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Please help me identify what is eating my strawberries!?!
HelloHomeBird
Posts: 3
in Fruit & veg
Hello, I'm new here but I was wondering if somebody might be able to help me identify what is eating my strawberries? They are in a raised bed, surrounded by straw, under taught netting to protect from birds yet something is taking large chuncks (it look like a big bite from top to bottom) from them over night! I have lost 6 now! 
Whatever it is seems to go for them just as ther ripen...the green ones stay untouched. Can't see any slug/ snail trails but these would be hard to spot because of the thick bed of straw.
Please help!!! I planted them for my 3 year old and she isn't getting a look in!
0
Posts
Sorry, posted this twice! :-S
could it be mice i found last year they climbed the netting
You'd be surprised how nimble birds can be. This morning there was a blackbird on my strawberry patch, under the fine netting, and when disturbed he flew straight through the two-foot high fence of chicken wire surrounding it all! The holes are only as big as 5p pieces! Try lightly laying fleece over the plants.
Could be a Tortoise, they love strawberries. If you or a neighbour have a tortoise check it out. They take a bite or even a whole berry.
could be a squirrel
My immediate thought is gastropods, i.e.slugs and snails. They are nocturnal and love soft fruit like strawberries. Go out with a torch when it's dark and do an inspection: I'm guessing you'll find the critters have a good feed. You could put a dish of cheap beer down on the ground near the plants. Slugs & snails love that more than they do strawberries and you'll find them drowned in the amber liquid in the morning.
I once found my labrador and my daughter's dachsund entangled in the netting because they'd been trying (and succeeding) to get at the strawberries!!!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you so much for your thoughts everyone!!! We put beer traps out for them last night but I haven't been out to inspect them yet...yuk!!!
The labrador would have had the beer too!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.