It’s spring again and I can’t wait for strawberry season! I finally got back out into the garden today and revisited some completely neglected projects, like my hanging strawberry planter. To my surprise, the plants were not doing as well as I thought they would after a winter break. Many were dead and the ones that remained had weak root systems. I rooted around in the planter a bit and found some unwelcome visitors to be the cause: Strawberry Root Weevil grubs. Ick!
The beauty of keeping strawberries in a container is certainly the ease of replanting it all (although it did take me a few hours to empty out the planter, dig through the soil, and pick out the grubs). My planter is now weevil-free and here is what was left over…
…just enough for my backyard birds: a high-protein meal of gourmet grubs served up in a terra cotta plant saucer for easy pickin’s. Lucky birds!
Before you start your strawberry patch for the year, be sure to dig around in the soil and look for strawberry root weevil grubs. Your plants may look healthy but as the grubs mature into full grown strawberry root weevils, they will start to munch on your mint, raspberries, and rhododendrons as well! You won’t see them during the day as they are night creatures hiding in the shadows and munching away at the leaves of your plants.
If you do see grubs in the spring, feed them to the birds like I did and transplant your strawberries in new soil. Give the roots a good wash first and it should do the trick. This worked for me as you can see by this overflowing hanging strawberry planter!
If you have a pretty bad weevil problem, then ditch the soil and plants all together and start fresh.
Now I never would have thought of putting the weevils out for the birds. First instinct would have been to squish them dead and dispose of them.
Lesson learned.
Lori – I’m big into recycling!
Our dog is always right with me when I dig in the garden because she likes to eat grubs!
Ha! Cindy, I admit that makes me cringe a bit. But thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for the picture and the bird food idea! I just cleaned out my strawberry patch and found many of the squirming creatures. I’m happy to share with my feathered friends!
you are welcome, Julie.
I planted strawberries last year in early spring and they never came up. Tried digging the roots up a few weeks later and couldn’t even find them… I guess I’ll try again.