On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:27:26 -0700, Jo Green wrote:

On Jun 28, 2:24Â*pm, General Schvantzkopf wrote:
I have a couple of dozen strawberry plants but no strawberries. I
assume that something is eating them before they have a chance to
develop, but what? Also I've only seen the starts of a few berries so
maybe my plants aren't producing at all. The plants look healthy, they
just don't have any berries.

I have a fence around my gardens and bird netting across the top but
it's not bird tight, they could walk in if they had a mind to.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I live in Massachusetts.

Hi,

I have had the same experience with my strawberry garden. After many
hours of observance and much to my surprise, I one day found a chipmunk
running across the lawn with a strawberry in his mouth. He proceeded to
sit within view of where I was and eat the strawberry in front of me.
Not long after I witnessed a squirrel doing the same thing.

When your strawberries disappear you immediately think insects or birds.
My strawberry garden is also fenced in and netted and somehow the
chipmunks and squirrels find a way in to access the strawberries.

Netting with finer and smaller openings will help this problem.
Surrounding the garden with plants that chipmunks and squirrels do not
like such as natural insect repellant plants helps. These are both good
remedies but the reality is you will never totally protect your
strawberry garden from these crafty creatures.

I have millions of chipmunks, that could be it. My previous cat kept them
under control but he disappeared last year, I suspect that a coyote got
him. I don't want to risk the same thing happening to my new cats so I'm
keeping them inside which leaves me without a means of limiting the
chipmunk population.