Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm surprised too, but the chew marks look like gnawing rather than pecking. I even found a quarter of a cherry tomato (a whole tomato is about 3/4" or 2cm) fairly cleanly cut from the rest of the tomato and I have trouble imagining a bird pecking it and leaving a quarter tomato so cleanly severed. Here is a serrano pepper:

Do you have any cats? Perhaps it's time to get a few more... or cut down on the feed you give them so they have to work a little bit for their food. =) At my uncles farm in Idaho they had a flock of more than 100 cats to keep mice from eating the wheat in the fields. Feeding time was an incredible thing to watch.

Hehe I love how you don a wet suit and get right in there with the fish to catch 'em. Sometimes I feel like taking a dip in my system too... Maybe I'll give it a try sometime. I could teach my goldfish to give me one of those fish pedicures.

Heck, in some places they charge for them. Perhaps this would be another possibility for AP....

You know it's been banned in 14 states. I can't see why. Not sanitary they say. Just keep the water clean.

Yep, it was definitely rats: my son found a couple eating platforms high in the tomato vine, loaded with bits of tomato and rat droppings. He also brought in a rat dead of high-speed (about 1000fps or 400meters/sec? I could look it up...) lead poisoning and went out to try to get another.

Just pulled some beets yesterday: 50% to 75% of each is gone and the remainder is showing very clear rat tooth marks.

I need more cats.

You need what aLostHippy has got in his system !!

Scroll down this page and you'll see what I mean....
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6024&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=105

I can't say how the rats would feel about that over sized reptile but it would make me hesitate before going after the produce

Well, I can say that it would love the rats - the guy that saw it reckoned it already had a couple in it !

Hmmm.....but what local reptiles do we have that can handle a rat? Sure, a rattler can kill one, but most could not swallow a full-grown rat. I'd love some boas or anacondas, but they don't like the climate. *sigh*

I guess I'm stuck with owls. Found a pellet this morning with a gopher skull in it! But there are still so many rats....

Ripped out the tomatoes today since the frost last week killed them all. Three tomato vines together weighed about 100 kilos (200lbs) with the sungold tomato accounting for about half of that. Next year I'm keeping them under control so the rats can not hide as well.

Photo or it didnt happen!

I'll find a pic eventually.....if I took one. The stump of the tomato measures 6.5" (16.5cm) circumference....

Here are some pictures from happier times. The tomatoes are mostly hidden on the south-east view by the kale and celery. And the north-east view is washed-out.

noice

GREEN!!

Jaysus, that's a big-assed GB