Could be birds I guess - big bird like crows - but this really looks like varmint/animal damage to me - groundhog, deer, squirrels, raccoons, rats/mice, etc. Is the garden fenced? Cages around the plants? What kind of access would an animal have? Any signs of wildlife in the area like tracks or droppings?

You may need to explore the garden at night with a flashlight to catch the varmint.

Dave

Well, could be a large bird, but it looks toothy to me. Groundhog or rabbit? Possibly a raccoon, but I would expect slits from their sharper teeth.

Is all the damage on the lower 2 feet? That would suggest a mammal. Any branches pulled down? Higher up would be birds.

You might try surrounding the tomatoes with chicken wire. Loosely so you can remove it for harvesting later, but firm enough so you would know if it was disturbed.

Well not crows, we don't seem to have those here. The backyard is fenced but the garden is not, I suppose just about anything could get in there, no deer though.

I don't see any tracks or dropping, I looked good. I will check out there at night and see what I can find, and leave the back light on. If it is varmits is there nothing I can do, short of the 12 gauge..

There are some products made from predator urine that should scare away most critters like bunnies.

Cheers!

Thanks for the advice on the predator urine. I had a thought which may seems somewhat gross, but since humans are the top predator what if I simply peed around the edges of my garden?

Thanks everyone for the replies!

Thanks Joe. I thought about doing that for him, but you did and it helps people see without a lot of copying and pasting.

I agree that it looks like some mammal with good sized teeth has been taking bites out of it. We have possums, coons, squirrels etc around here as well as field rats upon occasion but they have not bother my tomatoes thus far. The closest thing that I had to that was a few years back when I found a couple of really nice big red tomatoes that I was planning on picking the next day with big bites taken out of them similar to that. The next day, I found a Terrapin (box turtle) in the act of munching on one. They were all low on the plant however. They are protected, but I bowled a pretty good strike with him (outside the chain link fence). I do not know how he got in there in the first place. Urban Coyotes are a problem in many places, and they will even eat watermelons and canteloupes.

For a 12 guage to do any good, you are going to have to get a sighting on the critter. A good yard dog might help.

A motion sensor light and / or water sprinkler might help, dunno.

Hopefully a tour or two with a flashlight will give you some clues if not actually catch the culprit. I know that has to be aggravating.
Bill P.

what if I simply peed around the edges of my garden?

Depending on the varmint, it helps. Reapply after rain. ;)

Dave

***Update**

Thanks everyone for your insight and great advice. Last night I did not have a hungry visitor. I did two things "differently" First I did pee around the outside of the garden several times (of course its raining again today and I will need to "re-apply") Second I left the back lights on. I woke up several times to check for the varmit, flashlight and shotgun in hand, however much to my disappointment, nothing showed up to blast.

I'm not so opptomistic to say problem solved but one night is a solid step in the right direction.

Again I really appreciate the advice and fast responses to my questions. God bless all of you!

I just remembered something from scout camp that may help. If you put down a piece of plywood or newspaper and sift flour over it, you may see the pawprints of your varmint the next day!

Of course, make sure it's not going to rain that night. ;)

***Update***

Well I got a trap and baited it with pecans and chicken.This morning I went outside and checked it. All the food was eaten and whatever it was managed to do so without setting off the trap. However I did find several droppings and need help ID'ing whatever it is so I took some pictures. Can someone tell me what I am dealing with. I also have a picture of a tomato which was perfect before bed, and you can see what it did just last night.

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/dpcjetski/IMG_0475.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/dpcjetski/IMG_0474.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/dpcjetski/IMG_0473.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/dpcjetski/IMG_0477.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/dpcjetski/IMG_0476.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful:

I really wish that I knew how to write it out without it trying to execute so that you could make your pictures so that they could be seen without all that copying and pasting into the browser bar. If you would just start with Then you immediately, without a space write the description of your picture like perhaps mouse droppings and close it with and here is what happens.

Now, after all that, a couple of things lead me to strongly suspect a mouse or rat. One, the fact that they were not heavy enough to trip the trigger of the trap and those droppings sure look like a mouse or rat to me.

I took some emery cloth and polished up the points of contact on my have a hart trap, then put some oil on them to make it a hair trigger. The result was that I caught a bird in the trap, which surprised me. You might try that.

You might also try buying a large old fashioned rat trap and a small mouse trap and bait them with peanut butter. Most things love peanut butter and it rarely fails for me. They also make some sticky paper stuff that might stick their feet and hold them. That would confirm what the culprit is. A 12 guage shotgun might make you feel better and vindicated, but it might be overkill on a mouse. ":^)
Good luck and keep us posted.
Bill P.

I'm sure those are mouse droppings. I think you have two different issues here. Mice would not chew giant holes in your tomatoes. More than likely they are there for insects. Mice adore things like grasshoppers and locusts. You didn't specify what kind of trap you are using? I would try a larger have-a-heart trap baited with peanut butter. Whatever is eating those holes in your tomatoes is much larger than a mouse. Considering the massive damage done in one night, whatever it is, it is nocturnal, and it is not tiny.

droppings

I tried, as you can see above to post links as described, oh well. I will post links in five seperate posts so the can be clicked instead of copy and paste. From the post above my scred up post, fron "kendra2" the though is I have two different culprits, a mouse or a rat, and a nocturnal animal, like a racoon or a possum. The trap I used is a large trap, wire mesh with a "step platform" which you put the food on. The idea is the animal steps on the platform where the food is placed and the door shuts behind them. I will use peanut butter way towards the back of the cage with other foods hung from the top to increase the chances the culprt steps onto the step trigger. I also cover the back of the trap, where the food is, so there is no chance it can be taken from the outside. I used several pecans and chicken bones with some chicken still on them as well as pecans as bait. Everything was gone, including the bones, which I doubt a rat could carry off, could be wrong.
Tonight I will re-bait and see what happens. So the thought for the tomatoes is the varmit is biting them to attract insects which it will later eat? Also the tomato pictured was about 2 feet off the ground, so the though of a larger animal makes sense. I'll get some mouse/rat traps also.

As far as the shotgun being overkill, I think justified. Taking one bite out of every tomato is overkill in my book, an eye for an eye :-)

Here is a link that might be useful:

Droppings 1

Here is a link that might be useful:

Droppings 2

Here is a link that might be useful:

You get the idea, I won't post them all..

Here is a link that might be useful:

I guess I was not very clear. I do not think a mouse could damage your tomatoes that severely. Mice are everywhere, and the dropping you found appear to be from a mouse. What I'm trying to say is that it is not the mouse, but something much larger that is doing that kind of damage. It could be a rat, but it could also be a raccoon, a woodchuck, or some kind of weasel. Your idea about blocking off one end of the trap and putting the peanut butter on the far end is excellent. That should ensure that whatever it is will be forced to step on the trigger mechanism. If you catch the critter, I hope you will report on it. I'm very curious to know what is eating those big holes in your tomatoes. Good luck! I sure hope you catch it soon. I would be so mad if something was doing that to my tomatoes.

Well I went to home depot today at lunch and picked up one of the new "have-a heart" trap. Ironic because I don't have a heart for these bugger. I also got one of those sticky rat traps. The new trap looks like it triggers a lot easier than the one I used last night, but time will tell. I think if it is a raccoon there may be several, so after I catch one we'll see. Those buggers can be smart though and if they have any age on them, which I assume they do, they have seen these traps before.

Don't worry I will be on here to let you know what I catch. I'll post the "before" pictures of what it is, that is what he looks like "before" he meets the 12 gauge. For those that would like to see the after let me know, I will be happy to e-mail them :-)

You can fine tune the trigger mechanism so that it is pretty sensitive. that I caught in mine. It kind of surprised me, but the danged thing had started pecking green tomatoes, then moved on to pecking the yellow ones like Aunt Gerties Gold, so I managed to catch it. I did turn it loose, but they are pretty shy birds and it did not come back to peck more. I guess that the trauma was enough to discourage it.
Bill P.

Bacon tuna pecans and lettuce locked and loaded :-) The new trap is super-sensative, heck if this raccoon or possumm gets this food without triggering it he can have the tomatoes...

I just checked the trap and I caught a large rat. He is currently spending time in the trap in the garage next to the exhaust pipe of my running Jeep, didn't really know how else to take care of him, I'm pretty sure the neighbors don't want to hear a gun blast at midnight. I hope to catch something bigger later.

Well after 30 minutes in the garage with the Jeep running the rat was still alive. Since I didn't want to leave it running any longer and was concerned about the carbon monoxide getting into the house, I put the cage into the truck, drove to a remote location and put a bullet into the rat. A 9mm hollow point does a number on a rat at close range. I came home, cleaned as much of the guts as possible out and put the trap back in place. This morning, nothing. The good thing is the food wasn't eaten either so nothing got in there. I suspect the varmit either saw the rat in the cage earlier and decided he didn't want the same faith, or wasn't attracted to rat guts. Oh well. I left the trap out there today and maybe I will catch something during the day. I'll clean it out after work today and hope I have better luck tonight.

Have a good day everyone!

So it was a rat. I really hope this is the end of your tomato troubles. Hopefully the rest of the fruit will be yours. Thanks for keeping us posted! Rats cannot resist bacon or peanut butter so if there are more out there, hopefully you'll catch them.

That is great. Some progress made, and now you know a lot more than you did in the beginning. Was any more tomatoes eaten? Or any more droppings left behind? Unfortunately, where there is one, there is usually more. Don't forget the peanut butter, many can't resist it.

You may not have any larger varmints than the large rat. They are capable of lots of damage I think. I would clean the trap up good and keep setting it. If you have a large enough container like a barrel or child's plastic swimming pool that is deep enough, perhaps you could take the next rat swimming and see how long it can hold it's breath.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Bill P.

I'm curious if you've had anymore snackers on your tomatos, I'm dealing with the same thing up here in Frisco, beautiful tomatoes a day or two from harvest are munched beyond belief, and the eaten edges are smooth, I've got three foot fenced cages around each of my plants and it's like I provided a ladder, so the rat makes perfect sense.

I can't thank you enough for posting all this trouble you've had, I'll be getting the trap and hunting rats myself.

Thanks,
Paige