What's eating our tomatoes? (lizards, squirrel, worms, back yard)

[motifone]

Grrr! I could use some help from those with more experience. I have a nice set of heirloom and cherry tomatoes starting to ripen, and they are being plucked off. The cherries usually disappear completely. The larger tomatoes, like the one in the picture was still on the vine and gnawed at.

Our back yard is completely enclosed by a wall, but it's possible something might climb over the wall at night or through any cracks in wall.

Culprits:

1. Garden Lizards -- unlikely. I see them around, but I don't think they eat tomatoes?
2. Birds: I thought they were the ones getting the cherry tomatoes, so I put netting around the tomato garden last night. But then today more cherries were missing and the big tomato had the big bite. I didn't put the netting all the way to the ground, so I suppose birds could have gotten underneath, but again, does that bite in the tomato look like a bird to you?
3. Mice or rats - more likely.

I'm declaring war. I'm getting a bunch of glue traps and regular traps. I'm thinking of also putting down some poison baits -- we have no kids or pets.

I'd be curious, based on the pic, what you think is causing this.

[wit-nit]

Could be tomatoe hornworms, they're active now.

tomato hornworm - Google Search

[lifelongMOgal]

Are they being stolen from down low? The bites out of that tomato almost look to me like a turtle has been at it.

Please do not put down poison. It has a negative affect on everything else down the food chain. Consider wire fencing to keep out wildlife from your garden instead. Hardware wire shouldn't let rodents through unless you have squirels.

[motifone]

Gonna rule out worms. Cherry tomatoes have been pulled off vine, eaten elsewhere in garden. Tomatoes too high for turtle.

It is a dense garden against a cinder black wall. Last year, mice burrowed under the wall from neighbors into my garden. Thought I filled in the hole.

I saw a cockroach outside on patio tonight -- we keep a clean yard, but these buggers are a fact of living in the city. I've read they can also eat tomatoes. Might be a coincidence seeing on.

Four hours ago, I put out 2 glue traps, 2 poison trays, and 4 mouse traps with cheese. 3 of the four mouse traps were stripped out the cheese. One of the poison trays had been disturbed. Thinking it's less likely birds now since this all happened under cover of night.

Sorry, I've already netted this to keep out birds. With the cinder block wall, I have no other way of enclosing it in with wire given the growth right now. It's traps and poison at this point.

[gentlearts]

If it happens at night, I'd suspect a raccoon.

[Hemlock140]

Raccoons would snatch off even that big one. This is rats. Your best fast solution is to cage the plants with 1/2" squared wire screen, and buy an electric trap that electrocutes them. Uses batteries and works great.

[South Range Family]

Forget the cheese. Use raw bacon tied to the trap. That way they have to work at it.

[Emeraldmaiden]

If it's rats/mice, try peanut butter on the traps. It's quite attractive to them, and hard to carry away.

We had mice living in our kitchen stove many years ago, and used peanut butter on our traps. Caught 13 of the little buggers that way.

[stone-ground]

I never thought of rats. Just figured it was squirrels doing the same to ours over the years.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by stone-ground

I never thought of rats. Just figured it was squirrels doing the same to ours over the years.

Squirrel = bushy tailed rat