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sowbugs eating strawberries
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Posted by dspencer_1904 7 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 1, 04 at 14:30
| I've got the best crop of strawberries ever, but I'm not getting to eat many, hordes of sowbugs are getting them as they ripen. I hate to use chemicals, anything I can do to keep my patch sowbug-free? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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| Sowbugs aka pill bugs aka rolly polies, I've been told, only eat dead organic matter. Well here we are having an epidemic of the things and they are eating strawberries, hosta (my stand of Sun and Substance has been decimated by the things), maters and anything else they can get their mouth parts on. I, too, would be interested in a natural remedy for the things. |
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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| First be sure that its really the sowbugs that are the primary culprit and not slugs, or something else. Simply because you see them on the berries does not make them the prime candidate since sowbugs and there cousins the pillbugs are mostly scavangers and clean up after others casue the primary damage. |
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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| no question that it's sowbugs, I turn over berries, and the bottoms of the berries are covered..... the little critters wait til they ripen too... I hate to use any chemicals, but they really have eaten 5 berrries for every one I get. |
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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I wonder if horticultural grade diatomaceous earth would do the trick?
Donna |
Here is a link that might be useful: How to discourage sowbugs in the garden
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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If you are the person holding the bat after a ball goes through a window who gets blamed for hitting it there?
Simply because you see these buggers on damaged fruit does not mean they caused the damage, but they most likely are taking advantage of someone elses efforts to get something to eat. All of the time when I find such things occuring I find out through investigation that slugs did the initial damage and the Pillbugs moved in later. |
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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| I had the same problem with my strawberries... it was indeed slugs doing the damage. They made the hole, ate what they wanted and then the sowbugs and ants would move right in. I put beer out for the slugs (not wanting to use chemicals) and it worked...sort of. Seems they would grab a bite to eat (strawberries) before heading off to the bar. lol. So while I got rid of a couple dozen slugs every night, they still enjoyed my strawberries more than I did. Diatemaceous (?sp) earth is supposed to work real well against slugs... I'll be putting some in the garden next season since my plants are so thick right now I can't even SEE the ground! Good luck. |
RE: sowbugs eating strawberries
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| First off pillbugs and sowbugs aren't actually bugs, they are arthropods and are much more closely related to shellfish than insects. Which means that they actually have gills, and they cannot breathe in a dry environment (hence why you find so many dead ones in the corners of your basement). Slugs are probably the ones damaging the berries and the sowbugs are eating the rotting remnants. I would say probably the best solution to the problem is get some toads to eat the sowbugs and slugs, and possibly some brown snakes (storeria dekayi) to take care of more slugs. You can probably find a multitude of toads under logs around woodland ponds this time of year. Collect up about 10-25 or so and let them go and they should do the trick. Dave |
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