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Wood lice are eating my strawberries, help!

6 replies

BionicEmu · 05/07/2013 18:26

I just saw some lovely red strawberries on my plants but they're full of sodding woodlice. Does anyone have any idea if there's anything I can do?

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ChangeyMcChangeName · 06/07/2013 00:27

Oh we have this too! We've sort of lifted ours up a bit with string but DH thinks we need a net or something? Watching your thread too! Horrid strawberry robbing little things!

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EauRouge · 06/07/2013 07:46

Yep, loads here too. I try to pick the strawberries just before they ripen. It's tricky, I'm out there picking sometimes twice a day, but I'm getting loads before those crawly fuckers get to them.

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BionicEmu · 06/07/2013 12:47

I think I'll have to start picking a couple of times a day too then. I've got a net so the birds can't get to them, but I just can't think how to stop the woodlice. My strawberry patch has rather spread itself over the last couple of years so that it's now about 3mx4m, so I must be losing several pounds of strawberries to the damn things.

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BionicEmu · 06/07/2013 12:54

Oh bloody hell, I've just had a thought. I wonder if the birds usually eat the woodlice? So by stopping the birds from getting to the strawberries they haven't been able to get to the woodlice either.

So I'm stuck with either birds or woodlice. Great.

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EauRouge · 06/07/2013 12:57

There's a list of predators here. I've definitely seen those spiders in my garden, and my hedgehog has returned judging by the amount of poo I've seen recently. Have you got a pond or boggy patch to attract frogs?

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BionicEmu · 06/07/2013 14:11

We've got a large pond & there are definitely frogs in it. I don't think I've seen that spider around though, but it says it's common in the south of England & I'm in north Derbyshire.

I'm finding the timing of these strawberries odd though. We had quite a late start (hell, we had snow on the ground at the beginning of May!), but strawberries are just starting to ripen now. I don't remember ever being able to eat my own strawberries during Wimbledon before, they're usually a couple of weeks after it.

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