Pill Bugs!!!!!!!

I had a few pill bugs last year but now I have a ton. Put the same stuff down I had last year but after two applications they are still destroying my plants.

Understand they are in the compost I made but how does everyone else deal with them?

Wow, are they actually eating the live plants instead of the compost.......... hmm... don't know what to tell you except here are a few ideas.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/sowbugs.html

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pests/msg0317250319323.html

Sluggo Plus.

Yes they got my peppers that were low to the ground and even bottom leaves on my toms. I will keep putting the dia earth on but they are rampant in compost so how do you get rid of them PRIOR to putting compost in my SFG.

It ate my beans as they grew from seed last year but they are rampant throughout the garden and eating everything but the beets. Go figure but they are driving me nuts!!!

I second the Sluggo PLUS, make sure you get the PLUS ...the regular is just for slugs/snails. I used it and it worked very well. I had earwigs and sow bugs galore, chopping down my plants at night like crazy. It's supposed to be organic and then turn to fertilizer or something. All I know is, it works! People say they only eat dead material, but they chowed down on my plants like crazy. Good luck!!

I placed some wide cans around my plants that were being eaten.
Pushed them into the ground and plants are flourishing now.
Never saw what was doing the damage, however I'm sure they were these sow bugs
Now all my plants will have these, also creates a pool for watering

jimmy cee wrote:I placed some wide cans around my plants that were being eaten.
Pushed them into the ground and plants are flourishing now.
Never saw what was doing the damage, however I'm sure they were these sow bugs
Now all my plants will have these, also creates a pool for watering

Love this idea!

If you don't have any metal cans, try making your own out of "metal coil" that is available at Home Depot, etc. The metal coil I'm referring is thin metal sheeting on a roll, in various inch widths. Cut a length and secure the overlapped ends with silver metal tape. I think I will try this as hunting the sow bugs, snails/slugs, and other "bugs" at night with a flashlight is getting old!

I think Sluggo Plus is not pet friendly. Am I wrong?

Like ants and slugs, pill bugs are attracted to cornmeal and are all killed by iron phosphate (in Sluggo) and Ferrous Sulfate (OTC supplement). Since I have an abundance of all of these bugs ravaging my garden this year, I am experimenting w/ homemade Sluggo Plus (cornmeal, crushed iron tabs, DE) in jars (laid sideways to protect from rain) around the garden. This bait should work in 3 ways:
1) Ants carry cornmeal back to the colony and can't digest it...should kill off the whole colony in 1-2wks. There is conflicting info on if slugs can digest cornmeal or not, but they sure do like the stuff!
2) Iron causes slugs/snails to immediately stop feeding and crawl into the ground to die.
3) DE assures a quicker death and also death to any other insects that may happen upon this trap.

I find that the pill bugs are mostly chewing away at my decaying top hat carrot boxes, but they have become so numerous that I have caught them eating away at my seedlings too. Happy hunting!

Sluggo Plus is supposed to be pet-friendly.

I checked the toxicity to people and pets and it is low toxicity. I didn't see the "Pet Friendly" words on the container but I will check again. I would like to use it. Thanks

here is a link to the fact sheet about Sluggo Plus

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/d0/d063b075-127b-4d82-b8b1-3660f114e29d.pdf

Is Sluggo Plus a liquid or a dust product? Also I will have to check and see if they have it at Lowes.

It just rained and didn't see that many pill bugs so maybe the DE is doing some good. I checked on ehow.com about pill bugs and they say NOT to put compost in your garden!! That is the backbone of SFGing.......

floyd1440 wrote:Is Sluggo Plus a liquid or a dust product? Also I will have to check and see if they have it at Lowes.

It just rained and didn't see that many pill bugs so maybe the DE is doing some good. I checked on ehow.com about pill bugs and they say NOT to put compost in your garden!! That is the backbone of SFGing.......

The sluggo plus is tiny pellets. My compost pile is literally CRAWLING with pill bugs. There are thousands of them. I'm hoping when we screen it, they'll be screened out. I guess they're part of the composting cycle, but holy cow, there are lots!!

Southern Gardener - thank you for the fact sheet link.

Hey Southern Gardener

My compost pile is teeming with pills bugs too. From the research I have done they LOVE decomposing material and help the composting process, but I could do with out them.

Last fall I screened my compost and put most on top of my garden for the winter. I had some left over so I put it in planters and had basil and chives over the winter. Saw a few pill bus but not many. All I can guess is they layer eggs and then multiplied over the winter of spring.

So what do composters do with their finished compost in the fall???

I screen the compost through 1/2" hardware cloth and store it in large yellow kitty litter containers all stacked up in the garage. As I open them up now they are loaded with worm cocoons and the bottom has fat worms in it.

floyd1440 wrote:
So what do composters do with their finished compost in the fall???

I usually don't have any finished compost left by end of fall. If there is any, it would probably go into the SFG's and/or the perennial gardens. By late winter/early spring, my new pile is about finished and ready to use.

CC

I went to Home Depot and looked for Sluggo in two places, no luck. They did have a product, from Bonnie, that is a granule and works for 4 weeks so I purchased it.

Sprinkled it on my squares and hope for the best. Good news as after 2 applications of DE I only saw pill bugs in the ones I had beets planted.

Now I put the granules on EVERY square......

Dear Southern gardener and Donna in zone 10,

I bought some Sluggo Plus and set a little tray or two of it in each frame. The trays are yogurt cups trimmed down to 1/4" high and counter-sunk in the MM. Sprinkled some along the foot of each frame, facing the neighbors' fence lines. Sprinkled along their fence lines. Cleaned up all the fallen leaves and rose petals. Result? Dead snails and slugs. Greatly reduced number of earwigs and roly polies! My nightly patrols are now boring! And, some of my ravaged seedlings are reviving.

Thank you so much for recommending the product and the product fact sheet.

sanderson wrote:Dear Southern gardener and Donna in zone 10,

I bought some Sluggo Plus and set a little tray or two of it in each frame. The trays are yogurt cups trimmed down to 1/4" high and counter-sunk in the MM. Sprinkled some along the foot of each frame, facing the neighbors' fence lines. Sprinkled along their fence lines. Cleaned up all the fallen leaves and rose petals. Result? Dead snails and slugs. Greatly reduced number of earwigs and roly polies! My nightly patrols are now boring! And, some of my ravaged seedlings are reviving.

Thank you so much for recommending the product and the product fact sheet.

Glad it worked for you! I had the same results. I found after a couple of applications, I didn't need to use it as much. Happy Gardening

Still cannot find Sluggo at HD or Lowes. Will be travelling to Ohio to visit and look out west for some......

It is granular stuff????

floyd1440 wrote:Still cannot find Sluggo at HD or Lowes. Will be travelling to Ohio to visit and look out west for some......

It is granular stuff????

Do you have an ACE hardware nearby? They may have it.

Just a thought. I checked the website below for California for some products and I noticed that there were sites for Oregon and Washington. Just checked and I couldn't find Sluggo on the approved list for Washington. Maybe the product is pending approval.

www.aapfco.htm

floyd1440 wrote:Still cannot find Sluggo at HD or Lowes. Will be travelling to Ohio to visit and look out west for some......

It is granular stuff????

Sluggo Plus is available online from HD in several sizes.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Monterey-1-lb-Sluggo-Plus-LG6575/202043634#.UZbZMaJO-8A