Re: Pill Bugs!!!!!!!

Windmere 3/28/2016, 11:50 am

jimmy cee wrote:I stopped using everything as of now, will I change ?...maybe, however, The microbe book explains how it all works together for the good of the soil food web..., Even snails / slugs are claimed to be beneficial, as they burrow,along with slime they leave behind as they trail along...burrows they leave allow oxygen and moisture to flow through helping bacteria, fungi and many others.
I've changed my mind / tactics after reading what real organic growing is about.

Jimmy, I ordered this book from my library, but when it came it, I had too much going on to pick it up. You just reminded me to reorder it (which I just did). My wife and daughter HATE whenever I kill any bug at all. I draw the line at hornworms though.

Kathy Gizzi 3/28/2016, 12:24 pm

Found ONE pill bug today after 2 days of rain. He's the first one I've ever even seen! I'm assuming he is what caused the damage to my cabbage and spinach. I won't tolerate these little jerks ruining my hard work-headed out to find SP now!!

Does this look like pill bug damage to you? Please explain further the laying a jar sideways idea.

landarch 3/28/2016, 1:35 pm

I find pillbugs (rolley polleys) do more damage to stems than leaves. Last year my pill bugs ate and scarred the base of all my cucumber vines (I saw hundreds on the vines when checked at night or early before the sun came up).

I noticed one pill bug in a tray of new pepper seedlings...and sure enough, damage from eating around the stem and up a few inches...it was smashed on sight and left for fertilizer.

**sanderson** 3/28/2016, 2:01 pm

Baby jars for SP bait. Set at a downward angle to keep out rain, to keep bait dry:

No_Such_Reality 3/28/2016, 2:31 pm

I've got sow bugs (roly polies), ear whigs, slugs in my raised beds. All over in the wood chips too. I occasionally get some minor plant damage, with the exception of letting the radishes go too long they've been gnawed on. I think that's the slugs though.

The slugs can do damage and my pepper has been bearing a brunt lately, but overall they don't bother things much. Or possibly the desert grasshopper/locust I found out there the other day. Bugger was a good five inches long.

The pill bugs and earwhigs mostly staying below the wood chips and feeding on all the organic matter in my beds. Along with the abundance of earthworms and the occasional grub, I chalk it up to a healthy ecosystem in my beds.

**Scorpio Rising** 3/28/2016, 7:33 pm

I have never seen pill bugs do leaf damage. So I am not sure if your pics are consistent with pill bugs. They tend to be Earth-bound. Not climbers.

Kathy Gizzi 3/28/2016, 7:48 pm

I bought the closest thing to SP that I could find on the garden center's recommendation. It is Bayer Advanced Garden and Insect Dust. I sprinkled today, and hope it works!

This guy was most def a pill bug! And he's the ONLY bug I've seen so far.

**Scorpio Rising** 3/28/2016, 8:23 pm

Kathy, do you think the damaged leaves were really low/ in contact with the dirt when the damage occurred?

Kathy Gizzi 3/28/2016, 8:30 pm

Most definitely. We had two full days of non stop rain. .... And these little guys are only a few inches tall to begin with so they were very weighed down and limp.

Would contact with the dirt/ground cause the damage I showed in the pics? Maybe I was just lucky enough to find the pill bug before he got started!

**Scorpio Rising** 3/28/2016, 10:01 pm

Yeah, my little seedlings are beat down right now, no growth, just survival. I was thinking that the damage looked bug like, but knowing pill bugs, they are pretty grounded. I do however think that if your little plants were in contact with soil, anything could happen!

CitizenKate 3/28/2016, 11:43 pm

Kathy Gizzi wrote:
Does this look like pill bug damage to you? Please explain further the laying a jar sideways idea.

I don't think this looks like pill bug damage to me. I've got them in my spinach bed and they are leaving them alone. However, last season, they devoured my green bean sprouts, and they ate the leaves off to the stems and stopped there. Eye witness. I saw them in the act. Evil or Very Mad

yolos 3/29/2016, 12:37 am

Kathy Gizzi wrote:
Does this look like pill bug damage to you? Please explain further the laying a jar sideways idea.

Looks like slug damage to me. That is exactly what my spinach looked like. I found a lot of slugs crawling on the spinach. I assume the slugs caused the damage (just little holes about the thickness of a pencil or smaller). I used Sluggo Plus and hope it works.

Kathy Gizzi 3/29/2016, 8:34 am

I've seen no slugs. Are they nocturnal?

yolos 3/29/2016, 9:25 am

Kathy Gizzi wrote:I've seen no slugs. Are they nocturnal?

Yes, but I happened to see mine on a real cloudy drizzly day. Brazen little buggers.

yolos 3/29/2016, 10:21 am

Here is what I think is slug damage. Can someone else verify this.

All the white looking flakes are pollen that has partially washed away and clumped together.

Kathy Gizzi 3/29/2016, 11:05 am

That is EXACTLY what my damage looks like too. Anxiously awaiting an answer!

CapeCoddess 3/29/2016, 11:25 am

Put out some beer in a tuna can tonight and you'll have your answer in the morning.
Slugs are truly party animals!
Pill Bugs!!!!!!! - Page 3 3170584802

CC

**jimmy cee** 3/29/2016, 10:35 pm

Slug slime is laid down as a slug travels along. You should see signs of this. That slime is a deterrent to predators targeting slugs, it's an offensive odor to them and a confusing substance.

**Kelejan** 3/30/2016, 12:39 am

I find slugs rather revolting, and as for snails, I hate walking along the trails here when the weather is damp and hearing the crack when I tread on them. I do not wish that fate on them. So at certain times of the year i keep to the roads and sidewalks where I can see where I am placing my feet.

I still pick up worms that are stranded on wet pavements and give them a home in my garden.

YorkR88 4/2/2016, 3:56 pm

I made a mistake when building my raised bed. I lined the inside with weed blocker but never put any plywood down. The pill bugs found a way inside through the cracks where my blocker was not tight. I've dug down and stapled tight the weed blocker in all the corners where they were coming in.

I can only imagine how many there are underneath the bed at this point. I guess I'm going to lay some SP around the edge of my box but not sure what else to do??

**sanderson** 4/3/2016, 1:49 am

Kelejan wrote:as for snails, I hate walking along and hearing the crack when I tread on them.

I stepped on a big one last night in my bedroom slippers. Swabbed the slipper on the grass, walked around some more, and stepped on the same one going back inside. Shocked

York, The pill bugs will find a way no matter what you do. Mine are all table tops and I still find them in the beds. Sluggo Plus around the perimeter will help.

**jimmy cee** 4/3/2016, 8:28 am

Compost is loaded with pill bugs. I am learning to live with them and let them have their way..Pill bugs are good for the food soil web. They can be so small one cannot see them...

**Scorpio Rising** 4/3/2016, 9:43 am

Kelejan wrote: I still pick up worms that are stranded on wet pavements and give them a home in my garden.

I do that too! I thought I was the only Worm Avenger! cheers

Yolos, looks like slug damage to me. I had some of that going on with my Swiss chard last year, and it was slugs. I had so much chard, I just trimmed off the damaged areas. But with spinach, the leaves are smaller, so I would do the beer traps or SP, which I have never used. Keep us posted?

yolos 4/3/2016, 10:23 am

Yes, I actually saw slugs on some of my spinach. I put down SP and it seems to have stopped. But I still have slugs in the pathways. It rained 4 inches the other day so I will have to put some more down again. I will have to get some contraption like Sanderson uses to keep SP there permanently now that I am using mulch (wheat straw) on the beds and also have pine bark nuggets in the pathways.

YorkR88 4/4/2016, 10:38 am

jimmy cee wrote:Compost is loaded with pill bugs. I am learning to live with them and let them have their way..Pill bugs are good for the food soil web. They can be so small one cannot see them...

They also can be so large they are full blown alien species...buggers.

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