Topic: Creepy things eating strawberries

[Alex133]

Found some of my ripe strawberries have hole in them with mass of horrible creepy little caterpillars spilling out and waving around - quite gross. Any idea what they might be and where they came from?

[jennym]

Possibly strawberry sawfly larvae, they tend to reduce the leaves to skeletons.

[Alex133]

I don't think they start life in the fruit. Wondering if they may be centipede or millipede larvae. Have been trying to trace on Google but no luck.

[saddad]

Dunno... but I bet the chickens love them...  :)

[gypsy]

I've got some too! Horrible things, I can't see them very well without my glasses on, so I will be very careful now when eating a few straight off the plants. Have to take glasses to the allotment in future! I wonder how many I have eaten  :-X

I didn't bother to put straw down this year, so wondered if they are in the soil and climb up onto ripe strawberries.

[Alex133]

Emailed photo to Natural History Museum bug id forum. Very quick reply - they are spotted snake millipedes and the dry weather has caused the problem - probably lost 20/25% of crop.  There is a related entry on A4A - just search for snake millipedes.