Woodlice

[duajones]

Roly Poly or pill bugs, whatever you want to call them. I have a friend that gardens every year and always complains about them messing with his plants especially squash. Since I have never had the slightest problem, I thought maybe he was exxagerating. Until I went by the yesterday, he has in infestation. Any ideas on how to get rid of them organically?

[Blueaussi]

Here's a page from Planet Natural that has some suggestions.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xd...g-control.html

[stormymater]

I thought rolly polies (sic? LOL) were benign detritus munchers - is that wrong?

Blueaussi - your friend's pic is beautiful! Reminds me very much of our first Aussie, Althea. She was a little blue merle from working Los Rocosa working stock - got her back in the dark ages (1983) when we lived in Montana. She was a wonderful friend & intuitive worker. That was waay before the AKC "discovered" the breed... sigh.

[feldon30]

They can be benign, but they can also eat foliage.

[robin303]

I have millions of them. They only killed about 4 plants that were so small I should have not planted anyway. About 10 years ago I used Seven Dust and it killed them and nothing else. I leave them alone nowdays.

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by stormymater

Blueaussi - your friend's pic is beautiful! Reminds me very much of our first Aussie, Althea. She was a little blue merle from working Los Rocosa working stock - got her back in the dark ages (1983) when we lived in Montana. She was a wonderful friend & intuitive worker. That was waay before the AKC "discovered" the breed... sigh.

Thank you! Abigail is my rescue girl, she was supposed to be a puppy-making machine; but came to herd cats at my house instead. I know what you mean about the AKC, it seems all the Aussies at shows now are these huge hair bears, not the nimble smart alecks I fell in love with back in the 80's.

And to keep it on subject, pill bugs and sow bugs are usually harmless, but in high populations they will chew on the stems of plants, especially soft stemmed plants.

[dice]

I have had pill bugs eating the growing tips of newly sprouted
seedlings this spring. I have quite a few with no main stem that
are growing from side shoots already, and they made a dent in
the backup seedlings, too.

I considered putting some wilted lettuce around to see if they
would eat that instead, as they prefer dead, decaying
vegetation to live plants, but my seedlings are mostly too big
for them to mess with now.