How does one keep tomatoes safe from chipmunks who love to eat them even before they start to ripen? The little buggers can climb anywhere.Was going to try small plastic bags around each tomato clump, but fear they'll chew right through.
Tomatoes are not a favorite food of chipmonks but in dry spells they will eat them for their moisture. If you put out fresh water (birdbath) and peanuts the chipmonks will tell you where you can shove your tomatoes.
I agree. I have been told that human hair will dissuade some pests. If the chicken wire fencing I've put around my broccoli don't continue to keep the woodchuck out, I will be asking my hair dresser to save her sweepings for me.
Priscilla
Cat? Ferret? Snake?
I gotta get me some tomatoes like that...
-Bob
John De Bello eat your heart out.
D
Then they'll just go underneath.
Chipmunks may be cute and fun to watch, but they can wreak havoc on tomato plants if they get the notion to nibble on the fruiting plants. Repelling these acrobatic rodents can be challenging, especially since chemical pesticides can cause harm to the animals and your plants. There are safe alternatives that you can produce at home with effective results.
Smash garlic and pepper and add to 1pt. of water. Strain the water and pour the solution into a clean spray bottle and add 1tsp. liquid dish and 1tsp. vegetable oil. Spray the solution onto the tomato plants to repel pesty chimpmunks.
Buy some Repel® bitter spray, and spray the young plants with it. That's the only way I get anything in my garden with all the rabbits here. One rabbit can wipe out a whole row of bean seedlings, but once the plants get big they lose interest. Same with peppers, although they will continue to nibble young leaves off big pepper -- they just won't cut the whole plant off.
Don't get any spray on the actual fruit or you will make them inedibly bitter.
-Bob
Unfortunately, this is also a good way to encourage mildew.
Builders of fruit cages against chipmunks should keep in mind that these animals dig their own burrows.
And that is the problem with groundhogs, too. Any fencing or caging has to be sunk below ground and anchored, and even then, a good burrower can get through if determined.
All one can hope if that one's protective efforts offer just enough bother that the critters go next door to the neighbor's garden.
I use rat traps near the tomatoes to deter chipmunks, but that is amid large tubs on a deck. I haven't tried traps in open garden to deter groundhogs and probably won't as the devastation of a groundhog is astoundingly depressing coming at the end of the season near harvest. If it is early on with seedlings, one can try re-planting.
I have used have-a-heart traps to capture groundhogs, however this is spotty in success and a bother to relocate the groundhog (illegal in my area, too. I am permitted to kill on the premises, or release, but not to relocate.)
Boron
II thank everyone for their suggestions and thought I'd tell my solution in case anyone else might want to try it. I cut up an old sheet of metal door screening that we'd kept rolled in the garage with all the other junk that might come in useful someday. The stuff bends easily so made screen cage like barriers around the upper parts of the plants where the tomatoes are. This seems to be doing the trick.
But dang I wish it'd rain.
We use garden owl statues, cheap plastic one's you can purchase at Tractor supply or from your local farm supply. It also scares away the crows and blackbirds eating our corn. Mother used to tie 2 thin metal pie pans together and the clattering of the 2 pans would scare squirrels away from her apple trees.
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