Slaters are eating my strawberries. How can I stop them?

Hi John, slaters are generally good guys in the garden and largely feed on rotting organic matter, however sometimes they have a taste for plants. Remove the habitat they like to hide in which is generally cool, moist and dark environments under mulch, bark, straw, rocks and pots. If you remove where they are living they will start to disappear. If you haven't replaced your strawberry straw this season, remove the old straw and replace it with fresh straw, avoid placing the mulch right up to the base of the plant, by increasing the amount of light in and around your plants the slaters will start looking for other dark crevices to live under. There are products such as diatomaceous earth (which is natural) used to control crawling insects, try removing their habitat first and see if that makes a difference, it will definitely reduce the slater population. Lianne.