One of the important advantages of greenhouse production of strawberry is that the greenhouse structure allows, to a certain extent, the exclusion of insect/arthropod pests and the containment of biological controls.
Insect screens on air intakes can exclude most insects, preventing them from entering the greenhouse. Biological controls that can fly tend to fly away when host populations get low, and the greenhouse helps keep them on your crop. Biological controls tend to have preferences as to environmental conditions and the greenhouse structure and environment control helps to maintain those preferred conditions. However, pests still get into a screened house, and biological controls need regular maintenance.
Because strawberry is such an important crop in California, one of the most complete IPM websites covering pests and diseases of strawberry is the UC Davis IPM website.
Thankfully this UC Davis site is accessible by all. You may just want to go straight to the website and skip what is presented here! But just as with any greenhouse crop, you need to regularly scout your crop to look for things that should not be there.
Unless otherwise indicated, the pest and disease mages below are from the UC Davis IPM site and are used with permission from the University of California Statewide IPM Program, Jack Kelly Clark, photographer.
In addition, we have several pest- and disease-specific subsections.
- Spider mites
- Thrips
- Botrytis
- Aphids
- Powdery mildew