Pill bugs in strawberries

[Chuck52]

The strawberries I was worried hadn't survived the winter came back with a vengeance. I now have a 4x22 foot raised bed completely filled with plants that are over a foot high. The berries are starting to ripen, but the weather is now cool and damp, so they are coming on slowly. It's dark and damp under the plants and the pill bugs are thriving. I've got some Safer insecticidal soap + sulfur I can try to see if it will control the bugs. It's supposed to be pretty safe to use....says you can spray the same day you harvest. Anyone got any other suggestions?

Chuck

[JazzDad]

Pill bug fondue? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Fondue???? Soup!!!

When we had strawberries in Ohio we used to always keep a good layer of straw around the plants which helped keep the berries out of the dirt which reduced the problems of those little critters eating on the berries.

Alternatively you can try vegetable/fruit safe sprays and dusts but I don't like pesticides on my fruit that isn't peeled prior to eating.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat

[Chuck52]

Ha Ha Ha. With all this great information it's a good thing the pill bugs really don't do much harm. I was worried because I found a couple of damaged berries with pill bugs eating them. Turns out the bugs apparently only go after already damaged fruit. I had maybe 10% pecked and gnawed on berries at first. I could see some was from birds, but I thought I might also have field mice or something in there. The bed looks like a miniature rain forest. I have to spread the foot high plants to see the berries. I didn't think birds would wallow through the plants, but so far the traps I've put in haven't caught anything. I did kill a bird with a snap-type mouse trap, and so I switched to the glue traps under pieces of plastic pipe. No mice, but since that bird got zapped the damage has diminished considerably.

Chuck