I had squirrels digging up my garlic so I put some chicken wire over the garlic and the bulbs grow through. You could try building a small chicken wire cage around your strawberry plants.

We did exactly what John suggested. Our strawberries were in a wood-sided raised bed, and we put a hinged lid on it. In our case it was chipmunks doing the munching. Eventually I decided that it was less trouble to go to a pick-your-own place, and so when we moved, we didn't replant strawberries.

I experimented with a strawberry bed for the past two years and I'm starting to take the same position you are NHBabs. They are more work than most crops we try to grow. And I've found it difficult to find disease free plants despite using the most recommended mail order source.

I am throwing away a whole bed of plants and planting cover crop for the rest of the season. But I had a second patch in the front of a different variety that I wanted to give a second chance to, so I moved some plants into the back. And I just had someone give me plants that I've planted.

It's really a novelty crop to me. I don't have a large enough property to devote a large enough area to strawberries and to just have one raised bed of plants just doesn't produce the size crop that would make it worth it.

But for those of you who do plan on growing them. I would imagine netting is the only way to go. You have to have enough of it to elevate the netting around the strawberry patch. You can't just lie it on the top of the plants because the animals and birds can still get the berries through the net. I anchored ours with bricks, but it was a pain and it wasn't as effective as it needed to be. So I'd have to come up with something else for next year.

I believe it is illegal to shoot or trap them unless they are attacking you. I haven't found anything that deters squirrels or chipmunks from my strawberry patch so I have stopped growing them. My kids are super sad about the whole thing :(

A visitor from NH tells me that he finds the chipmunks worse than the birds for snitching his berries. He suggested that I put up a low electric fence around the perimeter of where I grow my blueberries & maybe strawberries. He put us two strands to a total height of maybe 10 inches off the ground. Every berry I grow, but my 'Heritage' raspberries are pretty much plucked clean by birds, chipmunks and slugs ;(

Do you mean "squirrels" or chipmunks? Both eat the Sargeants crabapples (stinkers).

You can trap them on your property if they are destroying your property. If you live in rural areas of Mass and it is legal to discharge a firearm you can shoot them.

It is against Massachusetts law to release wild animals on someone else's property.

Trapping does not necessarily mean alive. You could put out a snare trap that would dispatch them fairly quickly.

I know someone who caught perhaps twelve chipmunks last year. It did not make a dent. They can be pests, for sure. They reproduce like crazy. They may have young that will be abandoned. If you managed to catch 20 and mail them to Pluto, twenty more would quickly take their place. Short of enclosing your berry plants in wire mesh, or moving them to your dining room, I'm not sure what the answer is. If you have a lot of oaks and nut producing trees in your area (or bird seed), you will likely get a lot of rodents like squirrels and chipmunks. Look for squirrel stew recipes. Sell it from a food truck. Take the money you make from this and buy berries at a farmers' market? I sympathize with you. Chipmunks climb up my wild blueberry bushes. I need to get more weasels!

we have 3 cats that i feed once daily. they have to hunt for more. they are very effective at controlling the voles , mice, squirrels and chipmunks. ;)