Strawberries and lice

[Han]

Hi all!

Again I need your help!
Strawberries......last year I planted them out...very bad results (propably the weather). This year I took them indoors in the greenhouse hoping for all that kilo's of nice fruit....about 50 plants in a selfbuilt planter. But.....lice....an awfull lot of them. How to get rid of them before they destroy all my plants? I know wash up in water but are there other solutions?

Han

[Han]

[Digeroo]

What sort of lice, are they wood lice?

No knowledge myself so I asked a friend and they suggested putting damp newspaper down as an alternative food source and then replacing it when it is full of beasties.

[pigeonseed]

Could you mean (spider) mites?

[Han]

It is the (ordinary?) green lice.........

[goodlife]

Do you mean green fly?..by other name aphids?

[squeezyjohn]

I don't know if you mean aphids - or woodlice - or headlice!

But I do know that strawberries like to be given a year to settle in to the ground so they can develop a nice root structure.  Some even suggest removing all the fruits in the first year so that they put all their energy in to leaf and root growth.  I don't go that far - but you normally will get better results if you don't move them as they have to start all over again then.

Good luck with the "lice" - greenhouses are sometimes a nightmare for pests - woodlice chomp all my sweet peppers normally.

[Tee Gee]

I guess you mean wood louse / lice.

Here is the R H S 's slant on them;

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=723

[Han]

No, it's not woodlice. After reading and searching I think it's strawberry aphids that are ruining my plants and fruit. A lot of white stuff on the leaves/stems and under the leaves a lot of very tiny little dots. A lot of ants too so this must be lice?

[liefste]

A friend of mine has had his strawbs eaten by and infestation of ants in his polytunnel 

[strawberry1]

diatomaceous earth dealt nicely with all the ants in my raised bed

pests
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/306314/Common-insect-pests-of-strawberries.pdf

[Han]

da's zonde, liefste!