So in my container vegetable garden I had a tomato that was going to be ripe this morning so I went out to pick it and it was gone. Originally I though possum/rat because I have both here. Then I was thinking about it and I came to the conclusion of a crow. They get in peoples trash cans and wreak havoc. Anyway my tomato was gone and the ripening one next to it was pecked at too. And there was a bunch of tomato skins all over the mulch. Do you guys think this was a crow or something else? I have never had this happen before and I am very unhappy about it. What do I do to keep the crows out of my garden? Do I have to net each plant? If I get one of those fake owl things do they actually work? Thank you so much for your help! I will post pictures of the damage below.
If you grow your tomatoes in beds, it is easy to cage in the whole bed with deer netting or plastic fencing. If I didn't do that, I would never get to eat a tomato.
I've read that birds don't really want to eat tomatoes .... they want moisture, so what some do, is have a birdbath with fresh water near your tomato bed
not sure if it's fact?
another thing that I read is that birds don't eat yellow tomatoes?
So yesterday I put out some strips of tin foil and ripped them up so they blow and tinkle in the wind. I woke up this morning and another tomato was gone. So that obviously didnt work. I am fairly sure it is crows because they get in the trash cans at dawn then you don't see them the rest of the day. I see my tomatoes the night before then in the morning there are more missing. I have started to harvest tomatoes like the day before they are ripe and jus letting them ripen on the counter. I have a halloween scare crow in the garage that I am going to dig out today and see if that works. I am also going to keep looking out for shiny things I can put in the garden to scare them away.
So, I was wrong. It definitely was not crows it is rats. I was moving around some containers and pulled out a big tub of herbs. Behind it was a half eaten tomato and a bunch of rat poop. I am going to get some of the big rat traps to put out there.
Birds get thirsty in hot weather if there is no water they will drink juice from a tomato. I put several 5 gallon buckets of water filled to the top 10 feet apart all through the tomato patch. Birds are lazy just like people if a tomato is closer than a bucket of water the bird will go to the tomato that is why I put so many buckets of water in my garden. If you make it easy for the birds to get a drink of water they will leave your tomatoes along.
Sometimes you just can't win. I had some lovely New Big Dwarf tomatoes earlier this year. The bulbuls were going after them when they were just blushing and then when they were still green. I caged them and stopped the birds, but then the snails and slugs started eating them. I think I ended up with two tomatoes that I could eat.
Here in north Texas, it's the Mockingbirds that peck the ripe tomatoes. I bought bird netting last year to keep them off of mine. I caught one in the act a couple years ago on one of my container plants and then I knew. Just this morning, a Mockingbird landed on my fence, obviously scoping the garden for red tomatoes, but left because I had picked the ones that were almost ripe since I don't have my netting up yet. I put mine in a clear plastic container with a slighty green banana which gives off a good amount of ethylene gas and that ripens them nicely. The clear container with lid keeps the oxygen out, and the gas inside while letting me see their progress. Keep them in a dark area as tomatoes ripen in the dark.
I have the same problem with birds. I've learned to bag each tomato with clear plastic bags. I do that with my cucumbers also - to protect them from insects. I was thinking of growing green tomatoes so the birds will leave them alone..
Originally I though possum/rat because I have both here. Then I was thinking about it and I came to the conclusion of a crow. They get in peoples trash cans and wreak havoc. Anyway my tomato was gone and the ripening one next to it was pecked at too. And there was a bunch of tomato skins all over the mulch. Do you guys think this was a crow or something else? I have never had this happen before and I am very unhappy about it. What do I do to keep the crows out of my garden? Do I have to net each plant? If I get one of those fake owl things do they actually work? Thank you so much for your help! I will post pictures of the damage below.
