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#364952 Feb 20th, 2013 at 11:48 AM
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The year before last I planted different varieties of tomato plants in really large pots and used cages; they sat along a stone wall near my door and had almost a full days sun. As the tomatoes ripened something would take a huge bite out of each one......not eat the whole thing, just a large bite! I never did get to eat one! boohoo

So this past year I dug up a patch out a ways from my place and planted some more. The same thing happened!! tapfoot

Since I'm just feeding some other critter, not THIS critter, I'm not going to bother with it this year. But I do wonder, what kind of animal would just take a bite out of each tomato?
Deer come out of the woods....I've seen rabbits out back....and I've heard there are racoons around, although I haven't seen them. Would any of those three be so picky? Why wouldn't they eat the whole tomato before going to the next one? why

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Could be slugs...they took big bites out of my little maters.


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uhuhh Where is a slugs big mouth Cindy?

No, I mean a BIG bite like almost half the side of the tomato, like I could take.....if I ever got to. :wink:


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I'm pretty smart...but I don;t know the answer to that.
Your neighbor, maybe???? why


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Hmmmmmmm.....wouldn't he just pick them and take them in his house?


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Not if he is a skunk...or rabbit....or some such other critter.
But, you might just ask your neighbor.


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Do you have any bird feeders near the tomatoes Shirley?

I had trouble last summer was racoons getting my tomatoes, same thing was taking bites....i took down the feeder and it stopped.

Good luck.


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There's no bird feeders but there is a birdhouse (bluebirds). I can't remove that, I'd rather give up on tomatoes.


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Hmmm, dont know then.

I just know that here when i had the feeder near the tomatoes and beans, i would watch out the back window and see the racoons eating both the bird seed as well as the tomatoes, and it was the same thing, bites out of them.

Funny enough though, they would tear off the beans and not do anything with them, just toss them!!

I wonder if you Googled some sort of homemade remedy that you could try putting around the tomatoes to protect them, and see if that would work.


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I know they had long enough mouth area to stick through the cage to the tomato and still be able to open their mouth far enough to bite. The more I read here the more I think it is the racoons.


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I'm thinking its racoons's too, they will get into everything, any fruits or veggies that you have growing.

I made up a mixture of water, cayenne pepper, and pepper flakes(soaked in water) in a spray bottle and sprayed it around the area that they were eating and pooping in, and it seemed to work, that and taking away the bird feeder. Dont forget that if you do make up a spray, wash the veggies before you eat them!!


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oops...I almost forgot about my own thread here.

Thanks Penny


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You're welcome....good luck and keep us posted.


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The first thing I thought of was slugs, if you have multiple slugs eating at the same tomato, it can appear to have a big bite out of it when infact it is multiple bites joined. Or it could be a critter of some sort as the others suggested. Hope you find the culpirt.


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