Fresh, ripe strawberries are a favorite treat not only for people but also for a wide range of local wildlife, from tiny slugs to quick-moving birds and foraging mammals. The fruit’s intense sweetness makes strawberry patches highly attractive to any creature seeking an easily accessible energy source. Protecting this delicate harvest requires understanding which animals are responsible for the damage and implementing specific deterrent methods. Gardeners who learn to identify the culprits by the signs they leave behind can take targeted action to ensure a more successful yield.
Common Animals That Target Strawberries
The primary animals that target strawberry patches can be grouped into three main categories: birds, rodents and small mammals, and invertebrates. Birds, particularly American Robins and European Starlings, are often daytime thieves drawn to the bright red color signaling ripeness. They frequently descend in groups, making their damage swift and widespread.
Small ground-dwelling mammals and rodents include squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, and voles. Squirrels and chipmunks often bury or carry away entire berries. Rabbits consume the foliage and stems of the plant in addition to the fruit, leaving distinct cuts on the plant material.
Voles and mice, while less visible, can cause substantial damage near the ground. They are attracted to the low-lying fruit and can be a constant presence once established. Slugs and snails are the most common invertebrate pests, thriving in the cool, moist conditions often found beneath strawberry leaves and mulch.
Identifying Specific Feeding Damage
Observing the precise nature of the damage is the most effective way to identify the specific pest responsible for the loss. Birds typically leave small, shallow, triangular peck marks in the fruit’s surface, often damaging a large number of berries without consuming them entirely. This damage compromises the fruit’s integrity, making it susceptible to rot and secondary pests.
Damage from squirrels and rabbits is generally more destructive, often resulting in the complete removal of the berry from the stem. Squirrels may leave larger, cleaner bite marks with discernible tooth impressions if they only eat part of the fruit. Rabbits leave clean, angled cuts on the leaves and stems of the plant, sometimes consuming the entire plant down to the crown.
Voles and mice create small, round entrance holes, typically 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter, near the strawberry plants as part of their burrow systems. The visible sign of their activity is the appearance of crisscrossing pathways, known as runways, that travel through the grass or mulch. Invertebrates like slugs and snails leave behind ragged, irregular holes on the fruit surface. A definitive sign of their presence is the shiny, silvery slime trail they leave on the ground or the fruit itself, particularly visible in the early morning.
Strategies for Protecting Your Harvest
The most reliable strategy for protecting strawberries from flying pests is physical exclusion using bird netting. Netting with a mesh size of one-quarter inch is sufficient to prevent access, but it must be suspended over a frame to keep it from resting directly on the berries. Securing the netting flush with the ground is important to prevent birds from walking underneath the barrier.
Protecting against ground-based mammals like rabbits and squirrels requires a robust physical barrier, such as a fine mesh fence or cage. This barrier needs to be at least 18 inches high and should be partially buried or secured tightly to the ground to deter burrowing. Motion-activated sprinklers can also provide a sudden, non-lethal shock that deters larger animals.
For slugs and snails, ground barriers are an effective defense against their slow, nocturnal movement. Copper tape placed around the perimeter of a raised bed or container creates a small electrical charge when combined with the mollusk’s slime, acting as a deterrent. Diatomaceous earth, a powdery substance made of fossilized diatoms, works by dehydrating soft-bodied pests but must remain completely dry to be effective. Gardeners can also reduce slug habitat by removing excess mulch, weeds, and fallen, overripe fruit that provides moist shelter.