Why do they only eat my unripe tomatoes?

9 years ago

My home and garden are surrounded by lots of tall, old growth trees in my yard, the neighbors' yards and all over the neighborhood. They play host to many birds, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, possum and all other sorts of wildlife. I accept that growing here means feeding my neighborhood critters. But I've noticed an odd trend lately.

I periodically find half eaten green zebra tomatoes lying around on the ground, on my deck, etc. They are always full size, but showing no hints of ripeness. I am not (so far as I've noticed) losing any of my fully ripe Azoychka, mortgage lifter, or Cherokee purple tomatoes. Every one that I've seen starting to change colors has stayed on the vine and ripened fully. And I don't think I've found any of them half eaten so far.

In past years, animals have mostly stolen my fully or partly ripe tomatoes. And I always thought the evolutionary purpose of tomatoes, and other fruits, changing colors was to attract the attention of animals that would eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. So one would expect that animals would mostly be eating the ones that are ripe or ripening and changing color.

I'm starting to get curious about why this is so this year. I'm seeing the same thing with my sweet peppers as well. My green ones get stolen. Purple beauty and anything else not green is left alone.

I'm really just curious, but has anyone else noticed this trend? Or any thoughts on why it might be so?

Angie

Comments (4)

PupillaCharites
9 years ago
It sounds to me like rodents. If you lived here I'd say tree-rats (squirrels). They need to discover it and being the social animals they are, they tell the whole squirrel neighborhood. So suddenly that can happen. They are very sloppy eaters and mercilessly slobber fruit all over and seem to like taking bites out of green fruit and leaving them half finished. They massacred my green strawberries.

Short of exterminating them, the best bet is to get a dog or cat. Or put a motion activated noisemaker. I tried putting hot pepper powder - the Capsiyummiest, and they just mocked me and ate away. Other people say it works, so I can only tell you what I saw, day after day. Once rodents discover a taste they like there is no stopping them and they develop a mischievous obsession to maximize your pain. I had to go to a support group to try to get over mine ;-), but nothing ever cured me.
CaraRose
9 years ago
I believe they typically they chew into tomatoes to get moisture rather than to eat the fruit.
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badgergal
9 years ago
For the last couple of years I have had critters eating my tomatoes but it was always just a chunks out of ripe tomatoes. This year I have also had green tomatoes be the target. It seems like everyday I find one or 2 half eaten tomatoes on the vine or in the grass. The other day was the first time I actually saw one of the tomato thieves in my yard and it was a woodchuck walking Away with one of my nice big green tomatoes. The next day neighbor tried to catch the tomato thief with a trap baited with a green tomato. This is what he saw later that day. (Note the trap is sprung) What do you think that woodchuck was trying to say to my neighbor?
Judybear236
9 years ago
Haha! I would suspect that with the awful year we've been having here (SE Wisconsin) that they are eating the green ones because there aren't any red ones yet. I also suspect that it's a variety of thieves (But woodchucks??) because not only are the tomatoes taken in the late evenings, but hanging cherry tomatoes are taken throughout the day, as well as hanging ground cherries. One thing common to many is that they eat the insides, but leave the skin AND THE SEEDS! Vey picky eaters.