HELP!!! SOMETHING IS STEALING MY TOMATO PLANTS!!!

[victoriam0212]

we recently planted tomatoes and they're growing great...but yesterday I went out to water and one of them was gone!!! the entire plant!!!!! not a leaf or fruit left!! and again today i lost another whole plant and found one that was chopped off at the base (it looks like whatever tried to take it couldn't pull it out of the wire)...mind you these plants have the tomato wires around them, a mesh on top and moth balls surrounding them too!!! I haven't seen any holes in the ground to indicate a digging critter, and we live in the suburbs so we don't have deer or rabbits. I don't know what it is or how to stop it! any knowledge or advice will be most appreciated!! hopefully I'll hear back before all my plants are gone!!! thanks!!!
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Vicky

[doccat5]

Could be raccoons, or possums and don't count out rabbits or deer either.

[cheshirekat]

I'm gonna be cynical and propose that a neighbor wanted tomatoes, scared from the tomato warnings from the FDA and decided to grow them - yours saved them a trip to the nursery.

It's amazing what people will steal.

[jesmyra]

I have personally seen a squirrel running through my yard with a large ripe tomato in his mouth. Sometimes they'll just take one bite and leave it. Usually happens when I haven't filled the bird feeders with sunflower seeds. Blackmail maybe?