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Produce => Pests & Diseases => Topic started by: Alex133 on May 30, 2011, 08:16:43

Title: Creepy things eating strawberries
Post by: Alex133 on May 30, 2011, 08:16:43

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?

Title: Re: Creepy things eating strawberries
Post by: jennym on June 01, 2011, 22:32:31

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

Title: Re: Creepy things eating strawberries
Post by: Alex133 on June 02, 2011, 06:42:51

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.

Title: Re: Creepy things eating strawberries
Post by: saddad on June 02, 2011, 07:26:02

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

Title: Re: Creepy things eating strawberries
Post by: gypsy on June 03, 2011, 14:57:27

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.

Title: Re: Creepy things eating strawberries
Post by: Alex133 on June 10, 2011, 07:45:40

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.