How large is your berry bed? The best option would be to place a short (12 inches) wooden or brick barrier around the bed to keep the turtles out but you could easily step over. The turtles are not able to climb a slick upright surface. You will not find a repellent. The turtles could push aside a net fence, but would not have eaten through a fence. What you are describing is unusual behavior for box turtles.

The box turtle is facing a losing battle of habitat loss and is protected in most of its range. Slow sexual maturity, small egg clutches, high hatchling mortality, and fast cars make survival a questionable end result. Consider sharing your berries.

Are you sure that box turtles are your main culprit? They will eat berries, to be sure, but a whole patch? Box turtles are not herding animals. They are solitary except to breed. My guess is that birds or other creatures may also be taking a share, especially if you are missing raspberries: the box turtles could only eat those within a few inches of the ground.

thank you brianstreehouse for your follow-up. We have a small garden with a 4 X 30 foot wide strip of strawberries encircling the raspberries. We have physically seen the turtles eating the strawberries and occasionally the lowest raspberries. Last year we were aware of 6 different turtles that were in the garden at various times. This year so far we have seen 2. In the past tried to "share" some of the foods they like with them!

We have not done the wooden or higher brick barrier, but did put a lower brick (approx 1 inch high) barrier around and they climbed over it and we saw them chewing through the plastic netting. Good idea about simply trying to put the bricks higher, or a slick surface. Thanks. It is fun to see them in the yard and garden and we would like to try to keep them around. About the eggs, last year we watched 2 of the turtles dig the holes for their eggs, but we suspect they did not make it because of all the preditors. thanks for your response.

What a weird unusual problem to have. lol

As for low hanging fruit, try to stake them up. For strawberries, try putting up a barrier of landscaping timbers of about 4 inches or more, like the commenter said, high enough to cause the turts trouble, but low enough to step over.

For predators, try to mark when the mom is laying the eggs and make a small (6 inch) dome of hardware cloth and pin it to the ground around the egg hole so that when the babies come out, they come out in a sort of cage, and this cage also protects the eggs. This could give the turtles a slight edge (they need it, bad). Box Turtles are in the same plight as sea turtles, but are not so "cute" or spectacular, but they are disappearing all the same. I used to see dozens in a summer here, now am lucky to see one.

Back when I had a garden, I found that a simple "chicken wire" fence was enough to keep turtles out. The fence is made of metal wire and the openings were about 1 inch across. Install the fence taut enough so that it can't be easily lifted. If you have trouble with the turtle and tortises going under the fence, stake the bottom down. Place the stakes about 2 feet apart at maximum. A 12 inch high fence can restrain turtles; 18 inches is enough to discourage small animals.

The fence described above may not be strong enough to stop groundhogs due to their burrowing power and stength. The favorite garden food for a groundhog is sweet peas. One night, one groundhog decimated an entire row of pea vines, He nipped out about a 1.5 inch section of the vine nose high from the ground and did not eat any more of the vine. The rascal went down the row nipping out a small section of each plant. The entire crop was ruined.

Robins will eat strawberries, partial pecking away the fruit.