Question: Do Deer Eat Strawberries?
Tom Waddell asked:
The deer have just eaten all the tops on my everbearing strawberries. Is this going to be a problem and will this hurt the runners?
Answer to: Do Deer Eat Strawberries?
Tom,
Forgive me for chuckling when I read that. But, to answer your question, it should not hurt your strawberry plants for the deer to eat the leaves. Unless you just bought and planted strawberry plugs or strawberry plants, the roots should be well-established on the mother plants and sufficiently established on the runner plants. So, see the information on the Growing Strawberries page, as well as the specific information about overwintering the plants, and you should have healthy plants again next spring when the warmer temperatures call them forth from dormancy. And, if some were trampled by the hooves of the four-legged garden invaders, you can always find a host of replacements on the Buy Strawberry Plants directory page. Also, when it comes to deer in your strawberry patch, be careful. E coli contamination of Oregon strawberries occurred in August of 2011. The culprits? Deer. Naturally, if you’ve got deer problems, make sure you wash your strawberries well so that you don’t have health problems too.
This is a question submitted to StrawberryPlants.org by a reader. See the Strawberry FAQ for more questions and answers.