How can you stop insects in your garden from eating your tomatoes?

[Aliahooley]

We have a tomato bush in our backyard, and recently we noticed that some of our green tomatoes were eaten overnight by a creature, leaving big holes in them. We need some questions to help us figure out how to fix this problem, like how to prevent our tomatoes from being eaten again.

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Aliahooley. It's terrific to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about insects eating tomatoes.

It sounds like a number of creatures could be enjoying your tomatoes, but caterpillars are often a common culprit. Possums or snails are also possibilities, depending on the size of the damage. If you could post some images of the eaten areas, it would help us determine what size critter might be responsible. Let me know if you need a hand uploading images.

If the damage consists of smaller holes or chew marks, caterpillars may be the cause. In this case, I’d recommend applying Dipel, a natural insecticide effective against caterpillars. However, if whole tomatoes are missing or mostly eaten, possums or rats could be the problem. For help with that, check out this helpful guide: How to protect your plants from possums.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell