Work Out - Smarter than a woodchuck

By Nancy Leasman of Long Prairie

I obviously erred when I planted tomatoes outside the fenced garden. First win for the hungry wildlife. I also offered them fresh cucumbers in the same vicinity. No takers. (Cucumbers are prickly on tender mouths.)

Let’s back up. I planted tomatoes in the fenced garden. For whatever reason, lack of rain, too much shade, they grew spindly and offered the equivalent produce of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The plants outside the fence, in the area where I once had a bucket garden, grew lush and happy. They produced large tomatoes and before they’d even begun to turn red, the predation started.

I found nicely-shaped, green tomatoes on the ground with portions eaten. Whatever was snacking on them usually came back and finished before taking another. I respected that and was willing to share until it was eating more than its share. I’d pick any full-sized fruit while they were still green in order to have our annual BLTs.

I blamed a woodchuck. On separate occasions I saw a woodchuck on the front step, and one not far from the back door. Yes, I saw one in the area of the tomatoes, too.

A trail camera focused on the tomatoes revealed nothing.

A live trap produced a surprise. When I checked the trap, baited with fresh muskmelon as is recommended for woodchucks, I found a gray animal with a sharp nose, bright marble eyes, and a longish naked tail. For only the second time in the 44 years we’ve lived here, we had an opossum.

Opossums are credited with eating volumes of wood ticks. They eat small rodents. They also scavenge for fallen fruit. This one was considerably smaller than a large house cat, the usual size of an adult opossum. Therefore, he was probably a teenager. Mistake number two was not relocating that little guy, who may have had siblings. When the cage was opened, he hissed and scampered into the grapevine bower at the end of the tomato bed.

I made a trip to the local “guy” store, one of those places that guys like to shop in for all things sporting, and purchased a bottle of fox scent. It had worked fairly well in the past to discourage garden marauders. I sprayed the whole bottle around the tomatoes and the neighboring cucumbers (and the fenced garden, too). It didn’t make a difference for the tomato predation.

Both possums and woodchucks like to hide in wood piles. Woodchucks burrow underground. Possums may take advantage of a burrow provided by other diggers but don’t dig deep holes. The grapevine bower offered both shelter and shield for either of them as they stole tomatoes. So, my next step was to trim the entire “skirt” off the vines. I trimmed everything but the oldest vine stems, opening that area entirely. Then I sprayed a habanero whisky infusion on the plants, around the plants, and maybe onto some of the tomatoes.

Still, I found half-eaten tomatoes.

My last resort was liberally sprinkling a nearly full bottle of hot pepper flakes all over that tomato patch. It may have slowed the snacking for a short while.

Autumn days are here. Most of the tomatoes within reach of whatever is eating them have already been eaten. Luckily, the tomato plants are still lush and trying to produce fruit in their upper branches.

I won’t be canning any tomatoes this year. Next year, all tomatoes will be planted inside the fenced garden.