could ants be sucking the life out of my strawberries?

[NappiesGalore]

and if so, what can i do about them without poisoning the strawberries?

[smil;e]

bump for you

thanks pelvic. not very busy ont he gardening club pages is it??

Unlikely to be the ants directlty attacking them but it could be either
Aphids on the strawbs that the ants are farming, the aphids secreate a sticky sweet substance that the ants like so they protect, clean and generally look after the aphids. If it is aphids on strawberries they are usually low down around the base of the plant so take a good look.

The ants also might be making nests underneath the plants, they remove the soil so the plants become undermined and are not able to take up water ect. If this is the case and you don't want to use chemicals keep the ground very wet around the plants (it is very had to overwater this time of the year) or best of all apply a gravel mulch, this will give you the added benifit of keeping the strawberries clean and detering slugs and snails.
Good luck

thank you!

hard to look at the base of the plants as theyre kind of tightly packed in a window box thing (its my first time growing stuff, i didnt realise how much theyd grow...

there are so many ants, i think it could well be the latter problem. guess i better face my fear (of ants! i ask you) and re-pot the damn things in bigger planters. cant plant anything in the ground coz the millions of rabbits will eat them.

i have largish gravel stones on top of the soil in one of the planters, and straw in the ohter two. to keep the fruits off the soil so they dont rot before they ripen... is that right? you seem to know so much

Rather than repot now you could spray the plants with a washing up liquid / water mix then repeat after 3 days then a futher 3 days to kill any aphids that might be there. If you spray, do it in the evenings and you should not get sun scorch on your plants. As they are in planteres you could sprinkle ant killer around the base of the planter then you should not contaminate the plants / fruits. If they are not nesting in the plants you could move the planters to confuse the little bu**ers. Then stand the planters if possible in a deep tray raised on bricks / stones fill the tray with water and the ants would need to cross the moat to get to them
Stones are good, personally I would go for small sharp grit stones to deter slugs and snails but large are good for water conservation and as you said keeping the fruit clean.
Straw is fine if you do not have mice, in planters it should be fine, but in gardens large strawb beds covered in straw tend to get mice nesting in them and feasting on the fruit.
Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labour, there is nothing quite like eating fresh sun warmed strawberries

hi there.

have solved the mystery! not the problem, but at least the mystery. oh well.

its wasps! little horrible things. i watch them sitting on the fruits and eating their way through them. there was a huge nest (also recently discovered) v close to the plants but ive had that dealt with and the wasps still come for ythe srawberries. dont really know what to do there, except that ds1 (age 3) and i now pick the ones that are almost ripe and eat them, just so we get in first.

the green peppers are doing a treat though, and the tomatoes look good so far... not much redness going on but. the broad beans are frankly, a flop. the few i had were delicious though. and the pot of potatoes seem to be doing ok too. so fingers crossed all round really.

Glad you've got it sorted
Enjoy the fruits of your labours