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| Defoliated tomato seedling |
I didn't go into enough detail as to why I think the critter eating my tomato plants was a bird or a rat. A reader emailed me yesterday morning suggesting that a tobacco or tomato hornworm might be the culprit. He is right that they can defoliate a tomato plant seemingly overnight. It definitely looks like the work of a tobacco hornworm (or a tomato hornworm) with the leaves gone and the stem remaining, but I had ruled them out for a couple of reasons. The caterpillars themselves are large and you can usually find them pretty easily. I searched very closely and found nothing, not even the frass (poop) that's usually apparent when they are around. More importantly, it's too early in the season for them as they don't show up until midsummer when the plants are much larger.
Other possibilities I considered were deer, rabbits, and box turtles. However, those are all physically excluded from my garden by a 6 foot wooden privacy fence, two 50 pound active dogs, and then another 4 foot 1"x2" meshed fence that surrounds the garden (to keep the chickens out). Squirrels would have just dug the seedlings up and they are rarely seen in my yard because we are surrounded by fields. It's a pretty far run over open ground for a squirrel to get here from the forest. I've already discussed the cutworm. I dismissed it because they don't defoliate, they cut off the stem. Also, I thoroughly sifted through the soil around the plants where it would be hiding during the day and found nothing.
At this garden site, I've personally watched a hispid cotton rat go down a row of freshly sprouted green beans eating every one*. One of those could easily have slipped through the fences and past my dogs. A bird of course can just fly in. If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to get your insights. It was pretty frustrating.
*I need to do a post about the usefulness of a good pellet gun around the garden :)
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