#$(&$# mocking bird destroying entire crop of tomatoes this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a squirrel who has now moved on to unripe tomatoes.

Years ago, I came home one day to find a half eaten green tomato on my front steps. My tomato garden was in the back (and had been ravaged all season). I’m convinced that damn squirrel did it on purpose - and then laughed about it with his buddies.

[Anonymous]

It is not the mockingbird. I have the same problem in my garden with the large round tomatoes - IT'S the grey cat bird; we have six to eight of them coming to the garden every day for 12 hours a day!! We already tried putting out a bird bath, grapes, and hung shiny things off the tomato trellises and nothing has stopped them yet!!! They peck holes in almost every single ripe tomato ! They're the vandals from h*** !!! I chased him 20 times in one day and in 5 minutes they go right back to the fruit again !! The only thing to do is to put bird netting around the tomato plants. I think these birds are protected, by law.

[Anonymous]

Starlings have declared open season on my fig crop this year. This is the first time the tree is loaded with fruit and the mofos wait and watch and peck holes into every ripe fig. 😡

[Anonymous]

Have you tried picking tomatoes once they begin to turn color? They will ripen in the house. That is the only way I am able to have tomatoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried picking tomatoes once they begin to turn color? They will ripen in the house. That is the only way I am able to have tomatoes.

Not op but this is how I got a few tomatoes before the squirrels. Unfortunately it defeats the point of home grown tomatoes. If I wanted tomatoes picked too early I could get that at the store.

[Anonymous]

Our mocking birds do this. I built a cage that works quite well.

Pound 4 pieces of rebar into the ground in the 4 corners of your cage with 18” or so sticking up. Cut 4 pieces of pvc pipe and slide them onto the rebar. Cut four more pieces to be the top of the cage and connect them with connectors.

Then get some bird netting, cut pieces for the sides and attach with zip ties. Cut one long piece the width of the cage to go from the back over the top and down the front. Attach the back but just hook the front over the ends of the zip ties that are sticking out from the sides. Then you can easily roll it up to harvest.

Mine isn’t visible so having the ugly cage for a month or two is fine. But you could do the same thing with copper pipes and it would look pretty nice. It might blow away in a hurricane but the rebar keeps it pretty secure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MOCK

YEAH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MOCK

YEAH

ING

[Anonymous]

I second the idea for bird netting. I used it for the cicadas and it keeps the big critters off too.

Love the naughty squirrel stories. I have a sugar addicted one that gets its fix from my hummingbird feeder. Then the hummingbird has to fight off bees that are attracted to the spilled sugar water. Why do they have to be so cute?

[Anonymous]

We caged last year and it was a pain (granted, we built the cage too short and didn't have a proper door in it, so it was hard to get in and out of and also something figured out how to tunnel underneath and just ate things from the inside anyway. It's just really hard to get something completely tight so creatures don't get through.

Using organza bags this year and it's going well. Have had one or two chewed through/yanked off, but most of the fruits are being preserved. Get a bigger size than you think you need so they're easy to get on and off and you can also bag a whole cluster of cherry tomatoes at one go. ( we started with 4 x 6 but they're inconvenient, size up). Yes, it's a pain to do this, but we only have about 10 tomato plants. Also, advantage is if it's a windy day/the plants get knocked about and you have your ripe sungolds knocked off they stay in the bag and don't get ruined on the ground, so you lose fewer fruit.

[Anonymous]

The catbirds have left my tomatoes alone but they are up in my fig tree having the time of their lives.

Between them and the wasps I’ll be lucky to get a handful of figs this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We caged last year and it was a pain (granted, we built the cage too short and didn't have a proper door in it, so it was hard to get in and out of and also something figured out how to tunnel underneath and just ate things from the inside anyway. It's just really hard to get something completely tight so creatures don't get through.

Using organza bags this year and it's going well. Have had one or two chewed through/yanked off, but most of the fruits are being preserved. Get a bigger size than you think you need so they're easy to get on and off and you can also bag a whole cluster of cherry tomatoes at one go. ( we started with 4 x 6 but they're inconvenient, size up). Yes, it's a pain to do this, but we only have about 10 tomato plants. Also, advantage is if it's a windy day/the plants get knocked about and you have your ripe sungolds knocked off they stay in the bag and don't get ruined on the ground, so you lose fewer fruit.

I think the netting only works for birds. For rodents you need a fence that goes way into the ground.