Sometime between 5:30pm last evening and this morning, the dastardly squirrels ruined two green BIG SOTWs. These tomatoes were growing towards the middle of the plant, away from the outside edge of the cage so it wasn't deer poking their muzzles in there last night. Pickles is working on a design for a netting enclosure around the whole line of buckets. In the meantime I think it's time for some target "practice".

I sympathize. I have been using no powder, primer charge 20 grain .22lr on my worst offender tree rats. Those primer only rounds are quieter than even a typical Pneumatic gun (pellet gun) as it is a primer only charge, no powder, and is certainly well below super sonic, but still lethal to squirrels, if barely. The rounds are quiet enough not to upset our dog that gets upset at any loud sharp noise. A true rifle like my browning lever action .22lr has better potential accuracy in my experience than most pellet guns. The good thing is that the charge is so weak and the tiny 20 grain bullet is so light weight it won’t carry all that far, especially compared to an ordinary super sonic 40 or 42 grain .22lr round. Not that you or I would aim at a squirrel without a backstop.

Nets and barriers are helpful, but not necessarily absolute in my experience. Definitely slows the squirrels down and prohibits casual squirrels from wandering into the garden. But, determined squirrels are a different story, they will work very hard to defeat barriers, and those type of squirrels need different sorts of treatment.

I use mesh drawstring bags available on Amazon. What I have are 8X10 and will usually fit a cluster of tomtoes. Squirrels can't get through the nylon mesh.

Grrrr, I hate when that happens. I am fortunate not to have squirrel problems but I do have birds peck some of my tomatoes occasionally. Actually I have 5 chickens that we let free range and they have gotten several of the low hanging tomatoes every year. Fortunately chickens are not tall and they do not climb so once the tomatoes get big enough the fruits are usually safe.

I have seen videos of mice climbing tomato plants and chewing holes in tomatoes too.

Oh that is a NASTY way to ruin a nearly ripe fruit.
There's a squirrel around my garden this season. Occasionally bursting into song about some thing or other he's content about - maybe raiding our birds nests, judging from their remarks. But you never know with squirrel.
They definitely have an eye for garden produce.

I'm thankful my squirrels only eat my apples and nothing from the garden. Those bite marks look more like groundhog but never had them eat a green tomato. You know your squirrels.
CCI quiet in 22lr for neighborhoods does the job.
More pop needed for hogs.

I'm out in the middle of nowhere so noise won't be a problem.

That netting I put around both corn beds stopped the damage cold. Pickles is already working on a similar plan for the tomatoes by the house. So far the tomatoes down in the garden haven't been touched because the squirrels are busy working on the unripe and still small peaches on a tree about 75 feet from the tomatoes. There are bare peach pits on the ground under the tree. I'm watching that closely because when they finish with the peaches, I have a feeling they'll move right over to the tomatoes.

On these hot days the squirrels are nowhere to be seen in the afternoon. They're probably down in the woods where it's cooler. Smart Squirrels. I will have to do some recon of routes and plan appropriate action.

A couple of years ago I had a mesh bag around a big getting red tomato and they ate thru it.
It would have been 24oz but they ate about 4oz worth off the bottom.
Field mice.

Lester cat is a pretty good mouser and will get a squirrel every once in a while. I've only seen him actually get a squirrel once but have found the remains of a "midnight snack" on the bathroom floor every once in a while. Looking at the size of the tail, those are young ones.

That's a shame, nice shape to those sotw.

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 3:38 pm So far the tomatoes down in the garden haven't been touched because the squirrels are busy working on the unripe and still small peaches on a tree about 75 feet from the tomatoes. There are bare peach pits on the ground under the tree.

You're bringing back bad memories for me...when my father got into gardening when I was a kid, we planted all kinds of fruit trees, several dwarf apples, peaches, plums, I can't even remember. I know we never got even 1 apple, and I don't think any of the others, either, because the squirrels would eat all the apples when they were green.

I thought too that the bites looked like a groundhog but normally for me they only eat ripe ones. We have two squirrels running around this summer and hope they don’t find the tomatoes. We have been spared their damage up to now so cross our fingers it continues. Those were really beautiful tomatoes “whatever” bit into them! Hope the mesh bags help.

If it were me I'd make a cooked salsa with them.
I don't mind eating after a squirrel.

@Gardadore wonder if @GoDawgs has groundhogs? Range map for those gets into northern parts of Georgia, but not the southern half. It wouldn’t seem fair to have both destructive Groundhogs and destructive squirrels.

Going after SOTW, those critters show exquisite taste.

karstopography wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:40 am @Gardadore wonder if @GoDawgs has groundhogs? Range map for those gets into northern parts of Georgia, but not the southern half. It wouldn’t seem fair to have both destructive Groundhogs and destructive squirrels.

Nope, no groundhogs around here. Armadillos, yes, ground hogs no. The 'dillos are enough of a pain in the butt!

LOL @GoDawgs I visited a friend in TX many years ago and I had never seen a "dillo". I was with a group at a baby shower and mentioned that I would love to see one and there was shocked silence. I guess that dillos are not a beloved animal in TX! One woman said that I would NOT like to see one rooting up my backyard. HA, ha. I still remember that whenever I see a picture of one.

I have deer fencing around my garden but sometimes end up with trouble from chipmunks. Seems they like to go around and sample the fruit. Once they get a taste of a ripe tomato, they just keep coming back. They tunnel from afar so the fencing and the perimeter that was laid to discourage groundhogs - it all means nothing to them. We use rat traps....

I had to slow down for an armadillo crossing the other morning.
Personally I like the little critters.

Armadillos aren’t bad in the garden. They don’t seem to be able or want to climb into the raised beds. They might want to nose around in the lower garden, but a reasonably well installed polymer 18” high netting seems to defeat them.

@CrazyAboutOrchids chipmunks don’t appear to be in the Augusta, GA area if the range map is accurate. I’m glad they aren’t here in Texas either. We dealt with them and their destructive to the lanscaping tendencies in Colorado.