Anyone Know What Kind of Pest Does This?

[so lucky]

I have found a few of my green Roma tomatoes cut in half, laterally. It looks almost like a knife was used to cut the bottom half from the top half. The top half is fallen to the ground, the bottom half gone. The cut edge is kind of blackened and crusted, not shriveled and mushy like you would expect. Anyone had similar damage?

 

[Carol Dee]

Last summer we had an invasion of hornworm. They would eat large amounts of each tomato, Not a clean knife like cut tho. Have you looked for pests. These guys are not hard to spot! Big, green and ugly.

 

[desertlady]

sounds like some critter with sharp teeth ! rabbit? deer?

 

[digitS']

I would first suspect voles if the fruit is within reach of them. A number of times I've had them move right in under a big tomato plant and try to set up a homestead. Once, a coyote did me the service of digging out the mouse nest - just to point out the problem to me, I'm sure. The other time, I set a hose down the hole and ran it for about 20 minutes. The vole surprised me so much when he swam off to the shores of the little pond and shook the water out of his ears that I didn't have time to club him with the cultivator before he made his escape under the neighbor's fence!

Hornworms?! They can really, really chew things up but it is easier to see the damage (& droppings) than the caterpillar - despite Carol Dee's good eyesight and skill at finding the hornworm. The critter likes to hang under a tomato stem during the daytime and since it is green, looks like a stem, itself.

Here is a webpage on the most common moth in the family: White-lined sphinx (click)

Steve

edited because i was reading 2 posts at the same time & not realizing that it was So Lucky who was writing this one . . . talk about poor eyesight!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm with Desertlady on this one. Something big with big teeth. Deer, rabbit, groundhog? I don't know about a raccoon since they are not ripe but I really don't like racoons. Goats, llamas, alpacas would probably do a lot more damage.

Is it several or just one or two? One visit only or has it happened before?

I'm really leaning toward groundhog but I really don't know. I have not seen that.

 

[so lucky]

I don't know; I've had critters eat tomatoes before, but never so evenly cut like this. I haven't found any other damage to the plant, not hornworms. I will look for signs of voles and mice. I found a cut tomato still attached to the plant today; it was a very low one. These are quite small tomatoes that are being destroyed, only about thumb sized.
I noticed the same day that a bluebird house we have nearby has been torn open. The front flap was down, the contents strewn out, but the latch that holds the door in place was in the locked position. So I'm thinking something got in there and fiddled around enough for the latch to fall back into place. There are claw marks on both sides of the house as if something was trying to hang on and slowly sliding down (raccoon?) Or maybe just tearing at it trying to get it open. There weren't any babies or eggs at this time, at least.
I am in a rural area, so no telling what is going on. At least my chickens are safe each night, protected from anything but bears, probably. Haven't seen any of them around.