions include tying up plastic bottles, aluminum pie plates, CDs, and even plastic owls to peer over the area. Many animals will get used to these pretty quickly, though, so you may find yourself changing methods quite frequently.

This is the baby I use – and sure is less annoying on the eye (I got almost seasick once, looking at all my CD’s bobbing about in the wind)

(3) Hot pepper.

Sprinkling hot pepper around the plants (but not on the plants) may work to keep away the animals after a whiff of the stuff; although the website of The Humane Society of the
United States doesn’t recommend this method , it also says that the hot pepper doesn’t seem to do any lasting damage to squirrels, in particular.

Again, here I use a little different approach, mixed in with the bloodmeal idea below.  Animals mostly don’t like stinking stuff (and boy, does this stuff whiff!).  Use it sparingly – and see the difference IMMEDIATELY!

(4) Get a dog or cat.

This certainly shouldn’t be the only reason to accept the responsibility of caring for an animal, but the presence of another creature often does the trick. Of course you do run the risk of your dog or cat damaging your tomato plants and also that your pet may “take care” of the problem in a way that you wouldn’t support.

(5) Blood meal.

Of all the suggestions out there, this one seems to be the easiest to apply and also one of the most effective (apart from the Liquid Fence). Sprinkled around the bases of your plants, the blood meal will start to give off an odor reprehensible to squirrels, for example,
but not to us. You should be able to find blood meal at home gardening centers.

Like I stated above, I use this Liquid Fence product – and have never looked back.

(6) Grow Them Upside Down, OFF the Ground

One of the reasons for growing tomatoes up off the ground is to keep the fruit safe from ground-based predators.  Squirrels are clever and can climb most structures, so be sure you won’t make it too easy for them to climb up to your particular tomato heaven.  In the past I have used old plastic containers, cut open and placed around the support poles (in much the same way that you see some poor cats and dogs with a large plastic collar around their heads – to stop them biting themselves after an operation) – and this stops cleverer animals from climbing up the poles.

If you are hanging your tomatoes from a wall or roof, make sure you use the ‘floppy fence’ idea from above – or have a real good think about the pathway your predators take to your tomatoes.  You want to find the trickiest part of the route – and make it even harder/impossible AT THAT POINT.

There are some great tips available in my Tomato eBook Package.

So what do you do to keep your tomatoes safe from invasions?

Leave a comment below, and help out a fellow tomato enthusiast