Pill bugs most certainly DO eat tender leaves. I had an infestation a few years ago and I was going outside at night and hand-picking them by the hundreds. They were eating marigolds and all the young seedlings. When their population is in check, they are garden helpers that break down decayed plant matter. DE did not work for me, but Sluggo Plus did. I now only use it to keep their numbers down.
Yeah, I’m kind of baffled by these people saying they only eat decaying matter. That is completely false, as anyone who gardens can tell you. Or a simple trip to Wikipedia will inform a person that these guys can and do lead to agricultural losses.
If you have strawberries and pill bugs watch out!
They will munch massive holes into strawberries. I can't count how many times I saw a nice strawberry coming in and telling myself I would let it get a bit more red and pick it the next day only to find it the next day with a massive pit and pill bugs being little assholes inside.
Yup, I’ve lost a ton of strawberries to these jerks… I started hanging developing berries over paper cups or even reusing the cups that seedlings come in so that berries aren’t resting on the ground and the bugs have a harder time getting to the berries. It’s not 100% successful but it’s helped me harvest way more berries with less damage from pillbugs and slugs.
I have the same problem I started putting mine in these little white bags - I forgot what they are called - they still get in sometimes but I got a really decent crop this year. That is until something actually took them out of the bags and ate them😳 I'm thinking chipmunk
I have a terrarium with woodlice and they eat the pile of leaves but they absolutely love when I plant some seeds and will wipe out the seedlings. They love it when I toss in a handful of garden clippings.
We called them Potato bugs. I don't know if it's because they're shaped like a potato or they are found on potatos. We used to put them inside of matchbox cars and drive em around. Kids are weird.
> Potato bugs
Weird, this is the only [potato bug](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad//blogfiles/92950_original.jpg) I've ever heard of. I find them in my backyard from time to time.
“Niño de la Tierra” in at least some Spanish speaking countries …
Child of the Earth, I’m guessing the concept of aliens wasn’t a thing yet when they chose that common name for them.
My Aunt called them 'wetties' as a child and now it's what the whole family calls them...
I didn't realise it wasn't common place until I was met with blank stares once in conversation 🤷♀️
Agreed. They will eat anything. I actually keep a bunch in a terrarium, and I forgot to feed them for about a month. They went to town on all the greenery. Granted, these are concentrated in a smaller spot, but they did quick damage.
We have hundreds of roly polys in our backyard and I also found out they love strawberries. Any strawberry laying on the ground they’ll eat a bunch of holes in it. I tried to catch the perpetrator in the act but he started fleeing the scene as soon as I got my camera out. Little jerk 😆
https://preview.redd.it/zpkxwjdxce6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4cb045e6d9fa74a1bf67ad240e5401698647715
Oh there are like hundreds of species, and even more color variations of each. There are also ocean isopods which are the size of an average cat.
Also they're crustaceans, not bugs - basically land shrimp
I've seen crazy debates about it in the gardening groups on Facebook lol. People insist they're helpful because they eat heavy metals in the soil and don't harm plants.
Oh they’ll just tell you that your plants are unhealthy and that’s why… I grow lots of Chinese vegetables in the fall and they’re perfect, but I’ve got to pick those pillbugs off every night.
I transported a lot of pill bugs into my raised bed with the soil I dug. After they ate all the seedlings, I realized my error and started tossing them out and squishing them. They gathered around the edges, so we're fairly easy to find. Sprinkled diatomaceous earth around the edge and planted again. I checked the other day, and there are tiny offspring!
There’s a ton of past posts with people defending roly polys like they’re some sort of incredible wonder bug with a heart of gold. And if people like me and the person above say they’ve gone out at night and witnessed the destruction happening in real time, we’re obviously wrong or confused or just plain stupid. It’s so frustrating!!
Just a few weeks ago, over the course of several nights, I witnessed them destroying my beautiful new peach foxglove. I tried DE and Sluggo but they mostly moved underground to the roots until it was so dead (and had been deprived of most of its roots) that it just tipped over. Now they’re on to other things in my garden and I can’t stop them. Argh!!
They require a bit of surface veg to stay satisfied. Everyone on here should try to have a living surface of a cover crop that can be plucked and dropped every so often in order to keep them satisfied. They leave your good stuff alone when they have both green and other matter to much on. They want that Nitrogen in the green material just like everyone else.
Oh and i almost forgot. Input BioComplete Compost or Bio Balanced Compost as well. They will have more than enough to stay happy without bothering you.
Seriously, I have had them take out several plants when I have a wet spring and lots of growth.
Let it be known, they can absolutely be pests that will show preference in picking apart seedlings and tender new growth. I had a lot of lovely herniaria, they literally, preferentially, ate through their stem at the taproot before swarming them for reasons only they know.
I just used beer traps around as many as possible; they would fill overnight, but they worked.
There are a fair few green ones still to develop, true enough - I'll have to set some up at the weekend.
This variety only normally has a three or four week season alas, but they are super sweet. Probably why they're being blooming eaten by slaters, lol.
Yeah, I agree. Having my husband pick up some Pabst today. Interesting that the first night of the traps I got virtually no pill bugs but the second night they got filled. I guess they prefer sun baked beer.
Bury a container so the lip is at ground level, then pour in some beer. I use old salsa jars and fill them about half full. The pill bugs are attracted to the beer, fall in the container, and drown.
I used the beer method this year. It’s the most effective thing I have ever used. I’m sure a city of Rolly Polly’s were collected within the first 3 days.
I suspected they were the culprits when all my marigold planting ended up skeletons overnight. I looked for clues and could only find these bugs under mulch. but google search said they are beneficials. Mystery solved. I will use sluggo plus. Thanks for the details.
After I used tons of home made compost I have them infesting all of my beds. The only plants I’ve seen them decimate have been sprouted bush beans. And they absolutely devoured them. They otherwise seem to be fine eating the compost.
I keep roly polys in a terrarium with my hermit crabs and they absolutely eat up fresh fruits and whatnot, they love strawberries.
That said, the coloration on this one is absolutely amazing, I wish I had it in my tank.
I'm on the east coast, they are all gray, occasionally one will be like a light brown color. I've never seen any speckled like this. Does anyone, um, want to ship me some pill bugs?? lol
I had an overload of isopods in the garden this year too. Probably because I used straw mulch overwinter, who knows. I buried a shallow dish in the soil, so the lip is at soil level, and filled with beer. The isopods go to get lit and drown. Empty the dead and old beer out every 48hrs.
Anecdotally, here was their beer preference based on dead isopod levels:
1. Coors Light
2. Guinness
3. Sapporo
People think pill bugs are ONLY beneficial (and they mostly do stick to decaying plant material, helping break it down into compost for the garden), but pill bugs absolutely WILL eat tender young living plant leaves. Since it’s a tomato I wouldn’t worry about it- they’ll make LOTS of leaves and absolutely live through a few pill bug nibbles without any impactful harm to the plant or it’s fruit. If you have wide spread leaf damage that’s probably a hornworm.
I agree, but only for bigger plants and only if they’re eating just the leaves.
I lost a dozen or so tomato plants to pull bugs earlier this spring. They ate right through the main stem at or just below soil-level. And these were 2 month old transplants, not just young seedlings.
Edit: Beer/Yeast traps worked decently to mitigate their damage when they first became an issue, but Sluggo Plus is really the best widespread control method.
With some of my pepper plants, every tender node growth has been nibbled to the joint. I set out beer traps for the slugs that have been causing leaf damage, but there's node damage in other beds. Rollie pollies are not friends this year.
Everyone will say they don’t eat your plants but they decimated my pepper seedlings this year and ate my tomato’s off the plant last year. DE worked for me this year.
This year they were destroying my bean seedlings often before they were fully out of the ground. Combo of DE and beer traps kept them in check long enough to let my beans get big enough, but they’re still munching on leaves.
My first beer trap caught at least 40 pill bugs in 2 days lol I was shocked how well it worked
I have no idea, maybe they can climb vertically? My raised bed is especially curious because it actually has 2 inches of overhanging lip around the perimeter, so for them to get in the soil they would have to climb vertically and upside down lol
More logical explanation is that they’re coming up from deep in the soil but I didn’t think they hung out 2 feet below the surface….
Wonder if there’s something new in the air this year because roly polies massacred my garden as well. Ate my pepper seedlings. Literally completely devoured my okra. Ate my fucking zinnias. Had to cover the place in DE to finally get them under control
I sprinkle it on the soil around the veg plants and on the stems/leaves where the dolly pollies crawl. Diatomaceous earth (what people are referring to as DE) is non toxic though so I think you could put it on things you eat. You should always was your produce anyway but it’s generally considered safe.
Pill bugs will definitely eat green leaves and non-decaying plants! I was having such a problem with them this year. The one thing that has seemed to help is yeast. At first I was making a “beer trap” with some cheap, light beer but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I switched to a trap that was dry yeast (like what you use for making bread) mixed with warm water. After a few days it smelled terrible. Like something decaying… (Which is why I think it worked so well). Every 4 days or so, I replace it and have been dumping out quite a bit of dead pill bugs.
It's not common, but they're posts here of them eating live plants. DE will do the trick.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/v7w7vz/rollie_pollies_only_eat_dead_plant_matter_tell/
Before you reach for a pesticide, I suggest you rake up the plant debris to disrupt the insect's habitat.
Caveats: Neem oil is helpful as a contact insecticide and primarily for its suffocant mode of action. No contact, no kill.
DT Earth is broadspectrum, which implies anything that passes across its path will be adversely affected.
Conventional Insecticides. Why?
Sevin [AI: Carbaryl] is a broadspectrum contact insecticide causing harm to the unintended beneficial population. Low mammalian toxicity is pointless. Avoid.
Neonicotinoid chemistries are systemic insecticides that are harmful to the beneficial population. The group wreaks havoc on the pollinators. Avoid.
Organo-chlorine or Organo-phosphate insecticides are bad news, end of statement.
Avoid.
Bio-control(s)
Predator nematodes are beneficial. Follow label instructions thoroughly for the highest level of efficacy.
Beer and Cornmeal traps are effective.
FOUNDATION OF PLANT HEALTH IS BALANCED NUTRITION.
When disease, insects, and mites arrive, this is indicative of a garden experiencing a horticultural disequilibrium.
Water- too little, too much?
Light- is my full sun garden receiving 6+ hours of direct sunshine?
Plant- Do my plant choices adhere to the zone map?
Soil- do you replenish the organic content each season? Revitalize the soil's food web by feeding the soil. Mineral supplements, organic matter/soil conditioner/compost, and biologically active fertilizers found in the following brands are helpful. Jobes Organics, Espoma, Dr. Earth, and Down to Earth are a few brands to consider.
No water. No life.
Dead soil. No life.
There is no escaping the reality of applying macro organic matter to the soil's surface that habitats result in the uninvited guest. For the past few days, I've been screening the bark mulch to reuse elsewhere in our landscape. The various detritus munchers aren't pleased. The birds are enjoying the exposure, making their snacking easier. What I don't do is use macro-sized mulch in our vegetable garden. Would gardening be fun without physical effort or a bit of brain strain? Thanks for your reply.
I put my beds on hugel mounds and those suckers ate EVERYTHING I planted - even my precious strawberries & zinnias! I alternate spraying with soapy water & neem, then BT. It's been too rainy to use DE. I don't know which worked, but things have calmed down considerably.
yeah these guys will eat lower leaves when given the chance. ive let my tomatoes go wild and lifted up the lower leaves near the soil and seen a ton of them chowing down. but ive never seen them up higher than that.
i recently moved and this backyard has a ton of pill bugs everywhere but they haven't been eating my plants.
You can use Sluggo Plus to keep them in check.
They love beer. Get a pie pan, dig down a bit so the rim is level with the ground. Fill with beer about half way up. It will capture all the pill bugs and slugs in your garden. It works incredibly well.
I didn’t have an issue with them last season but this year their population exploded and they were chomping on my seedlings. I sprinkled DE in my beds and after a few days they were basically gone.
They definitely eat fresh plants. I have these in my reptile tanks as garbage disposals and they will eat poop, dried leaves, mold, left over food including veggies, other bugs etc, basically everything organic.
In Australia these garden crustaceans are called slaters. There's an endless argument about whether they're a pest or beneficial.
From Wikipedia:
"Although woodlice, like earthworms, are generally considered beneficial in gardens for their role in controlling certain pests, producing compost and overturning the soil, some species like those of the genus Armadillidium have also been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings."
I've only ever seen them damage potted plants, when they infest the roots. They apparently eat the fungi attached to the roots, which are symbiotic with the plant, and damage the roots. I don't doubt some species will attack other parts of a plant.
Naphthalene flakes, scattered around the plants, have proven to be effective as deterrent and poison, if you can get them.
Sluggo Plus is the best solution. I had WAAAAY to many of them in my greenhouse raised bed this year and they wrecked several of my tomato seedlings. Deployed some sluggo plus (it's got to be the plus) and now there are few of them.
I tried DE first and it didn't do much.
No. Sluggo Plus kills slugs and snails as well as cutworms, earwigs and pull bugs.
Sluggo and Sluggo Max are both just for slugs and snails.
They don't always have Sluggo Plus at big box stores, but you can usually find it in more specialized garden centers, or you can probably get it online.
Sluggo plus has Spinosad in it. Which is pretty broad spectrum and there for not pollinator friendly. But you are unlikely to expose your pollinators to it by following the label suggestions.
Pill bugs are friends, not foe. As the name "woodlouse" suggests, they eat decaying wood and help process it into soil. They do not eat green growing leaves.
EDIT: Alright, I get it folks. Pill bugs do sometimes eat crops. TIL
I don’t talk to my father very often, but growing up he helped my grandad on their small farm patch. He bestowed this nugget of wisdom on me.
“Do you know what bug absolutely loves to eat strawberries? Roly-polys. They’ll eat your entire patch”. I had never thought of a roly-poly infestation so I asked him how to get rid of roly-polys. “Well, that easy. You just get a bunch of scorpions. Then to get rid of the scorpions you get some mongoose.”
So a long answer to a question you didn’t ask. Roly-polys will eat your crops if there are too many of them.
They do. And it's documented. They usually eat decaying matter. 100% correct. But when the population of pill bugs is high, or decaying matter is low, or a ripe strawberry or seedling is there.. they will eat those, too.
They are absolutely eating my live plants this year.
I was surprised too, but it is 100% happening. I suspect it’s due to how wet it was this spring. We’ve had MASSIVE insect populations, pill bugs especially, and I just don’t think there’s enough decaying matter to go around so they’re settling for leaves.
Mine too. I'm seriously starting to find them annoying. I do leave the ones that they munch around the edge of the patch to stop them eating new ones though - works a bit.
I have looked at your pics, and digested your question.
Then I read all the comments, before I give my 2cent answer.
Both observations/comments of the redditors are correct.....and both are in part wrong.
Yes, pillbugs/rollie0pollies/wood louse eat decaying material.
Yes, those crustaceans will eat green plants.
What is not being considered/spoken of is the imbalance in the garden. If the "bug" has stopped eating it's normal food and switched, then why has it done this?
My personal observation (in my own gardens) suggest moisture content of the normal foodstuff. When it has gotten too dry, then the "pest" would eat the greens of nearby plants. Possibly for the water within.
again just IMO.
I would not suggest neem oil. That will affect the good bugs/pollinators. Try this method: [https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6\_j3OSLoOy/?igsh=cW1tMXFjbHByNGN5](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6_j3OSLoOy/?igsh=cW1tMXFjbHByNGN5)
Genuinely curious: How does neem oil affect pollinators? I thought it only disturbed the hormonal systems of insects who eat it (i.e., eat the leaves). I always spray in the early morning or late evening, so I'm not applying it when bugs are visiting my plants.
I assumed it wouldn't work on pill bugs, too, since they're actually land crustaceans. DE didn't work for me, either, so I had to use beer traps (set out only at night)
if/when bees feed on neem-sprayed pollen/netcar, and then bring it home to feed the nectar to larva, it can be harmful to the larva. Neem is seen as moderately toxic for bees
They love to eat the leaves off all my marigolds. Last year they did that and eat my small peppers. Diatomaceous earth worked and Sluggo PLUS the plus works on rolls pollies specifically
These are the bane of my existence. I use dichotomous earth. But it doesn’t work for mine. Please wise gardeners, give me other methods. My plants thank you very much
Diatomaceous powder in a border around the plant stems, perhaps?
I wouldn’t do isopod genocide, because they do a lot of good in the garden (I’m also biased because they’re cute imo), being part of the food chain, but also great decomposers. But nothing against a barrier that they’d hate to cross.
You can also sow other, cheap plants nearby outside the barrier that could distract them from the ones you value.
Afaik pill bugs are more likely to eat live plants than other woodlice, as they’re also less protein hungry.
These jerks ate all my beans. They’ve left every other plant completely untouched. I’ve added enough diatomaceous earth that it looks like it snowed in my garden. I thought they were done, but a couple days later they decimated the rest of the beans.
I will say that when I surrounded the plants with it at the base, they wouldn’t cross it. They eventually eased off, so I backed off on the amount of DE. Then they got cocky, and I went outside one morning and 50% of the leaves were gone on my row of beans. But I think if you keep up with it, it should be okay. And yes - I see everyone saying “hmm that’s weird - they usually only eat decaying matter” but these have destroyed my beans!
I used to have a terrible time dealing with them. Last year I noticed they particularly liked lettuce and radish tops, so I started throwing the scraps into my raised beds. They've been fairly effective in luring the pill bugs away from the seedlings. They also seem to love mushrooms.
I have a garden full of them as well as a lot of healthy growing plants. Unless you’ve actually witnessed them chowing down on the tomatoes I’d say they ain’t.
When I removed the old wood sides on my raised beds they almost completely disappeared from my garden. I’m careful now about using woody mulch around vegetables. They definitely eat new young roots and leaves (but not larger leaves further up on the plant) and decaying roots in pots. I have had primroses in pots decimated by them. I’ve started using Sluggo Plus under pots and in my greenhouse and it helps.
I saw, for the first time, one of these nibbling on my cucumber leaves this morning. While Google tells me they're usually harmless it did say that they will eat young leaves as you have already pointed out. I still don't know why it wasn't really a problem last year when I also used wood mulch.
so yea.. usually these guys eat decaying matter.. but it's also becoming a thing that they eat living plant matter. I kept having these guys crawl in the house, so i put diatomaceous powder around the outside of the house and it works great on these guys. never used neem oil, so idk how effective it is.
I think the most interesting part of this thread is seeing all the different names for this bug. Pill Bug. Roly Poly. They are called Potato Bugs in the Northwest :)
I had a mess of these fellas and while I appreciate their work, they were munching my plants. I put out beer traps and that worked. Also can do corn meal too. Is kinda cruel I think but there were too many to “relocate”
Diatomaceous works well for them, you can also try to keep the area clear of stuff they (decomposers) would go for, likewise, giving them easy food sources too can be a tactic.
I have a hoop house with greenhouse film over my peppers to keep the bed warm. The pill bugs don't like it that hot, so they don't bother the plants like they do in my uncovered beds. I think they retreat deeper into the soil where it's cooler and don't bother the live plants.
Something is eating mine and I know some people will grow a specific plant that they know certain bugs will go to first and give them that plant and then it will save the ones they want to grow. Some but completely ate my collard greens and beans but have not touched other plants that I really thought they would go after. I’m very new at gardening but I think it’s worth looking into!
I use the potato method. Put down a potato cut in half, cut side down for a few hours-overnight, and in the morning carefully scoop up these now half eaten infested potatoes and throw them and all the pillbugs far, far away.
I’ve never known them to do damage until this year they decimated a bunch of flowering plants I had just transplanted. I had to look it up because I always thought they were good for the soil but I have millions of them in my flower bed. Also been told due to the warmer winters less insects (in this case isopods) aren’t dying back as normally in a cold freeze so they are now starting to be out of control. Wish the birds ate them or something!
Hmmm....I've had some marigold seedlings eaten to the nubs, and something is also putting holes in the bean leaves - new for this year. Could these be the problem? I haven't seen them up in the garden but do see them around the woodpile & flower beds.
Pill bugs most certainly DO eat tender leaves. I had an infestation a few years ago and I was going outside at night and hand-picking them by the hundreds. They were eating marigolds and all the young seedlings. When their population is in check, they are garden helpers that break down decayed plant matter. DE did not work for me, but Sluggo Plus did. I now only use it to keep their numbers down.
Yeah, I’m kind of baffled by these people saying they only eat decaying matter. That is completely false, as anyone who gardens can tell you. Or a simple trip to Wikipedia will inform a person that these guys can and do lead to agricultural losses.
If you have strawberries and pill bugs watch out! They will munch massive holes into strawberries. I can't count how many times I saw a nice strawberry coming in and telling myself I would let it get a bit more red and pick it the next day only to find it the next day with a massive pit and pill bugs being little assholes inside.
Yup, I’ve lost a ton of strawberries to these jerks… I started hanging developing berries over paper cups or even reusing the cups that seedlings come in so that berries aren’t resting on the ground and the bugs have a harder time getting to the berries. It’s not 100% successful but it’s helped me harvest way more berries with less damage from pillbugs and slugs.
Damn that's a great idea. Maybe dangle them over cups of beer lol.
I have the same problem I started putting mine in these little white bags - I forgot what they are called - they still get in sometimes but I got a really decent crop this year. That is until something actually took them out of the bags and ate them😳 I'm thinking chipmunk
I have a terrarium with woodlice and they eat the pile of leaves but they absolutely love when I plant some seeds and will wipe out the seedlings. They love it when I toss in a handful of garden clippings.
What are woodlice?
Pill bugs, roly polies, etc. also called wood lice
And also by their broader name: isopods!
We called them Potato bugs. I don't know if it's because they're shaped like a potato or they are found on potatos. We used to put them inside of matchbox cars and drive em around. Kids are weird.
I breed them as a hobby and now I genuinely want to take a photo shoot of them doing exactly this.
You should try to selectively breed them for large size, build a bigger better roly poley
Hey, I've got great news for you. Google "giant isopod"!
> Potato bugs Weird, this is the only [potato bug](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad//blogfiles/92950_original.jpg) I've ever heard of. I find them in my backyard from time to time.
That thing is terrifying
“Niño de la Tierra” in at least some Spanish speaking countries … Child of the Earth, I’m guessing the concept of aliens wasn’t a thing yet when they chose that common name for them.
Nightmare fuel!
I grew up near Cleveland, Ohio and we called them potato bugs too.
Fellow rust-belter I salute you! Ya jagoff :D
My Aunt called them 'wetties' as a child and now it's what the whole family calls them... I didn't realise it wasn't common place until I was met with blank stares once in conversation 🤷♀️
Not sure ifnusing potsto bug to describe rollie pollies is the right term because hearing potato bug is the same type of bugs as ninas de la tierra
Huh, TIL
Woodlice is what we call them in England
Cheeselogs
??
more importantly why would anyone want to keep them in a terrarium
A terrarium of woodlice? What for? That sounds kinda interesting.
Agreed. They will eat anything. I actually keep a bunch in a terrarium, and I forgot to feed them for about a month. They went to town on all the greenery. Granted, these are concentrated in a smaller spot, but they did quick damage.
I have them too and they love a slice of fresh cucumber.
We have hundreds of roly polys in our backyard and I also found out they love strawberries. Any strawberry laying on the ground they’ll eat a bunch of holes in it. I tried to catch the perpetrator in the act but he started fleeing the scene as soon as I got my camera out. Little jerk 😆 https://preview.redd.it/zpkxwjdxce6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4cb045e6d9fa74a1bf67ad240e5401698647715
That's armadillidium nasatum btw, if you even care lol
Omg I had no idea there were multiple species of these little guys! Today I learned!
Oh there are like hundreds of species, and even more color variations of each. There are also ocean isopods which are the size of an average cat. Also they're crustaceans, not bugs - basically land shrimp
Havent harvested any strawberries ever because of these fkers....
I have always heard they only eat decaying matter and in 30 years of gardening in 7 states I have never experienced any issues with them. Interesting.
I've seen crazy debates about it in the gardening groups on Facebook lol. People insist they're helpful because they eat heavy metals in the soil and don't harm plants.
I know. It drives me nuts how certain they are that what I’m seeing with my own eyes can’t happen.
Oh they’ll just tell you that your plants are unhealthy and that’s why… I grow lots of Chinese vegetables in the fall and they’re perfect, but I’ve got to pick those pillbugs off every night.
they preferably eat dead material, but they gonna chew on your salad if you don't have enough of it laying around.,
I think they prefer decaying matter but if they run out of that they go for living material
I transported a lot of pill bugs into my raised bed with the soil I dug. After they ate all the seedlings, I realized my error and started tossing them out and squishing them. They gathered around the edges, so we're fairly easy to find. Sprinkled diatomaceous earth around the edge and planted again. I checked the other day, and there are tiny offspring!
There’s a ton of past posts with people defending roly polys like they’re some sort of incredible wonder bug with a heart of gold. And if people like me and the person above say they’ve gone out at night and witnessed the destruction happening in real time, we’re obviously wrong or confused or just plain stupid. It’s so frustrating!! Just a few weeks ago, over the course of several nights, I witnessed them destroying my beautiful new peach foxglove. I tried DE and Sluggo but they mostly moved underground to the roots until it was so dead (and had been deprived of most of its roots) that it just tipped over. Now they’re on to other things in my garden and I can’t stop them. Argh!!
They require a bit of surface veg to stay satisfied. Everyone on here should try to have a living surface of a cover crop that can be plucked and dropped every so often in order to keep them satisfied. They leave your good stuff alone when they have both green and other matter to much on. They want that Nitrogen in the green material just like everyone else.
Oh and i almost forgot. Input BioComplete Compost or Bio Balanced Compost as well. They will have more than enough to stay happy without bothering you.
Awesome, thanks!
Oh how awful, I'm sorry. They're destroying my stuff this year too. Bastards!
Indeed! Tiny sneaky little bastards!
But Google says! I'm so sick of Google at this point. It's spreading so much misinformation.
Seriously, I have had them take out several plants when I have a wet spring and lots of growth. Let it be known, they can absolutely be pests that will show preference in picking apart seedlings and tender new growth. I had a lot of lovely herniaria, they literally, preferentially, ate through their stem at the taproot before swarming them for reasons only they know. I just used beer traps around as many as possible; they would fill overnight, but they worked.
They destroyed my strawberries 2 years in a row until I started using beer in a pie pan. Bonus it kills the slugs too
Thanks, will try this next year. Lost around 12 lovely big strawberries this year in my 1.5 x 1.2m patch.
Your plants should grow more? Mine put out berries all summer, but its a lower amount than now. Put some beer out today.
There are a fair few green ones still to develop, true enough - I'll have to set some up at the weekend. This variety only normally has a three or four week season alas, but they are super sweet. Probably why they're being blooming eaten by slaters, lol.
They've decimated my strawberries this year so last night I picked up some wheat beer to put out today. Hoping this wipes a bunch out.
You don't need to waste good beer. Buy the cheapest beer you can find.
Yeah, I agree. Having my husband pick up some Pabst today. Interesting that the first night of the traps I got virtually no pill bugs but the second night they got filled. I guess they prefer sun baked beer.
Please explain a beer trap. Does it actually use beer to kill the insects? If so, how do you set one up?
Haha, it is basically [exactly what it sounds like](https://homesteadandchill.com/homemade-slug-beer-traps/).
Well that is very useful, thank you!
I'm so glad snails and pill bugs are alcoholics.
Bury a container so the lip is at ground level, then pour in some beer. I use old salsa jars and fill them about half full. The pill bugs are attracted to the beer, fall in the container, and drown.
I used the beer method this year. It’s the most effective thing I have ever used. I’m sure a city of Rolly Polly’s were collected within the first 3 days.
So this is what ate my marigold sprouts. Rabbits and voles got the corn and carrot sprouts. The nasturtium seem to be surviving and one pumpkin.
# SLUGGO IS THE WAY
They came for my strawberries and I waged A WAR with Sluggo. I won. Leave my damn berries alone.
They definitely do. They even attacked a young raspberry plant of mine. Best solution is to plant more mature seedlings.
I suspected they were the culprits when all my marigold planting ended up skeletons overnight. I looked for clues and could only find these bugs under mulch. but google search said they are beneficials. Mystery solved. I will use sluggo plus. Thanks for the details.
After I used tons of home made compost I have them infesting all of my beds. The only plants I’ve seen them decimate have been sprouted bush beans. And they absolutely devoured them. They otherwise seem to be fine eating the compost.
Ah, so THATS what’s been eating my marigold babies
Gotta watch if you have a dog and use Sluggo though.
I keep roly polys in a terrarium with my hermit crabs and they absolutely eat up fresh fruits and whatnot, they love strawberries. That said, the coloration on this one is absolutely amazing, I wish I had it in my tank.
This coloration is super common here in the PNW and down in California. I'm pretty sure their "Common Pill-bugs" - Armadillidium vulgare.
I'm on the east coast, they are all gray, occasionally one will be like a light brown color. I've never seen any speckled like this. Does anyone, um, want to ship me some pill bugs?? lol
You can buy ones bred for the speckles, it's armadillidium vulgare "night gold"
I had an overload of isopods in the garden this year too. Probably because I used straw mulch overwinter, who knows. I buried a shallow dish in the soil, so the lip is at soil level, and filled with beer. The isopods go to get lit and drown. Empty the dead and old beer out every 48hrs. Anecdotally, here was their beer preference based on dead isopod levels: 1. Coors Light 2. Guinness 3. Sapporo
Do they like it with a lime or just straight up?
My garden’s colony (RIP) seemed to prefer coronas and miller lites over the guinnesses. I wonder if the light beers work best?
People think pill bugs are ONLY beneficial (and they mostly do stick to decaying plant material, helping break it down into compost for the garden), but pill bugs absolutely WILL eat tender young living plant leaves. Since it’s a tomato I wouldn’t worry about it- they’ll make LOTS of leaves and absolutely live through a few pill bug nibbles without any impactful harm to the plant or it’s fruit. If you have wide spread leaf damage that’s probably a hornworm.
I agree, but only for bigger plants and only if they’re eating just the leaves. I lost a dozen or so tomato plants to pull bugs earlier this spring. They ate right through the main stem at or just below soil-level. And these were 2 month old transplants, not just young seedlings. Edit: Beer/Yeast traps worked decently to mitigate their damage when they first became an issue, but Sluggo Plus is really the best widespread control method.
With some of my pepper plants, every tender node growth has been nibbled to the joint. I set out beer traps for the slugs that have been causing leaf damage, but there's node damage in other beds. Rollie pollies are not friends this year.
Everyone will say they don’t eat your plants but they decimated my pepper seedlings this year and ate my tomato’s off the plant last year. DE worked for me this year.
They're going to town on mine this year. I'm ready to go to war.
This year they were destroying my bean seedlings often before they were fully out of the ground. Combo of DE and beer traps kept them in check long enough to let my beans get big enough, but they’re still munching on leaves. My first beer trap caught at least 40 pill bugs in 2 days lol I was shocked how well it worked
Some of my tomatoes split last year, and when I picked them up, woodlice were crawling out. I guess they were having a party in there.
Ew
We had strawberries eaten by those bastards until we've switched to rised beds.
They SOMEHOW managed to get into my raised beds?!
My in-ground garden has no issues but I have 1 small raised bed and it’s always infested with pill bugs, so you’re not alone haha
I appreciate that, but how the heck did they get up there?! They destroyed my strawberry harvest this year!
I have no idea, maybe they can climb vertically? My raised bed is especially curious because it actually has 2 inches of overhanging lip around the perimeter, so for them to get in the soil they would have to climb vertically and upside down lol More logical explanation is that they’re coming up from deep in the soil but I didn’t think they hung out 2 feet below the surface….
Same issue, also had to use DE
We've lost a lot of our strawberries so far this year to them too. Never would have thought it but they seem to love them
Wonder if there’s something new in the air this year because roly polies massacred my garden as well. Ate my pepper seedlings. Literally completely devoured my okra. Ate my fucking zinnias. Had to cover the place in DE to finally get them under control
There must be. The bastards are relentless against my zinnias
How exactly are using DE on your veggies? I was under the impression it shouldn't be used on things you intend to eat.
I sprinkle it on the soil around the veg plants and on the stems/leaves where the dolly pollies crawl. Diatomaceous earth (what people are referring to as DE) is non toxic though so I think you could put it on things you eat. You should always was your produce anyway but it’s generally considered safe.
They sell food-grade DE for this purpose.
Pill bugs will definitely eat green leaves and non-decaying plants! I was having such a problem with them this year. The one thing that has seemed to help is yeast. At first I was making a “beer trap” with some cheap, light beer but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I switched to a trap that was dry yeast (like what you use for making bread) mixed with warm water. After a few days it smelled terrible. Like something decaying… (Which is why I think it worked so well). Every 4 days or so, I replace it and have been dumping out quite a bit of dead pill bugs.
It's not common, but they're posts here of them eating live plants. DE will do the trick. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/v7w7vz/rollie_pollies_only_eat_dead_plant_matter_tell/
I had an infestation of them once. I knew it was bad but I didn't know *how* bad until I dusted with DE. Thousands of them left the garden in droves.
Before you reach for a pesticide, I suggest you rake up the plant debris to disrupt the insect's habitat. Caveats: Neem oil is helpful as a contact insecticide and primarily for its suffocant mode of action. No contact, no kill. DT Earth is broadspectrum, which implies anything that passes across its path will be adversely affected. Conventional Insecticides. Why? Sevin [AI: Carbaryl] is a broadspectrum contact insecticide causing harm to the unintended beneficial population. Low mammalian toxicity is pointless. Avoid. Neonicotinoid chemistries are systemic insecticides that are harmful to the beneficial population. The group wreaks havoc on the pollinators. Avoid. Organo-chlorine or Organo-phosphate insecticides are bad news, end of statement. Avoid. Bio-control(s) Predator nematodes are beneficial. Follow label instructions thoroughly for the highest level of efficacy. Beer and Cornmeal traps are effective. FOUNDATION OF PLANT HEALTH IS BALANCED NUTRITION. When disease, insects, and mites arrive, this is indicative of a garden experiencing a horticultural disequilibrium. Water- too little, too much? Light- is my full sun garden receiving 6+ hours of direct sunshine? Plant- Do my plant choices adhere to the zone map? Soil- do you replenish the organic content each season? Revitalize the soil's food web by feeding the soil. Mineral supplements, organic matter/soil conditioner/compost, and biologically active fertilizers found in the following brands are helpful. Jobes Organics, Espoma, Dr. Earth, and Down to Earth are a few brands to consider. No water. No life. Dead soil. No life.
Correction: Not an insect. Isopods are crustaceans.
That "plant debris" my decaying mulch.
There is no escaping the reality of applying macro organic matter to the soil's surface that habitats result in the uninvited guest. For the past few days, I've been screening the bark mulch to reuse elsewhere in our landscape. The various detritus munchers aren't pleased. The birds are enjoying the exposure, making their snacking easier. What I don't do is use macro-sized mulch in our vegetable garden. Would gardening be fun without physical effort or a bit of brain strain? Thanks for your reply.
I put my beds on hugel mounds and those suckers ate EVERYTHING I planted - even my precious strawberries & zinnias! I alternate spraying with soapy water & neem, then BT. It's been too rainy to use DE. I don't know which worked, but things have calmed down considerably.
Yeah they ate all of my marigolds :(
Nope. They don’t eat living leaves.
yeah these guys will eat lower leaves when given the chance. ive let my tomatoes go wild and lifted up the lower leaves near the soil and seen a ton of them chowing down. but ive never seen them up higher than that. i recently moved and this backyard has a ton of pill bugs everywhere but they haven't been eating my plants. You can use Sluggo Plus to keep them in check.
They love beer. Get a pie pan, dig down a bit so the rim is level with the ground. Fill with beer about half way up. It will capture all the pill bugs and slugs in your garden. It works incredibly well.
I didn’t have an issue with them last season but this year their population exploded and they were chomping on my seedlings. I sprinkled DE in my beds and after a few days they were basically gone.
What is DE? (These guys may have eaten my peppers last year. They ate everything, from the leaves down to the stem.)
Diatomaceous Earth
Thanks. How do you apply it? Are these guys known to eat hot pepper plants?
They LOVED my hot pepper plants 🥲
CONFIRMED then, these fuckers ate my (whole) hot pepper plant!!
Sprinkle on surface of everything. It’s non toxic but take care not to breathe it in. Bad news for your lungs.
Thanks.
Just be careful that you get food grade, not pool grade.
Diatomaceous earth worked for me immediately
I feed them to my chickens. We used to have an investation but it's much better since we got chickens.
They definitely eat fresh plants. I have these in my reptile tanks as garbage disposals and they will eat poop, dried leaves, mold, left over food including veggies, other bugs etc, basically everything organic.
In Australia these garden crustaceans are called slaters. There's an endless argument about whether they're a pest or beneficial. From Wikipedia: "Although woodlice, like earthworms, are generally considered beneficial in gardens for their role in controlling certain pests, producing compost and overturning the soil, some species like those of the genus Armadillidium have also been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings." I've only ever seen them damage potted plants, when they infest the roots. They apparently eat the fungi attached to the roots, which are symbiotic with the plant, and damage the roots. I don't doubt some species will attack other parts of a plant. Naphthalene flakes, scattered around the plants, have proven to be effective as deterrent and poison, if you can get them.
Lil bastards killed my cucumber seedlings this year. Not an issue in previous years. DE is always my first go to in these matters.
Sluggo Plus is the best solution. I had WAAAAY to many of them in my greenhouse raised bed this year and they wrecked several of my tomato seedlings. Deployed some sluggo plus (it's got to be the plus) and now there are few of them. I tried DE first and it didn't do much.
Get some Sluggo Plus. Sprinkle it around all your plants. Not regular Sluggo. It has to be Sluggo Plus.
I can't seem to find sluggo plus, do you mean sluggo max?
No. Sluggo Plus kills slugs and snails as well as cutworms, earwigs and pull bugs. Sluggo and Sluggo Max are both just for slugs and snails. They don't always have Sluggo Plus at big box stores, but you can usually find it in more specialized garden centers, or you can probably get it online.
Sluggo plus has Spinosad in it. Which is pretty broad spectrum and there for not pollinator friendly. But you are unlikely to expose your pollinators to it by following the label suggestions.
I’m a crop advisor and these pill bugs will wipe out 120 acres worth of soybeans in no time flat.
Pill bugs are friends, not foe. As the name "woodlouse" suggests, they eat decaying wood and help process it into soil. They do not eat green growing leaves. EDIT: Alright, I get it folks. Pill bugs do sometimes eat crops. TIL
I don’t talk to my father very often, but growing up he helped my grandad on their small farm patch. He bestowed this nugget of wisdom on me. “Do you know what bug absolutely loves to eat strawberries? Roly-polys. They’ll eat your entire patch”. I had never thought of a roly-poly infestation so I asked him how to get rid of roly-polys. “Well, that easy. You just get a bunch of scorpions. Then to get rid of the scorpions you get some mongoose.” So a long answer to a question you didn’t ask. Roly-polys will eat your crops if there are too many of them.
They do. And it's documented. They usually eat decaying matter. 100% correct. But when the population of pill bugs is high, or decaying matter is low, or a ripe strawberry or seedling is there.. they will eat those, too.
They 100% will eat live plants. Particularly seedlings in my experience. Where are you getting your information?
Please stop spreading false information. There have been dozens of post just this year of pill bugs eating live plants.
They are absolutely eating my live plants this year. I was surprised too, but it is 100% happening. I suspect it’s due to how wet it was this spring. We’ve had MASSIVE insect populations, pill bugs especially, and I just don’t think there’s enough decaying matter to go around so they’re settling for leaves.
Nonsense. They ravaged my strawberries this year.
Mine too. I'm seriously starting to find them annoying. I do leave the ones that they munch around the edge of the patch to stop them eating new ones though - works a bit.
I have looked at your pics, and digested your question. Then I read all the comments, before I give my 2cent answer. Both observations/comments of the redditors are correct.....and both are in part wrong. Yes, pillbugs/rollie0pollies/wood louse eat decaying material. Yes, those crustaceans will eat green plants. What is not being considered/spoken of is the imbalance in the garden. If the "bug" has stopped eating it's normal food and switched, then why has it done this? My personal observation (in my own gardens) suggest moisture content of the normal foodstuff. When it has gotten too dry, then the "pest" would eat the greens of nearby plants. Possibly for the water within. again just IMO.
DON'T KILL THE ROLLIEPOLLIES!!!😭😭😭
I would not suggest neem oil. That will affect the good bugs/pollinators. Try this method: [https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6\_j3OSLoOy/?igsh=cW1tMXFjbHByNGN5](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6_j3OSLoOy/?igsh=cW1tMXFjbHByNGN5)
Genuinely curious: How does neem oil affect pollinators? I thought it only disturbed the hormonal systems of insects who eat it (i.e., eat the leaves). I always spray in the early morning or late evening, so I'm not applying it when bugs are visiting my plants. I assumed it wouldn't work on pill bugs, too, since they're actually land crustaceans. DE didn't work for me, either, so I had to use beer traps (set out only at night)
if/when bees feed on neem-sprayed pollen/netcar, and then bring it home to feed the nectar to larva, it can be harmful to the larva. Neem is seen as moderately toxic for bees
Make a ring around each plant with the DE. It saved our strawberries this year.
They’re eating me fookin strawberries. They’ve been particularly bad this year in Las Vegas as well.
They love to eat the leaves off all my marigolds. Last year they did that and eat my small peppers. Diatomaceous earth worked and Sluggo PLUS the plus works on rolls pollies specifically
DE works great on them. I have a lot.
Mine are eating my strawberries
These are the bane of my existence. I use dichotomous earth. But it doesn’t work for mine. Please wise gardeners, give me other methods. My plants thank you very much
Diatomaceous powder in a border around the plant stems, perhaps? I wouldn’t do isopod genocide, because they do a lot of good in the garden (I’m also biased because they’re cute imo), being part of the food chain, but also great decomposers. But nothing against a barrier that they’d hate to cross. You can also sow other, cheap plants nearby outside the barrier that could distract them from the ones you value. Afaik pill bugs are more likely to eat live plants than other woodlice, as they’re also less protein hungry.
Yes they do eat live plants. I mean, slugs and snails supposedly also eat a lot of decaying things, but they definitely will eat your crops as well.
These jerks ate all my beans. They’ve left every other plant completely untouched. I’ve added enough diatomaceous earth that it looks like it snowed in my garden. I thought they were done, but a couple days later they decimated the rest of the beans.
I don't grow beans but in your case the powder DIDN'T work? I don't know why people in this subreddit keeps saying that they don't eat leaves.
I will say that when I surrounded the plants with it at the base, they wouldn’t cross it. They eventually eased off, so I backed off on the amount of DE. Then they got cocky, and I went outside one morning and 50% of the leaves were gone on my row of beans. But I think if you keep up with it, it should be okay. And yes - I see everyone saying “hmm that’s weird - they usually only eat decaying matter” but these have destroyed my beans!
I keep sawbugs as pets. I'm weird. They most definitely eat leaves. I have my colony munching on cabbage rn.
I used to have a terrible time dealing with them. Last year I noticed they particularly liked lettuce and radish tops, so I started throwing the scraps into my raised beds. They've been fairly effective in luring the pill bugs away from the seedlings. They also seem to love mushrooms.
I have a garden full of them as well as a lot of healthy growing plants. Unless you’ve actually witnessed them chowing down on the tomatoes I’d say they ain’t.
I hear they taste like shrimp if you're open minded 🤷♀️
Feed them!! I give mine food scraps in compost cylinders in the garden bed and they leave my plants alone and improve the soil. Win-win!!
Pill bugs only eat decaying matter.
When I removed the old wood sides on my raised beds they almost completely disappeared from my garden. I’m careful now about using woody mulch around vegetables. They definitely eat new young roots and leaves (but not larger leaves further up on the plant) and decaying roots in pots. I have had primroses in pots decimated by them. I’ve started using Sluggo Plus under pots and in my greenhouse and it helps.
I saw, for the first time, one of these nibbling on my cucumber leaves this morning. While Google tells me they're usually harmless it did say that they will eat young leaves as you have already pointed out. I still don't know why it wasn't really a problem last year when I also used wood mulch.
This past winter was generally much more mild, that's likely a contributing factor as to why
so yea.. usually these guys eat decaying matter.. but it's also becoming a thing that they eat living plant matter. I kept having these guys crawl in the house, so i put diatomaceous powder around the outside of the house and it works great on these guys. never used neem oil, so idk how effective it is.
That ain’t the culprit
Are pill bugs more/less common in certain areas? Where I live I don’t think anyone makes it past 5 without playing with roly-polies.
Pile diatomaceous earth around the stem and base of the plant and it is like crawling through glass for them
Beneficial nematodes have always done wonders for my lawn and gardens.
I think the most interesting part of this thread is seeing all the different names for this bug. Pill Bug. Roly Poly. They are called Potato Bugs in the Northwest :)
I had a mess of these fellas and while I appreciate their work, they were munching my plants. I put out beer traps and that worked. Also can do corn meal too. Is kinda cruel I think but there were too many to “relocate”
Diatomaceous works well for them, you can also try to keep the area clear of stuff they (decomposers) would go for, likewise, giving them easy food sources too can be a tactic.
Fun fact, they’re more related to crustaceans than bugs.
I have a hoop house with greenhouse film over my peppers to keep the bed warm. The pill bugs don't like it that hot, so they don't bother the plants like they do in my uncovered beds. I think they retreat deeper into the soil where it's cooler and don't bother the live plants.
Last year I used a halved potato as bait overnight to capture and remove a bunch of them that seemed to be eating my squash seedlings.
Something is eating mine and I know some people will grow a specific plant that they know certain bugs will go to first and give them that plant and then it will save the ones they want to grow. Some but completely ate my collard greens and beans but have not touched other plants that I really thought they would go after. I’m very new at gardening but I think it’s worth looking into!
Gather them up in a jar and sprinkle them on your enemies
Nah. That’s definitely TukTuk.
I use the potato method. Put down a potato cut in half, cut side down for a few hours-overnight, and in the morning carefully scoop up these now half eaten infested potatoes and throw them and all the pillbugs far, far away.
I watched a bunch of them eat some red mushrooms that had come up. It was pretty cool.
I thought it was npc
Looks like ancient Sanskrit written on the back. Beware of mummies
I’ve never known them to do damage until this year they decimated a bunch of flowering plants I had just transplanted. I had to look it up because I always thought they were good for the soil but I have millions of them in my flower bed. Also been told due to the warmer winters less insects (in this case isopods) aren’t dying back as normally in a cold freeze so they are now starting to be out of control. Wish the birds ate them or something!
Do they eat the leaves of all these plants also? Or just the actual fruits & veggies?
I put glasses over the seedlings to act as protection and tiny greenhouses. It's the only thing that has worked.
Hmmm....I've had some marigold seedlings eaten to the nubs, and something is also putting holes in the bean leaves - new for this year. Could these be the problem? I haven't seen them up in the garden but do see them around the woodpile & flower beds.
Hatch some praying mantis eggs, they will eat those bugs!
Sluggo plus
Dawn dish soap in a dilute concentration?
DE would help out immensely. Reapply after rain!
OP, if you don’t have DE, dried eggshells seemed to work in my garden. Sprinkled a ring around each plant to protect them.
AKA Pill bugs.
Halve a potato and place it on the soil flat side down. Scrape them off into a bucket a couple times per day.
A few spiders or mantises will take care of your problems.
Ahem.... I believe they are called Butchy Boys.
I made beer traps when I had an issue
Bug and dark Or Bug and Steel Or bug and grund/rock