Animal Eating My Tomato Plants

By

msgoldie

I've had that problem! With young pepper and tomato plants! Completely gone-or something ate it to a stem only! Could be birds-I've seen robins in my garden-pecking around for worms-ha-maybe? Since my garden is fenced in, cause of my dogs too. I might blame the birds at this point?

To save young tender plants from critters-or whatever, start saving up gallon plastic milk jugs, cut out the bottom-leaving top ok as is. Put a stake at your plants-and slip over the milk jug thru the stake down to the ground. Hey, it protects the plants during heavy rain and storms! It's a little more work- but it'll help until the plants get bigger and stronger! You can remove them-and stack them on a big stake stick! I swear by this method!

By

Contester

Have you checked the plants for tomato hornworms? These large caterpillars (get to the size of your finger!) are very hard to see because they look like a curled tomato leaf. They can strip a plant of leaves in a short time. They'll also eat the fruit.
If you see dark green caterpillar poop under the plant, then look for the caterpillars. Squash any you find, unless they have what looks like grains of rice sticking out of their backs. If they have that, they have larva of a parasitic wasp growing in them and will die soon of natural causes. In that case, just move the caterpillar somewhere far from your tomatoes and let it live long enough to produce more natural predators!
Here's some pics:
http://www.google.com/images?q=toma ... orm&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=AqFPTND5AYL-8Abh-bHJAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CD0QsAQwAw&biw=1366&bih=575

By

straightace

It's probably deer. At least that's what it was in our case. We've had some luck using Bobbex, a repellent you apply to each plant. It won't keep the deer out of the garden, but they'll decide that your tomato plants are not something they'd like to eat. Follow the directions carefully.

I have planted my tomatoes twice during the past week. Each time some animal has cut the tops off about 4 inches above the ground. What is doing this and what can I do about it?

My garden has a mesh fence and the tomatoes have cages. Some animal is chewing my plants 4 -6 inches up the stem. They don't eat the plant or the stem, just kill it. Any ideas for me? The plants were large and now 3 out of 13 are dead.

Hardiness Zone: 4a

By Karel from Big Lake, MN