Subject: Bugs eating strawberries
Location: Zone 5 – New York
July 11, 2012 8:04 am
Can you tell me what kind of bug this is and how to keep it away from the strawberries?
Signature: -Roxy
Hi Roxy,
This is a Fours Spotted Sap Beetle, Glischrochilus quadrisignatus, and it goes by the other common names Picnic Beetle or Beer Beetle. According to BugGuide it is: “attracted by the odour of fermenting fruits and vegetables; the adult beetles fly into beer or soft drinks at summer picnics.” The strawberry in the photo appears to be dirty as well as rotting. We suspect something else might have done the initial damage. Do you place straw on the ground around the strawberry plants? That will help to discourage snails and slugs which love to eat strawberries. If the strawberry in question was damaged by a slug and it then began to rot, that might have attracted the opportunistic Picnic Beetle. If the Picnic Beetles are actually doing the initial damage, which we doubt, you can always leave a glass of beer in the area of the strawberry plants in the hope the beer will be more attractive to the Picnic Beetles than the strawberries.