I’ve been waiting all summer to harvest some heirloom tomatoes, but as soon as they turn red, something takes big chunks out of the flesh and leaves them to rot on the vine.
I immediately blamed chipmunks and then wrapped deer fencing around some of the fruits and also put it on top of the soil around the bottom of the plants to deter the little rodents from climbing the stems.
But the the next day when I inspected the ripening tomatoes I once again found bites taken out of a couple of them. Grrrrrr!
In one area it would’ve been nearly impossible for a chipmunk to gain access without getting tangled in the fencing. My new suspects are grackles. Once while sitting on my screen porch I did see a grackle land in the tomatoes, but I accidentally scared him off before I could figure out what he was doing.
Bunnies are devouring my plants from below and grackles are wreaking havoc from the sky—it’s been a very frustrating growing season.