Do Critters Eat Tomato Plant Roots?

Plant Your Tomatoes in Containers

• Planting tomato plants in strong containers protects their roots from moles and gophers. Even if the container is sitting on the ground, moles and gophers are helpless to get to their roots.

Protect Your Raised Garden

• If tomatoes are planted in a raised garden in an area in which gophers or moles are known to be a problem, lay the foundation of the garden on top of a fine wire mesh screen that is slightly larger than the size of the garden box. Lay a 4- by 4-foot garden on top of a screen that is 4 1/2 feet square. Lay a 4- by 8-foot foot box on top of a fine mesh screen that is 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 feet. Once the box is laid on top of the screen, fill the box with your growing soil -- gravity will keep the box firmly attached to the wire mesh, making it unnecessary to attach the mesh to the bottom of the box. And the mesh will stop any mole or gopher that tries to attack your tomatoes from below.

Go on the Offensive

• If your tomatoes are planted in an unprotected garden, take steps to deter or trap the intruding gopher or mole to protect your plants. Pound 4-foot-long metal stakes into the ground all the way around your tomatoes, leaving no more than 2 inches between stakes. This is a time-consuming and labor-intensive way to deter gophers and moles but it can be effective. Most mores and gophers do not like to dig foraging tunnels deeper than 3 feet, so creating an underground metal "fence" that is deeper than most gophers care to dig can be an effective deterrent.

Trap the Gopher

• Purchase a humane gopher trap and follow the manufacturer's instructions for placing and baiting the trap. Once trapped, contact your local humane society to determine the best place to release the critter.

Plant Narcissus Bulbs, A Natural Deterrent

• Plant narcissus bulbs -- jonquils, paperwhites or daffodils -- ,around the perimeter of your garden or even between your tomato plants, as a natural deterrent to gophers and moles. Narcissus bulbs emit a smell that gophers do not like, so gophers tend to turn away if they find a wall of narcissus bulbs blocking their path.