Ants are eating my tomatoes!!!

I'm a first time veggie gardener. I've got some tomatoes on my plant & I was ready to harvest a couple of them since they were ripe. When I awoke, the ants had gotten to them before me. Is there anything I can do to keep them off my my tomatoes so that I can enjoy them? I also had a cuke growing but the black birds came and tore it apart. Is there anything I can do to keep them away from my veggies?

Putting diatomaceous earth around the base of each tomato plant should take care of the ants. Are you having dry weather over there? The birds may be going after your cucumbers for the moisture (or maybe they've just developed a liking for cukes?) I use plastic bird mesh to cover any plants being bothered by birds. I have to put it over my figs every year. It's a bit of a bother to pick your veggies but at least you will have some to pick!

I had a friend that had ants eating everything in the yard, and bothering his dog. He spread cinnamon on the ground and any plants he wanted to keep. The ants disappeared over a couple of days and the dog stopped getting eaten by them.

It might help your ants. You can get ridiculous amounts of cinnamon at Costco or Sams or whatever for a very low price. I get mine at Sams for about $5 for a giant jar of cinnamon and sprinkle it round the house about once per month. Haven't seen an ant inside since doing so.

For the birds, there is a thread in here somewhere about using moving shiny things. I saw it the other day, but can't seem to find it, so I can't quote it, but here is the gist:

Put MOVING stuff around your things you want to keep birds away from. For example, there are balloons that you can get that have big eyes on them that kind of look like the eyes of a predator. Put those on stakes so that the breeze makes them move. You can also hang shiny stuff that moves in trees and off of stakes, such as aluminum flashing or even old CDs on fishing line. Again, it's the movement that will frighten the birds off.

Depending on how your garden is laid out, it might make sense to put a T-bar shaped post in the middle and add the balloons and flashing or CDs to it, so that you get a mass of movement out there.

I hope that this helps.

naturelover, thank you I will look into that. I'm trying to keep my garden as organic as possible, it's my first time & I want to make all my effort & hard work worthwhile. As for my cuke plant, well it didn't make it. The bird completely tore it apart before I could get any veggies on it. Our weather was very humid last week & this week we've gotten rain.

Hastor, thank you for your suggestions. Cinnamon huh, sounds interesting. I'd be willing to try it also. I have two raised garden beds, 4x8 ft each. The only shiny thing I have in them is a pinwheel that I picked up at Wal-mart for 99cents. I will definitely go get some more shiny stuff out there. Thank you both for your suggestions & I hope to be able to enjoy a mater soon.

Cinnamon? Wow... I'll certainly give it a try. I had heard that coffee grounds worked. They didn't. I had heard that hominy grits worked. They didn't. I must have a million ant hills in my back yard because it's mostly sand. They're driving me to distraction, but I don't want to use poison because I'm afraid it will leach over to my herb or veggie beds.

Matersntaters, what I noticed about the birds in my back yard (I've got feeders and bird baths, so I have LOTS) is that the cardinals picked at a few tomatoes on the vines, but mostly they cleaned up any fruit that dropped and I hadn't seen or hadn't gotten to. I had Sweet 100 plants that went wild and produced more than I could really keep up with and I was sure I'd have thousands of seedlings sprouting up, but the cardinals took care of them. I did get seedlings under where they nested (a bird's gotta do what a bird's gotta do), but that was on the shady side of the house and they weren't a problem. Your birds might be thirsty, as NatureLover said. I know my bird baths are very busy.

I have a bird bath i my front yard so I guess I should move it to the backyard. If I put bird feeders will the black birds stay away? Those seem to be the ones picking at my maters. I've seen a red cardinal on my fence by my veggies but I haven't seen him pick at my maters yet. I'll take all the suggestions all you ladies & gents can throw my way. Greatly appreciate it. I would love to enjoy the fruits of my labor.