Do these deers have prehensile lips?

10 years ago

I'm missing tomatoes. San Marzanos. When they get big enough to be of interest, they vanish, usually leaving behind the stem and petals (?). The resident deer herd has given the occasional haircut - nothing too serious - but I have to suspect them. If they are indeed the perps, they are reaching into the plant and plucking the whole fruit with teeth and lips.

My friend thinks it is raccoons but they would have to climb up into the plant and there is no sign of broken branches etc. Plus we don't have many of the little buggers.

One would tend to suspect the human variety, but no one ever goes back there, and the toms are quite green when they enter the realm of lost veg.

Huh?

Dennis

Comments (5)

noinwi
10 years ago
When I was growing maters in Wisconsin, the local deer would pluck them off of the plant, but if green, would not eat them after biting into them. Look around on the ground(s) for your green toms with bite marks. It was very sad to find a big bite in a large green beefsteak that would have been a pound or more...very sad indeed.
emmers_m
10 years ago
Do you have squirrels?
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DMForcier
Original Author
10 years ago
Squirrels are everywhere. Hadn't considered them. Somehow the discussion on swallows from Monty Python and the Holy Grail seems to resonate with the suggestion, though.

There are no pieces of mater anywhere. These are in containers in a wagon (the Going to the Sun Wagon) and the wagon floor would catch anything dropped. Nothing around it, either.
emmers_m
10 years ago
Hmm... I'd think either squirrels or deer would leave trace evidence (or coconuts) behind...

An example of squirrel desecration of tomato (graphic, and may be disturbing!)
MzTeaze
10 years ago
I had one tomato today where SOMETHING took a good sized bite then chucked the rest of the mater in my backyard. :-(

Any decent deterrents to use on the fruit?