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| I've had a terrible time with deer and groundhogs invading my garden. I believe the barriers I've erected to keep them out are working, however, I'm seeing damage on the tomatoes. The ends of a few stems of some plants are missing and a few of the still green tomatoes are partially eaten. The latter appears to be animal not worm damage. There are plenty of crows around here and I've seen them dive bomb over the fence into the garden but I assumed the barn swallows were chasing them as they often do. The back patio is too far from the garden to see what is actually happening. The artichokes which have been ravished by the groundhogs in the past are completely in tact. There is no sign of deer hoof prints even after the frequent hard rains we've been having. Could this be crow damage? Second question: do scarecrows work? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by northernmn 3/4 (My Page) on Wed, Jul 10, 13 at 8:37
| Doesn't seem likely that it is crows. We have a lot of crows in our area, and I have never seen tomato damage caused by them. Other damage, but not tomato. Do you have any mockingbirds in your area? They are notorious for tomato damage. Birds will use tomatoes as a source of water when it is dry everywhere. Try putting up a birdbath as an alternative source for water. |
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| When I noticed that nearly all of my ripening tomatoes were getting eaten this year, I purchased some bird netting to cover the plants that had ripening tomatoes. That stopped the tomato attacks immediately. |
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- Posted by happyhelper none (My Page) on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 14:20
| The damage could definately be from crows. I posted a question on the Tomato pest site but did not receive an answer. I have caught them in the garden, many many crows. They have eaten every tomato that has started to ripen. They have consumed all the zuchinis, even before they get four inches long. I have been gardening for some 20 to 30 years and have never experienced this before. My question is how to get rid of them. Pie pans clanking around in the wind. Wind Chimes maybe and I have thought about leaving a radio blasting in the garden. I have also had extensive damage to my tomatoes from 11 straight days of rain and now the temperature runs in the 90's everyday. I would still have enough tomatoes to can if I can figure out how to get rid of the crows! |
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- Posted by tomswpa Z5b (tomforlife@comcast.net) on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 14:46
| thanks everyone. it helps to know i'm not crazy thinking it was crows (or perhaps even other birds). I remember my dad watching as birds dive bombed his month in the ground pepper plants destroying them, so bird damage is possible. now to figure out how to foil their efforts. when I struggled with the deer my friends told me to put a fence roof on the garden as I had to go higher with the fence surround. is that the next step? I remember reading that birds cannot sense spice so spraying with pepper spray will not work. |
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- Posted by tomswpa (tomforlife@comcast.net) on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 16:10
| here's an interesting story found at the link below. should work for other birds too. Crow psychology Being basically a skinflint, I didn’t want to blow a hundred bucks or so on toy snakes for the whole field. But the toy snakes proved effective for one of our town-dwelling acquaintances, to keep pigeons from roosting on, breaking, and filling up his house’s gutters with the pigeons’ “you-know-what.” I reflected, “If it works for pigeons, why not crows?” So I rounded up some of that ubiquitous, brittle old garden hose one encounters on every small country place, and cut it into about eight to ten-foot lengths (guesstimated). I laid them out amid the corn rows, about one every 20-25 feet, each way. Mostly, I arranged them in “S” curves. Presto! No crows! Until a few days later. Then the crows pulled up all my corn. I had to re-re-plant. I wondered, “If I just stayed in the sweet-corn patch wheel-hoeing or otherwise puttering around, would those crows bother my just-sprouting corn?” So I started cultivating the rows. To do that, I collected about eight rows worth of “snakes” and dragged ‘em to the end of the rows, and began cultivating. Then I put the “snakes” back, and went to lunch. When I got back, the crows had been at the other side of the patch, but not a single sprout had been bothered in the cultivated part. Early next morning, all the corn was pulled up, except in the rows were the “snakes” had been relocated. Those rows hadn’t been bothered at all. On a hunch, that evening I turned the “snakes” at right angles to where they’d been that day. No crows. Next day, I did the same. Again, no crows. I continued doing it each morning until the corn was about a foot high, and the crows never bothered a single stalk. It was a revelation! If at dawn, the “snakes” weren’t lying in the same position they had the day before, the crows left the place alone. Since that discovery, we’ve never had crows tear up our corn, even when they nest and play in the woods immediately adjacent to it. |
Here is a link that might be useful: country side magazine
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