[HesterF]

All the red bits of my strawberries disappear as soon as they ripen. Thought it was slugs at first so have liberally laced the ground around with slug pellets and they're still going. Then thought it might be birds but husband reckons rabbits (he's been studying them and says big mouths are involved) - but would they just go for the red parts? And nothing else in the soft fruit/veg garden is being touched which sounds very unrabbit like. The kids are in the clear, by the way!

Looks like I might need another big net - the cabbages are doing magnificently away from the caterpillars and rabbits!

H

[shygirl]

rabbits absolutely love strawberry leafs. maybe mice or rats? we have rat holes in our veggie garden.
id bet on birds tho. try netting them - thatl keep off birds and rabbits but probably not the others.

[Fleecewife]

Here it's blackbirds     They get caught in nets really easily, and slip under the edge too, so the nets need to be tight and well pinned down, and checked regularly.
 
Are your slug pellets the organic kind?  If you are sprinkling metaldehyde pellets around liberally, and your culprits are blackbirds, they will peck up the pellets too and be poisoned.
 
I hope you get enough to enjoy 

[Clarebelle]

my rabbits will demolish an entire strawberry plant, leaves included, if they could. So I don't think it would be rabbits. I usually lose mine to ants. My quail also like strawberry plants!

[happygolucky]

I spied some on our dog walk but they are not ready yet, just hope no one else s after them as usually, when I see they re nearly ready they are gone the next day.......

[Bodger]

Its not me.

[darkbrowneggs]

Squirrels like strawberries as well, and probably hedgehogs might take them, but both would eat the whole strawberry.  Slugs will eat them, and ants eat the red bit but you can usually see those running round inside the hole

[HesterF]

OK, I've netted. Could well be blackbirds - there is a whole family of them hanging about the veg/fruit patch at the moment. Hadn't thought much more about it but now you mention it...... Problem is I can net my strawberries easily because they're all together but I've also edged the kids beds with runners which are fruiting nicely and I'd told them they could have all their own strawberries for themselves. Suspect there won't be much left of theirs - and I can't net them. Oh, and now they've got a taste for soft fruit, raspberries and currants will no doubt be next.

H

[plumseverywhere]

Last year, woodlice decimated my strawberry crop!!  they nested in the straw I placed to stop the slugs getting them    this year, no straw, no slugs, no woodlice and we've had plenty of strawbs!

[MAK]

Odd really - I have picking perfect strawberries from rows that are outside the veg patch that I have a triple wire electric fence around. Each night the wild rabbits pass the strawberries on their way to sit alongside my rabbits ( one of the wild rabbits is the dad of a litter dropped by one of our ladies who would pop out at night.
No blackbirds in these parts so we are lucky to have no need to net the soft fruit.

[Anke]

Mice will also eat (nibble - well take great big chunks out of them, then they rot) strawberries - we gave up on growing them as we never got any, it was either mice, slugs or mould 

[HesterF]

Well we had our first bowl full today - son two made a pavlova with them (he is only six so really this was him doing the best bits with me doing the boring bits). Netting seems to have done the trick, whatever it's keeping out. Piles of bird poo strategically around the outside indicate birds. Now got to have a think about how to net the other soft fruits.

H