I have a question for the gardeners...

My strawberry plants are producing berries like crazy, but most of them are small and being eaten by bugs. The ones that aren't are the most delicious strawberries I've ever eaten!

Are there any safe pesticides or other methods that you pros would recommend to keep bugs away and grow bigger berries?

Sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the plants, on the ground under the leaves. It kills the buggers.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)helps with caterpillar worm problems.

Iron phosphate is an organic deterrent for slugs and snails and recently I've read that they don't like caffeine, so coffee grounds or loose tea leaves might be helpful.

Use some sort of a mulch (I use hay) to keep the berries up off the soil as well.

If the berries are too small, snip the flowers for a month or two until the roots are more established. Do you have a june-bearing or everbearing type?

Bugs didn't get mine, but the birds did. Might want to consider some kind of netting if birds become a problem.

Starbucks used to give away bags of coffe grounds for free. Then I put mulch on top with netting.

Speck - everbearing.

Everyone - thanks! I have netting for the birds now. It's just the bugs that I haven't been able to stop...until now, hopefully!

I had a big strawberry garden when I was a kid. I plucked all the flowers for the first couple of months like someone else recommended which really helped. Never had bug or slug problems, but I did sit out with my BB gun to pick off the rabbits!

Go to fabric section at WalMart and get some fine woven polyester. It has a name "tuelle" or something. It's pronounced tool. It's stuff like wedding veils are made of. It's super cheap and screens out fine bugs and birds.

Hmm, I never thought about trying to screen out the bugs too!

we entomologists use that very fabric for cages in our greenhouses - but in our case it's to keep the insects IN not out!