Whats eating my strawberries

[Sheikh Yerboutti]

I think its vital to know your enemy. Is it slugs/snails , mice or birds.
I have ducks free in garden and they eat slugs & snails but I supose they can miss some although non of my salads etc have any damage. Is there an expert here on the bite pattern of pests? The half eaten strawbs look fairly smoothly worn away, would a bird leave a ragged edge? If it is slugs how do I solve the problem? I never see any birds down there and Im there a lot lately. Non of my other crops have been touched.

[rustylady]

I had the same problem with strawberries on my allotment. Culprits were woodlice!! Look innocuous enough, quite tiny, but boy do they love strawberries!!

[Sheikh Yerboutti]

Ah, I doubt it here, my ducks love woodlice, aint seen one for years. Do they come out at night and feast .cos thats when I lock the ducks in their pen.?

[zazen999]

Everything eats strawbs...you have to go twice a day to catch the red ones or they are munched.

[Sheikh Yerboutti]

Ah ,I would ,but these are getting chompped just before fully red?

[Two_Sheds]

It's most likely the blackbird: William Morris called it the strawberry thief

I've netted mine now

[Sheikh Yerboutti]

Yes ,I did at first think blackbird ,but the wound is so smooth it doesnt seem that a beak could do that. Do you guys put slug pellets down?

[Nykied]

Mine are definitely blackbirds, again before they're fully ripe. I've seen the blighters. The end result also looks pretty smooth but I'm thinking they maybe rip bits off the strawberry rather than pecking it out.

It's not happened since I put my strawberry plants under netting, so I don't think it's slugs or woodlice.

[gojiberry]

If your like me its the bloke of the next allotment, but then he doesn't leave half eaten ones. Blackbirds are the prime suspect.

Ian

[Sheikh Yerboutti]

I dont think its birds. Im here most days in my garden and Ive never seen any in the strawb patch. If it is them, theyre doing it between first light and 0700. Do any of you put slug pellets on strawb patch?

[Scottishnewbie]

same problem here - i think it's birds too

[binley100]

Mine are netted against birds, mine are being eaten by ants. Anybody got any really fine netting

[Peanut]

Mine get picked and munched by my Springer Spaniel!!

[Paulottie]

It appears that Badgers are ripping mine off... there are a few lying around but all the best are gone. I couldn't work it out, a similar thing happened last year, thought about mice or squirrels.

I have one bed with chicken wire sides and netted top....signs of a break in under the wire. Plus a new bed with Enviromesh on hoops has been raided nightly...mesh off in places claw marks etc...thought it was a cat at first (from claw marks) but they definitely don't like strawbs...perhaps after mice eating them....but there are also a few juice stains where they have nuzzle through the mesh....definitely badgers.

It has been enough trouble putting up an electric fenced bed for 250 sweetcorn.(lost the lot last year) They are such a pain in the neck....I'm all for wildlife conservation and a few badgers in the woods....but they have now reached epidemic numbers and there are sets everywhere in the village everybody's lawn has been ploughed up its a nightmare.....sorry starting to rant.

As someone said most things will eat a ripe strawb.

You just need to study the clues Sherlocks...it's elementary!

Birds leave beak marks.
Slugs leave slime and holes but they are often still there.
Woodlice normally attack only damaged fruits but cause more probs with the crown.
where is entry point?...etc.

How did it go?..."when you've eliminated the impossible, whatever you are left with, however implausible, must be the truth"

[Sheikh Yerboutti]

There are no holes, They allways are eaten from the point oposite the stalk.Allways a really smooth face left, never a whole one is eaten. What bite do mice leave, I did have woodmice in the shed a few weeks ago, but thought I had rid of em now.