Tomato Prison

This is what it has come down to in order to keep the friggin' crows out of my tomato patch:

I have cattle panel fencing, tin foil tied to pieces of string, twine strung across any opening, and electrical wire running along the bottom of the boxes.

At first when this all started, I thought we were having mice or rats, so we set out mouse traps. I was losing about 4-5 green tomatoes a day and had to do something. The tomatoes that were damaged didn't actually have gnaw or teeth marks on them, they seemed to be hollowed out completely from a small opening in the fruit. When we didn't catch any mice and the damage continued, I was suspicious. I knew it was something larger than a mouse/rat, as some of the limbs on the tomato vines were broken from something larger trying to get at the higher setting fruit.

I hung sheets of tin foil on string and that worked very well for a while. The occasional crinkling and noise put off from the tin foil rustling in the slightest breeze even spooked me out. It sounded like someone, or something, was sneaking up on you from behind. But still more loss.

So, I ordered this battery operated electrical wire from Amazon. Even though it is operated by D batteries, it still puts out a good zap and it has worked from keeping ground dwellers out. It worked for a while, but we still continued to lose tomatoes. I was setting my sights on the crows more and more until one day I caught one red-handed (winged?). I took a look at a tomato that was damaged and then noticed a definte "V" mark made by a beak.

The little shits land in the yard and walk right up to the beds and help themselves like it is some sort of grocery aisle. The electrical wire stopped them for a time, until they figured they could hop right over it in between the rows and party on, so we had to set up the cattle panels with the twine on top of everything else. The crows won't go into an area where they can't easily have a wing span to get out in case they are caught. They won't go into an area where they can't fly out and escape quickly.

This has worked (for now) and I scare the fcukers away from the property every chance I get. My tomato patch looks like some sort of ghetto, produce prison. Whatever....now if I can keep the bunnies from eating my hollyhocks!