Watering strawberry bed and slugs

[littlemoney]

My strawberry bed is looking rather dry. I have two strawberries starting to turn red so I want to put the straw down on the bed and the net over them. If I water before I put the straw down am I making a slug and snail heaven with moist soil under the straw. I will be putting slug pellets down as well but as I find the tiny slugs eating the fruit even when I use slug pellets I don't want to encourage them any more as they already think they have a good home

[Mark_Riga]

The blackbirds will have their eye on them as well. I can't really help you though. If you don't water them they are not likely to thrive this weather. You are likely to loose some to slugs most years but lots of other creatures can't resist them - birds, mice, squirrels even ants to name the ones I get. Last year I netted a bed of strawberries so the blackbirds didn't get any but I only got a few as most were got by the mice and a squirrel.

If slugs are your only problem, there are lots of posts for catching them: beer traps, a torch at dawn or dusk, cool stones/bricks for them to hide under. You could try using strulch instead of straw round them as it purports to deter slugs but costs a bit. Nematodes cost as well.

[nickdub]

Some people use slug/snail traps to at least keep the numbers down a bit - plenty of info out there on the web if you google it