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Strawberry bug

comp13comp13 Posts: 58
in Problem solving
Hi all, hope you are all loving the garden weather we have been having. There are some bugs attacking my strawberry plants, I tried scrolling through the previous strawberry problems to see if it has already been identified but there were 85 pages. Please help if you can. Also do I need to be worried about the potato plant? Thanks 


Amateur vegetable gardener with dreams of a bigger garden one day. 

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    @comp13 I've zoomed-in on some of your photos and can see some tiny caterpillars, likely a moth species.  Unless large areas of leaves are being damaged or they are spreadingl rapidly, you can probably just ignore them and they are very unlikely to damage the fruit.  If you want to get rid of them, you can rub them off with your fingers, or spray the undersides of the leaves with cold water to which a couple of drops of washing-up liquid have been added.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • comp13comp13 Posts: 58
    Thanks Bob, I didn’t know caterpillars like strawberries too, is any plant safe from those buggers? Between the caterpillars and the slugs it’s a wonder anything survives out there. 
    Amateur vegetable gardener with dreams of a bigger garden one day. 
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    edited June 2020
    Hi there @Comp13, looking at the caterpillars I think they might be sawfly.

    I had this problem three years ago but after a complete 'deep clean' these are the children of that strawberry today


    Here is the link to my original post
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1004028/strawberry-with-lacy-leaves

    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • comp13comp13 Posts: 58
    Thanks Herbaceous
    Amateur vegetable gardener with dreams of a bigger garden one day. 
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