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jplee3

Something (a rodent?) is eating my tomatoes!

jplee3
10 years ago

Hey guys,

Just wanted to get your feedback on what you think might be eating my tomatoes. I have them up on a trellis right now and they were doing fine for a while. Then the other day I noticed a shortage of them. There were two larger ones I knew for a fact were out there and now they're gone!

The other thing I noticed is that there were a number of tomatoes that were higher up (probably around 4-5" off the ground) which appear to have gone missing. I know a field mouse or small rat probably wouldn't have a hard time getting up there, but is it possible that a larger rat or possum would be able to climb up and have the vines still support it? My trellis is pretty sturdy (conduit piping) but the cross supports are just netting.

I've seen a possum once in my yard wall (before planting the gardens) as well as a dead field rat/mouse. I'm assuming it could be any of these? One thing I *have* noticed is FLEAS. I've had sporadic flea problems for the past couple years and I'm not sure where they're coming from. But there seems to be a correlation between the time the tomatoes started disappearing and the time the fleas started showing back up.

I'm guessing possums definitely carry fleas; do mice and rats?

Either way, what's the best way to go about protecting the tomatoes, or what's left of them at least... they've almost reached the end of their season anyway, so maybe I should tear them out and call it quits.

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