Delinquent rugrat nextdoor killed half my tomato plants

[MorningGlow]

Well, she's at it again--taking "revenge" because we don't want her and her siblings running around in our yard while we're undergoing major renovations and have dangerous crap and deep holes all over the place.

Threw cherry tomatoes (not mine) at the side of our house. (Nice waste of food.) Tossed empty juice boxes in our front yard while waiting for the bus in the morning. Killed half my tomato plants.

She's pretty unhinged and angry for an 11-year-old. I know I have to talk to her father and will do so as soon as I catch him at home while the kids are in school. But the major question I have right now is...what in the world did she use to kill my tomato plants? You'd think an angry kid would just trample my garden. But instead she smeared something that looks like lotion or shampoo on the leaves of only my tomato plants, probably because they were at the back of the garden and she could hide behind them. It stinks to high heaven (sickly sweet perfume-like smell). It wasn't on there long. I tried washing it off with the hose. It kind of worked, but it stayed where it landed on the dirt and didn't dissolve. (Days later, it's still there.) It landed on one ripe tomato, so I picked it and washed it, even with dish soap, and it STILL smelled like the white stuff. I threw it away. Within days, the leaves and branches that had been smeared with the stuff died (the back half of both plants). The rest of the plants are fine.

Any ideas on what that was? I'm just curious at this point. I know Skin-So-Soft can keep mosquitoes away; can it kill plants? :shrug:

[flvegan]

1. Want to borrow a pit bull?

:popcorn:

[MorningGlow]

3. YEAH!!!!!

*Sigh.* No. I'm a pacifist wimp. :eyes:

I actually feel sorry for the kid--she apparently has issues. And her family ain't the Brady Bunch, that's for sure.

[hobbit709]

2. Call the cops!

Tell them somebody put hazardous chemicals on your plants.

[MorningGlow]

4. Hazardous chemicals, eh?

Do they often smell like perfume?

I wonder if our local Cap'n Donut would buy that...

[hedgehog]

5. An 11 year old who behaves that way is serious trouble, IMO.

Tossing the juice boxes is one thing, but going to the time and effort to poison your tomato plants is a real problem. This child is in need of serious mental health treatment and/or some kind of intervention. I have no idea who can handle this. The police are the wrong tool.

[MorningGlow]

7. Her siblings don't act that way

And we've read them all the riot act about going in our yard. It's only this girl (middle child--significant?) who has gotten angry enough to make an enemy out of me and exact revenge. That's why I want to talk to her father--and in all honesty, I wanted to tell him that I'm worried about her, because she never used to act that way, and her response is not commensurate with what we've "done" to her (in her eyes).

[BarenakedLady]

6. That sucks.

:(

[MorningGlow]

8. Totally

Especially in this community--the kids in this village don't vandalize.

How you doing this gloomy muggy day, BNL? :hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Talk to her father pronto.

This girl is escalating her anger towards you and needs some intervention NOW, even if it's just a talk from her father.

At a minimum, he owes you an explanation of what it was she smeared on your plants. It may smell like a benign soap or lotion but that doesn't mean it isn't toxic to the soil.

[MorningGlow]

10. Agreed

Especially because Mr. MG just told me that they've now thrown either green tomatoes (out of my own garden) or pears (from another neighbor's tree) at our garage, apparently aiming for the window. Luckily they missed, but there's green crap on the side of our garage. And they threw some potted things as well, likely the pansies they bought in the spring but never planted and which have been rotting in their plastic pots on the side of their house all summer. And they were climbing on the wood pile that Mr. MG hasn't stacked yet (one of the things we worry about, liability wise, if they get hurt) and left a bunch of candy wrappers and stuff all over our side driveway where the wood is.

I asked Mr. MG if he wants to go talk to the father, as I'm nursing a sick MG Jr. right now, but he said he didn't dare, because he's more inclined toward violence at this point. I can play "good cop" and be more easygoing about stuff--as long as the father recognizes the problem here.

The only catch is that we haven't actually seen them do these things. But we have no other enemies in the neighborhood. It's quite obvious who's doing it.