who's eating my strawberries?

miles teg

Hello,
I have a few strawberry plants that are starting to ripen. Everything was going fine till yesterday I saw 2 of the ripe ones were half eaten. The divots were perfectly spherical (i.e. no teeethmarks) so it must have been something small. Does anyone know what would eat strawberries (maybe greenfly?) and how I can stop it without using pesticides?

thanks

CJhaughey

Slugs, I kill em all. The best way is a combination of digging the ground over early in spring, this kills the eggs and makes the adults vulnerable to predation, night picking with a torch and a pair of scissors! , beer traps and lastly a small amount of metaldehyde pellets.
if you keep this up your slug problem will be minimal.

magicbastarder

something is making off with my alpine strawberries, whole.
i suspect birds.

John Mason

my dog has already devoured half my strawberry crop, and he keeps eyeing you my raspberries

Seanie M

CJhaughey wrote:

beer traps

ONe of the best methods I have found. Use large lids from jars e.g. Maxwell House coffee jars. Fill it with beer, lay it on the ground, and the slugs are attracted to it, and either get lazy from intoxication, or die from the alcohol (they are very small creatures, after all!). Then just pick them up and dispose of them (but DO NOT FEED THEM TO THE BIRDS!). Check after each rainfall, or just replenish your caps supply each night.

Seanie.

miles teg

beer traps sound intriguing. Plus I get to tell herself I'm getting the beer out for gardening purposes... fantastic.
Cheers

tk123

lol "one for the slugs, one for me"...

prospect

I am going out for a slug of beer....