Insects in my Strawberries

[CJ5]

Hi All,

I'm looking for information on some kind of defense against, slugs, tater-bugs, and earwigs.
Last year they got into my strawberries and had a hay day.

This was the first year of bearing for the plants and the berries were huge, sweet, and tempting to the neighbor kids to sneak in and help theirselves, which isn't a problem with me since the harvest is abundandt.

The thing I'm concerned with is the kids, munching from the patch without at least rinsing the berries.

I'd like to kill of the bugs, but I don't want to make the kids sick in doing it.

Anyone got any suggestions for taking on the insects?

Thanks for your time..

CJ5

[ncboman]

I don't see a problem, ... except you don't like seeing bugs.

If you're having bountiful crops then the bugs aren't harmful and may be good for the soil/plants.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Get some guineas. They'll eat the bugs and not the fruit. They'll also set up a racket whenever the kids come to steal strawberries (or when a cat comes in the yard, or a bird flies by, or when you go outside, or when you go inside, or when you breathe, etc.......)

Alan

[CJ5]

I should have known to be more specific identifying my problem with the insects in my strawberries. They are actually "in" my strawberries. They look great from the top side but when you turn them over, there they are. Any number of them working on hollowing out the inside of the berry. That's the only problem I have with insects NC.

As for the guineas, good idea if you can keep them off the road. But then again, roadkill ain't all that bad. Thanks Alan.

CJ5

[Adena]

I don't see a problem.They'll eat the bugs and not the fruit. They'll also set up a racket whenever the kids come to steal strawberries (or when a cat comes in the yard, or a bird flies by, or when you go outside, or when you go inside, or when you breathe, etc..

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I had to go check my drivers license. Whew!

Alan

[Bill Gunn]

L O L.....




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyEf1Lp7Byk

[dchappy]

You might want to see if you can have someone come out to do some professional treatments. I've had problems like this with my home garden and had a lot of trouble finding someone. There are a lot of good ratings for this kind of thing on angie's list (http://www.angieslist.com/) though so you should consider starting a search there. You should be able to find someone pretty fast!