Yes I am , I am really PIzzED ,,, went to check in the garden ,,, maybe get some fresh beans and leafy stuff for supper with a few new taters,,, Low and behold, my tomatoes, not one not 2 not 3 but every damn tomato has been eaten, chewed up right there in the garden.. they was there last night and this morning gonzo even the bloody flowers are gone. So me Mr Remington and Mr Miller and his brothers are going to sit on the porch and wait for what ever sticks its head in the garden, and then its gona be Saturday night in Dodge city. So yeah I am up set !
I am pizzed
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An electric fence can be your best friend. I only plant tomatoes and usually have no problems, but one year, raccoons decided to eat them. An electric fence resolved it.
CaveCreekRay
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Out here we get tobacco worms, these huge green catepillar-looking monsters that can eat a whole tomato in a few minutes. We have lost so many to them we kind of gave up on trying to raise our own. Just when they get ripe -bam, they're gone. GRRR. Never see these creatures except on half-eaten tomatoes.
Lil Foot
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1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
Electric fence and one of those scare crow electric eye sprinkler devices. Motion detector turns on sprinkler. Raccoon runs toward electric fence sopping wet (if it got past fence in the first place)....
Sorry to hear that, I have been looking at my green tomatoes hopefully every day, I'd hate it if something ate them all. I hope your plants are ok and will recover.
Sorry to hear that, I have been looking at my green tomatoes hopefully every day, I'd hate it if something ate them all. I hope your plants are ok and will recover.
Manduca sexta, turns into an incredible flier, built in kind of a delta shape, some similar species called hummingbird moths, they can hover over a flower. Can be raised in the lab, good research animal for studying synapse formation during development. I saw an adult the other day under my barn light. They rarely attack my tomatoes any more. Too much Bt corn in the neighborhood.
Lil Foot
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Years ago we had a garden for a few years, and had trouble with these guys until an old guy next door gave use this solution:
Go to goodwill and buy an old blender, catch 10 or more of these guys, put them in the blender with some water, (2-3cups? more?) blend them to liquid, add a little dish soap to make the solution stick, and spray the plants, especially under side of leaves. We used an Hudson old pump sprayer, the liquid can be kinda chunky.
The worms can be hard to find, but we always found some if we looked hard enough. After spraying, we never had any more for the rest of the season.
Go to goodwill and buy an old blender, catch 10 or more of these guys, put them in the blender with some water, (2-3cups? more?) blend them to liquid, add a little dish soap to make the solution stick, and spray the plants, especially under side of leaves. We used an Hudson old pump sprayer, the liquid can be kinda chunky.
The worms can be hard to find, but we always found some if we looked hard enough. After spraying, we never had any more for the rest of the season.
3 whistle pigs I didnt know were around will whistle no more,,, the hunt is not over not by a long shot ,, they have a right to live as long as it is someone else's garden and not in mine. Today marks 16 ground hogs
BigG
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l2501, FEL, BB, Rotary cutter, rake,spreader, roller, etc. New Holland TL80 A
I do not know if you can still buy this or not but my dad would go down to the Landmark store and buy a quart size dark brown bottle. He would pour a cap full of the liquid into the ground hog hole. We would then walk away for a few minutes. He then would reach into the hole with a rag on the end of a 10 foot long pole that was on fire. The power of the explosion that followed was amazing. It did the number on the ground hogs and the best part was they were already buried. No digging!
I am sure you can not buy the stuff anymore but it did work well. That cap full made enough vapor to fill the whole tunnel and it was heavier then air so it stayed in the hole.
As a boy he told stories of is favorite dog. They would carry buckets of water to the ground hog hole. The flooded hogs would pop their heads up much to their chagrin. The dog loved that game.
I am sure you can not buy the stuff anymore but it did work well. That cap full made enough vapor to fill the whole tunnel and it was heavier then air so it stayed in the hole.
As a boy he told stories of is favorite dog. They would carry buckets of water to the ground hog hole. The flooded hogs would pop their heads up much to their chagrin. The dog loved that game.
CaveCreekRay
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Yup Bill, that's the critter. But, honestly, I have never seen ten of them in any one place before. And if I made a soapy caterpillar smoothie out of a bunch, and sprayed 'em on my tomatoes, eating those tomatoes would kinda be the last thing on my mind. Much easier to buy nice fresh ones in the store.
Funny, a friend just told me the best thing to keep Javelina away is Javelina blood. Go figure!
Funny, a friend just told me the best thing to keep Javelina away is Javelina blood. Go figure!
Lil Foot
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1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
I hear ya!
I think it became kind of an existential quest to win over these things, and we had to wash the 'maters afterwards, but we did that anyway. But there is something special about grabbing a 'mater or pod of peas & chowing down right there in the garden!
My FIL had a 30HP Kubota years ago. I was brush hogging a field with it one day. Cruising along max RPM and BAM the brush hog/tractor stops dead. I lift up the brush hog and it looked like a murder scene out of a slasher movie. I guess one of them decided to jump out of the hole at the wrong time. I'll never forget it.
Tough little buggers.
ehenry
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BX22, FEL, BH, 40" pto tiller, 42" Bushog Squealer, pto hole digger, B7300 w/60"
Gray squirrels and deer are the garden killers here. After listening to my woman gripe and complain about not having fresh tomatoes and other thing I told her I'd build a fence. I did and for the first time in 10+ years we're enjoying a garden again. The deer are mad at me now but I guess they'll get over it and eat someone else's stuff. As for the squirrels, dont know whats up with them but I havent seen as many as I use to.
Of all the critters around here, those guys take first place when it comes to wrecking a garden. My wife is the gardener and I am in charge of security. Chain link fence plus electric fence is working. I also live trap them and give them a lead heart attack. Their tunnels have been known to wreck foundations.
Magicman
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Terrapins will munch on the low hanging fruit. I just leave a few down low because being that short they have a hard time making a living.
Well that's a new one on me, never hear the name whistle pig before but if we had them here pretty sure they'd die of lead poisoning just like my raccoons and tree rats. If only we were neighbors there'd be a new meaning for getting the lead out.
That thing looks like what's been eating at my apple trees but I think yours are on steroids.