My tomatos are gone!

by Deborah
(Galloway, OH)

Doug,

I planted tomato seeds inside this spring. Having nutured the little things for the past 6 to 8 weeks, I feel quite personally involved in thier green little stemy lives. I hardened them off, and put them in my garden, just this week. Its a touch early, but safe by my estimation. For the first several days, they did beautifully. Show off material when Mom came to visit. The ones that are left are still doing fine. The rest are just gone. A couple leaves are left in the row. No stems. Nothing sticking out of the ground. 10 of my 12 tomato-lettes are just simply gone.

Now, my lettuce is growing respectable, and the peas are just lovely. What kind of pest or invader would so throughly decimate my tomatos, and leave my lettuce and peas alone? The onions are fine too.

I looked online, but didn't see anything helpful in the "already answered" section. If its there, and I missed it, if you could just point me in the right direction, I'll go look again.

Thanks so much!
Deborah.

Doug says he has no idea - without being there. But generally this early in the season when only a bit of stalk is left you can look to birds, chipmunks or rabbits. Too early for insects so it's the big guys who are doing the deed.