Woodlice on Strawberries

Hi.
I'm having problems with woodlice (or slaters as I call them) eating my strawberries. The strawberries are in pots on top of the wall in my garden. I've seen slugs on them too and have read that the original holes were possibly made by slugs and the slaters have joined the party.
Can anyone recommend a safe, non-toxic (to humans) way of getting rid? I'd be happy to poison them but fear the effect on the safety of the fruit. I'm looking just to stop them getting into the pots or onto low hanging fruit as the slaters in particular are everywhere and I very much doubt I'd be able to get rid of them all in this climate.
Thanks
Martin

 

If you are going to control them, a contact insect powder applied to the pot base/wall, rather than the plant, would likely do it. You would need to apply again after rain. Possibly upgrade to hanging baskets/dutch planters hung away from the wall for future years.

 

Thanks. I fear that if I have to reapply every time it rains I'll never be out of the garden! I've seen people recommending copper tape round the pots. Do you (or does anyone) know if the sellers' blurb holds enough truth to make a purchase worthwhile?

 

I always have woodlice present in the garden. I tried to grow strawberries in bed, slugs and woodlice were at them, and plants would rot during the winter because of raining. Now trying to grow in pots. I place pots on the table before strawberries start flowering. No other way to get rid of those pests.

 

Thanks Alisa. You mean just on a table in the garden?

 

Does anyone know, do the slaters wait for the slugs to make a start or do they just get tore straight in?

 

As far as I know the slugs start the damage and the woodlice move in.

 

Yes, just the regular table on the patio.

 

Thanks. Plants moved and organic slug pellets purchased. Fingers crossed.

 

I agree that the Woodlice are usually considered "secondary" culprits. I grow a lot of Strawberries ( ground and containers ) and IME. either slugs or birds cause the initial damage and the woodlice then move in.
Woodlice are very useful little beasts in the right place Best of luck with your Strawb harvest - the major problem with mine at the moment is having to bring so many indoors to ripen fully.

 

As said, little slugs or bird pecking, then the woodlice go in.

A tip we saw the other week we will be trying next year as our Strawbs in the ground , usually have some straw under them but the wet weather seems to have made it easier for the slugs to get in, and thats to place fleece under and around the strawbs.

With yours being in pots on a wall you could try something like that, but also a net over them would be our priority to stop the birds eating them. Thrushes and Blackbirds always after our soft fruit.

Copper tape around the pots can work, but more likely they are now already in your pots soil or compost, they are not big slugs, just little ones a few mm long.

 

I mostly grow [or used to grow] strawbs in containers, because they get eaten very readily in the ground, and I agree that it's more likely that slugs [or birds etc] that initially cause the damage. We have a plentiful supply of woodlice/slaters, and I've never seen them on strawbs, although they're present under the pots.
If you grow them in containers of any kind, it's a good idea to isolate the plants well enough initially to prevent slugs abseiling in, and start them off with well cleaned/washed roots. Plant them up with fresh soil, and then use the 'moat method' until the fruits are growing well. If there's slugs already present in the soil mix, or eggs, it becomes almost impossible to prevent them.

Some years are worse than others too, so it may not be necessary to moat them every time. I didn't need to do that when growing in pots, but I kept them well away from other plants. If I was growing htem this year, I'd have needed the moats in order to get any fruit

 

I often did that too @JWK, re the picking when unripe. It saved having loads with those tell tale 'nibbles' .
I still have some in the ground which are just left for the wildlife, but I have one or two plants in a raised bed near the back door, and I pick any sound ones if I see them.
I'm going to move them though, because the bed has lilies in it, and I feel I'm just attracting slugs to those even more than they usually get. They've been annihilated this year, and it's not down to the lily beetles [which are becoming more of aproblem here now] it's slugs eating through the buds and decimating the petals.
You can't win!