Ready to pick? Yes.

Ready to eat? Probably not.

Many people here pick tomatoes a few days after they start to turn color, but before they're fully ripe.

As you've found out the hard way, leaving a tomato on the vine until fully ripe often results in some critter getting to it first.

Pick it, and leave it on a countertop for a few days until it's colored up fully and has softened to the touch. I can't taste the difference between tomatoes ripened this way, and those left on the vine, and I think many here would agree.

Good luck, they all look beautiful.

yes pick
wait to eat
gently press top shoulder area and note colors
when the shoulders "give" eat, note color and firmness
for the next one

I didn't realize ants could be harmful to tomatoes on the vine. Is there a natural way to keep them away?

~Angela

Ants aren't a problem in general until the fruit has been pecked or bit into by someone else. Then they are attracted to the sugar in the moist fruit.

Ants will also carry aphids up onto plants so the aphids can suck the sap from the leaves. Then the ants feed off of the excretions(honeydew) from the aphids. So a lot of ant highways up and down a plant could mean aphids.

But mostly, ants are not a problem in the garden, and they won't just chow into unblemished tomatoes, if that is what you were asking about.

Thanks everybody,

I'm picking them up tonite! I can't believe it, my first home grown tomatoes!