Who's eating my tomatoes?

[eggplant333.livejournal.com]

Dearest Wise Ones of DSLJ,

I have a few tomato plants in large pots growing in my yard, which is on the corner of a busy street outside of Davis. I live in a first floor apartment, so this is the most convenient and sunniest place to keep my plants. In the past few weeks, as some of my very first ripe tomatoes have started to appear, I've noticed that they seem to be disappearing at a faster rate than I'm picking them. This makes me sad/annoyed, since I'm new to growing veggies and am ecstatic every time a little cherry tomato looks ready for me to pick.

I'm pretty sure it's not an animal that's snacking on my veggies, since there are never any little bits left behind or bite marks on other tomatoes. They're popped off quite efficiently, as I would do myself.

What should I do? There's not really another place where I could keep them. I'm thinking of just putting a note outside next to the pots, something to the effect of, 'I know you're eating my tomatoes, and that really sucks since I put so much effort into growing them and now can't even enjoy eating them. I'll take a photo of you the next time I see you.' Any other ideas? If it's somebody hungry who doesn't have anything else to eat, I'd feel less annoyed of course, but they're little cherry tomatoes so even a handful (which would take my plants weeks to produce, at this point) would hardly be a satisfying snack.

What do you think?
Thanks.

Comments

Tomato stealer

[lovefourpaws.livejournal.com]

My husband thinks I'm paranoid, but I said the same thing about our tomatoes!! We live right outside of the square and aren't exactly on a main corner, but our ripe tomatoes have been disappearing. Our plants are in our (shared) backyard, though, which narrows down the list of potential suspects. I know that an animal hasn't been swiping them because they've been cleanly plucked with no bite marks, seeds, or any remnants of the fruit nearby. None of the unripe food has been taken and none of the surrounding veggies have been touched. I don't know it says about the world today, but the fact that someone would actually steal a ripe tomato from another person's plant is just sad. And pathetic...