Squirrels!!
 

We moved from Toronto last year to sort of rural Ontario. Being the good homemaker that I am, I planted 12 tomato plants in the garden. Maybe we will get a few tomatoes to eat and some for canning or something. Well, now they are beginning to ripen- yea! Those darn squirrels are getting to the tomatoes before me and tasting each one! Honestly- I would like to take those little things and- oh well. They eat the bird seed too! Nice fat squirrels. Any ideas on how to keep them away from my cherished tomatoes? (Besides a gun that is)

I had a similar problem. I picked my tomatoes when they were just turning yellow and let them ripen in a kitchen window. A friend of mine said to put a bowl/bird bath in the middle of the tomatoes and keep it filled with water because they are biting into the tomatoes for the water inside. Don't know if that is true or not but can't hurt to try. By the way, I gave up growing tomatoes!

I use peppermint oil on cotton swabs to keep squirrels out of my flower pots. I also use Liquid Fence around things the deer like to eat & that seems to work with the squirrels as well. My neighbors supply me with tomatoes & they pick them before they are really ripe. They ripen fine on my kitchen counter.

Do you have a fence around your garden or just plants in pots? If you have a fence around, put some fencing on the top as well. Here we have squirrels; deer; groundhogs all competing for the veggies. I don't have a garden but BIL next door does. He has 12 ft. high fencing (sunk an additional 2-3 feet in the ground). Does not have a top on it but I don't see too much evidence of squirrel destruction with his garden. His plan seems to work on the worst of the culprits. Good luck.

If you spray the tomato plants with a mix of veggie oil and cayenne pepper, they will soon learn not to like the area. You just have to remember it's there and be careful around the plants yourself!
We used to use this mix on corn to keep the racoons away. Also, kept the family dog away, he learned to tell by sniffing what corn was ripe, then he would pick it and eat it raw, cob and all.

Shall l send my wild rabbits to scare away your squirrels?

One thing my mother learned about squirrels is they are rodents and reproduce to the level of their food source, they are not seasonal. She thought they were cure until they were eating all the bird food, her tomatoes and flowers about to bloom. She said she tried to talk to them about self control but it did no good. So my dad built a bird feeder they could not get to, and he put up cages around the tomatoes so they could get to them either. The flowers in pots were brought into the house. When they got into the attic he got the traps and then released them across the lake - but he was sure they got back to the house before he did - so they called in a specialist and made sure everything was boarded up better.

Nature- ya gotta love it. But they are just so cute!

Those suckers are aggressive! We have one claw it's way into our garage. Ugh, their cuteness level has gone down around here.

Here, we call them tree rats! Rodent doesn't even cover it.

Having the same problem but thought it was birds doing it as there would be just a puncture in each one. Also have a baby bunny that has found a hole in my chicken wire/picket fence too. Soon he'll be too large to get thru his secret opening though. Seems this year its taken forever for our tomatoes to ripen. Have plenty on the vine and its just been recently that they have been turning red for me. Now its canning time................finally.

I also have been picking them as soon as they start to show color and let them finish turning inside.