The small hard black beetles can feed in ripe fruit and are a nuisance to pickers. Chemical control is often not effective because many types breed in any decaying vegetation and can rapidly move into plantings from outside areas.
Chemical control is difficult because of the proximity to harvest time.
For the past several years researchers at Ohio State have evaluated a tiny parasitic wasp that attacks the larvae of strawberry sap beetle. By attacking the larval stage, the parasite does not prevent injury to individual fruit, but it does keep the larva from maturing into an adult beetle, thereby eliminating reproduction and reducing subsequent sap beetle populations. The parasite, Brachyserphus abruptus , occurs naturally, but is most prevalent in late summer and fall, which is too late for protection during the normal strawberry season. The goal of the Ohio research has been to mass produce the parasites in the lab and release them at the time of strawberry fruit set to get earlier control. The number of strawberry sap beetle larvae decreased from 63 per plot in 1992 to 12 per plot in 1993.