What is shredding my tomato plants? tomato horror

[Ken4230]

@Ken4230 I have 3 of the motion sensor sprinklers. They work great. The only problem is that once in awhile your hose rutures and then I end up with a large water bill.

Water bills are a sensitive subject with me. Have spent a ton of money because of water pressure problems. Finally figured out that the pressure regulator needed to be replaced every 2 years. Had a main line from the meter spring a leak on one of the copper fittings. This is after we had replaced the main line 2 years earlier. Our meters are read every 2 months, normally 40 dollars. This bill was 580.00, with a discount of 200.00.


Brenda bought this house without telling me and gave them a large deposit. It was too late to back out then. Her reasoning was that she wanted to move up and babysit the new granddaughter. Which she did.

[MissS]

@Ken4230 Ouch that really hurt!

[karrr]

I hope this isn't a double post; I tried posting this before but I think I was tripped up by the "there's been another post; are you sure you want to post this?" message and didn't actually submit it.

If you google something like "shredded tomato plant stems," what comes up from old posts at Houzz, Tville and Reddit is rats -- rats generally, and maybe roof rats in particular. What's distinctive about the damage is the lengthwise shredding of the stems, and the sheer carnage.

I haven't seen deer do anything like that. I'm dealing with deer damage now in my garden, and they're comparatively tidy eaters -- just munch off the leaves and you're left with bare stems sticking out. I can see them maybe uprooting a young plant by yanking on it while they're eating, but nothing like this lengthwise shredding. Also with deer, you'll see deep hoofprints in the mulch or any soft/moist soil, and maybe droppings nearby, especially if they stood in one place long enough to do all that damage.

One suggestion from those old posts (if you don't have or want to get a trail cam) was to sprinkle flour around the plants and then look for tracks the next morning to figure out what kind of animal you're dealing with. The people who tried this ID'd rats.

Wow thanks so much! Going to try the flour thing tonight. Time to look for traps I know its not deer because i sprayed deer repellent and they would not touch a freshly sprayed thing. I use the I Must Garden deer repellent and it works, but needs to be applied at least every few weeks

I tried sprinkling the ground with flour, but didn’t find any prints or tracks in the morning although there was a small hole in the ground and lots more damage. I tried wrapping whatever stems I could in foil and used some grafting tape in hopes to save a plant. Checked that same day in the evening and found much more damage above the wrapped area, that means they also work during the day. I am taking measures while waiting for the cam and some other things to arrive.
Thanks so much for the rat tip. And everyone else who tried to help!

[MissS]

@karrr Make a spray of simmered garlic, hot peppers and/or hot sauce and Cayenne pepper. Let it cool and add a few drops of Dawn dish soap to it. Strain it and spray down your plants. Whoever is doing this will not like the taste and move off them until the next rain.

[karrr]

@karrr Make a spray of simmered garlic, hot peppers and/or hot sauce and Cayenne pepper. Let it cool and add a few drops of Dawn dish soap to it. Strain it and spray down your plants. Whoever is doing this will not like the taste and move off them until the next rain.

Thank you Patti I am concocting something similar with cayenne, leftovers of extremely bitter disgusting hercampuri herb and garlic, going to add some hot sauce and do what you said. I do have to get rid of rats before they move into my house. So there’s lots of work to do.