Anything I can do to deter squirrels from stealing my tomatoes? They
don't even wait for them to ripen - they snitch 'em green!


Alan

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In article ws.com,
wrote:

Anything I can do to deter squirrels from stealing my tomatoes? They
don't even wait for them to ripen - they snitch 'em green!


Alan

Are they cherry tomatoes? If so you may not be able to do a thing about
it, except build big cages around the tomato plants. It's not usually one
of their favorite foods, but once a squirrel takes a liking to something a
bit odd & easy to carry, it'll stick to its guns checking out the source
pretty regularly, & an adolescent squirrel could be responding to the
nut-sized appearance of tiny tomatos, green or ripe.

But if they're wrecking large tomatos, it's probably because they're
thirsty rather than hungry. During hot days of summer, if there's no
stream or pond in the vicnity, squirrels will peal tree bark to get sap,
or open melons & tomatos to get liquid, endeavors that don't interest
them if there are good water sources. If you were to put some sort of
shallow water feature nearby, such as a ground-level birdbath, the
squirrels would probably be less inclined to open tomatoes. There's no
guarantee you can change their behavior, as they're intelligent & willful
little rascals, but acid foods are not their favorite, & with better
sources of water & food about, they'll probably but not certainly leave
tomatos alone.

Setting up bird feeders elsewhere around the house is also a good way to
control squirrel behavior -- you can't defeat them without killing them,
but you can shift their interests & concerns in directions you can enjoy
watching rather than feel bedeviled by. "Squirrel proofing" the bird
feeders slows them down only slightly, & the more difficult a feeder is to
"solve," the happier & more entertained will be the squirrels. You could
hang a rope near a hanging feeder & from a window watch the squirrels play
Tarzan to get to the feeder. Scoring sunflower seeds or peanuts & walnut
bits means the bird feeders will become their entire focus of interest for
quite some while.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

In , on 07/23/03
at 05:53 PM, (paghat) said:

Are they cherry tomatoes? If so you may not be able to do a thing about
it, except build big cages around the tomato plants. It's not usually one
of their favorite foods, but once a squirrel takes a liking to something
a bit odd & easy to carry, it'll stick to its guns checking out the
source pretty regularly, & an adolescent squirrel could be responding to
the nut-sized appearance of tiny tomatos, green or ripe.

Cherries and regular sized.

But if they're wrecking large tomatos, it's probably because they're
thirsty rather than hungry. During hot days of summer, if there's no
stream or pond in the vicnity, squirrels will peal tree bark to get sap,

We have a nearby stream, so it isn't thirst that's got the squirrels in
the tomatoes.

Thanks for the reply.


Alan

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wrote in message news:3f206422$1
snip
Cherries and regular sized.

But if they're wrecking large tomatos, it's probably because they're
thirsty rather than hungry. During hot days of summer, if there's no
stream or pond in the vicnity, squirrels will peal tree bark to get sap,

We have a nearby stream, so it isn't thirst that's got the squirrels in
the tomatoes.

Thanks for the reply.


Alan

The same thing was occurring in my garden to the regular sized tomatoes.
Just as they were ripening to the point where it was logical to pick them,
the squirrels bit holes in them. I wouldn't have minded if they had taken
one tomato and eaten it completely, but they sampled one after another,
making all unusable. I was threatening mayhem when the neighbor's dog
caught one and my live trap caught another. Since these two individuals have
been removed from the scene, I haven't had any problems even though there
are numerous squirrels around still. I appears as if individual animals
develop a taste for certain food, and these two had developed a fondness for
tomatoes.

John